find some shelter at night by crawling under an ambulance. But whatever the system, whether that of detail or special enlistment, the men of the ambulance corps should be stimulated by the hope of rewards, and restrained by the fear of punishment. No coward should be tolerated among them; no act of neglect or inhumanity should go unnoticed; no instance of distinguished gallantry should fail to meet its recompense. It will be a glad day for the American army when the government decides to grant decorations, the strongest incentive, the best reward, of the soldier. Until that time, so unfortunately long in coming, increase of rank and pay by promotion, which can come to comparatively few, is the only prize which our defenders can hope to gain.

We trust that the day is not far distant when the country will be satisfied that the best possible ambulance system has been adopted and put in force. The horrors inseparable from war are enough. We should make every effort so to order affairs that all unnecessary horrors shall be done away with. Great accessions to our armies are soon to be made. Those levies will probably not be used in active operations till the spring. There is plenty of time before that for doing whatever should be done for the ambulance system. The people are not satisfied with it. The army is still less satisfied with it. We urge that one of two things should be done. If the system be defective, it should be changed or improved. If it be the best attainable, it should be approved by the deliberate action of Congress, either by the direct action of that body or by the report of a commission made up of the best-informed and ablest of the military and medical officers not otherwise on duty.

Should such a commission be appointed, there is a matter, beside the general system, which would well deserve their attention, and that is, the question whether it would not be possible to enter into something like an agreement with our enemies to consider the ambulance-men as neutrals, and admit them to the field after a battle. It is true that many difficulties would attend such a scheme, but they may, perhaps, not be insuperable. The spirit manifested by the high civil officers of the Confederate government is discour

aging to any hope of the kind, but the humanity of their prominent generals, of which we have many proofs, is in favor of it. When the advantage gained by one side is decisive, there seems to be reason to believe that the victors might admit to the field the train of their opponents, under proper restrictions, not only without loss to themselves, but with the positive gain of escaping so far from the necessity of caring for the severely wounded of the enemy. When the battle is drawn, either side may well object to the admission of any one connected with its opponents to the neutral ground which separates the pickets. Generals object, at such times, to sending or receiving flags. But, though circumstances might often make it impossible to enjoy the benefit of any such convention, yet, whenever it was otherwise, the gain would be unspeakable. It is possible that experiment might diminish the force of the objections to such liberty, and use might beget in each side a greater readiness to improve it. If the thing be feasible, the advantages incident to it would be incalculable. After the battle of the Antietam, men who were wounded before noon on Wednesday lay where they fell till the forenoon of Friday, when our advancing skirmishers found the enemy's positions abandoned.

With these statements and suggestions, we leave for the present this interesting subject.

Our duty as a people to the soldier is plain. The means of knowledge whether we are doing our duty lie within easy reach of all of us. By correspondence, through the press, by personal communication with officers and men, we are in closer relations with our armies than ever people was before. us learn the truth about this matter of the ambulance system, and then let us do the best we can for our defenders. Gratitude and justice combine to make the duty imperative.

Let

ART. IV..

1844 – 1863.

Bibliotheca Sacra. Vols. I. - XX. [Vols. I. VII. And Theological Review. Vols. VIII. XIV. And American Biblical Repository. Vols. XV. XX. And Biblical Repository.] Vols. I. – VIII. Conducted by B. B. EDWARDS and E. A. PARK, Professors at Andover. Vols. I. - VII. With the Special Co-operation of Dr. ROBINSON and Professor STUART. Vol. VIII. With the Special Co-operation of Dr. ROBINSON and Professors STUART and H. B. SMITH. Vols. IX. - XX. Conducted by Professor E. A. PARK and S. H. TAYLOR, A. M., of Andover. [Vol. IX. With the Special Co-operation of Dr. ROBINSON and Professors H. B. SMITH, J. HADLEY, GEORGE E. DAY, and D. H. ALLEN, and Rev. J. M. SHERWOOD. Vol. X. With the Special Co-operation of Dr. ROBINSON and Professors H. B. SMITH, G. E. DAY, and D. H. ALLEN. Vol. XI. Aided by Professors ROBINSON, STOWE, BARROWS, SMITH, ALLEN, DAY, PHELPS, SHEDD, BROWN, PUTNAM, and Drs. DAVIDSON of England and ALEXANDER of Scotland. Vols. XII. - XIV. Aided by Professors ROBINSON, STOWE, BARROWS, ALLEN, DAY, PHELPS, SHEDD, BROWN, PUTNAM, and Drs. DAVIDSON of England and ALEXANDER of Scotland.] Andover. 184446. Allen, Morrill, and Wardwell. 1847-49. William H. Wardwell. 1850-1863. Warren F. Draper.

WE have given these modifications of the title-page of successive volumes of the Bibliotheca Sacra, because they represent so much of its history. But it has a history anterior to its name and birth-year. It may claim a considerably higher antiquity than we can trace for it in its present form. It is the legitimate successor, or rather the continuation, of what we suppose to have been the earliest New England periodical devoted entirely to theological learning. Journals of religious literature, weekly and monthly, there were indeed previously, and some of these contained occasional erudite monographs on subjects of learned research, and on the leading questions at issue between different sects and opposing schools of criticism. In the Monthly Anthology,.1803-1811, hardly less theological than literary, there were many articles of this class,

as also in the General Repository and Review, 1812-1813, and in the Christian Disciple, 1814-1823, a journal which was at least as highly distinguished by the ability and scholarship of its contributors under its first and almost forgotten designation, as it has been under the familiar title of the Christian Examiner. Nor was its antagonist, the Panoplist, unworthy of its name; for polemic divinity has seldom sent into the field warriors more thoroughly armed for defence and assault than the champions of New England Orthodoxy during the struggle that issued in the elimination of the (socalled) Liberal party from its fellowship.

The earliest American journal devoted to scientific theology was issued at Princeton in 1825, and this, with some variation of title, has retained its identity and its vigorous life to the present moment, having been for the greater part of the time under the editorship of Professor Hodge. In 1831 Professor Robinson commenced, at Andover, the publication of the Biblical Repository, and in 1843 he issued in New York four successive numbers of the Bibliotheca Sacra. Meanwhile the Repository in 1838 had absorbed the American Quarterly Observer, assuming its continental prefix for its own previous title, and it continued a separate work till 1851, when it was incorporated with the Bibliotheca Sacra, then commencing the eighth year of its new series, its Andover life, and its indebtedness to the editorial skill and industry of Professor Park, who now closes his twentieth year of service.

In addressing ourselves to the review of these volumes, we must be permitted to express at the outset our admiring gratitude to Professor Park. An editor's task is no sinecure in our country, whatever it may be elsewhere. Of our good writers not one in ten has the skill or patience to prepare his articles for a blameless passage through the press. The very best and most instructive material is often furnished in so crude a form, or with so little reference to the minor graces taken note of only when they are ignored, as to need little less labor from the rédacteur than it would cost him to clothe the same thoughts or reasonings in language wholly his own. Clergymen, indeed, generally prepare better copy than any other class of men; but their habit of writing for the ear rather than the

eye is apt to render their style diffuse and repetitious, demanding condensation, if not correction. Then, too, so various and so frequently careless are the habits of even learned men as to references, quotations, and statements resting on the authority of others, that a careful editor feels it incumbent on him to verify whatever he publishes; and if he only indulge himself in a summer journey remote from books, and take a single article by a reputedly safe writer to work upon at his inn, it is next to certain that this article when printed will betray some oversight or glaring error. Now, as we have intimated, it is no slight service thus elaborately to prepare eighty numbers of a quarterly noted for its accuracy no less than for its ability. Especially must this have been a labor of self-renouncing benevolence to Professor Park, whose active and vivid intellect must needs have craved employment as a producer from its own resources, while it has been busy in helping other men's productions into the light.

Our readers must have been struck with the large amount of talent, learning, and excellence represented in the names of Professor Park's colleagues in the editorship of this work. His present co-editor needs no praise of ours while his grateful pupils are to be found in every walk of honorable life. As to Professor Edwards, no language of eulogium would seem excessive. He united qualities and endowments that are seldom found conjoined. He had the fancy of a poet, the fervor of a devotee, and at the same time a singular clearness and precision of thought and style. He held an eminent place equally among classical and Biblical scholars. He was always thorough, often profound, yet never obscure,- always weighty, yet never heavy, always grave, yet never dull. He discussed controverted opinions and interpretations in the spirit of the Beatitudes, while he vivified trite and unquestioned themes by traits of the fresh and earnest activity of his own mind and heart.

Of the distinguished men whose "special co-operation" has lightened the task of these editors, we cannot speak at length. Yet we would ask our readers to look at the list in both its dimensions of depth and breadth. It comprises some of the profoundest scholars in their several departments that our age