Notice of Recent Publications [pp. 443-477]

Notices of Recent Putblications.
the general texture of the prayer, and also serves to bring its leading
points into prominence. The eye rests with delight, and lingers fondly
over the successive pages, as they present the familiar words of the
prayer in their brilliant attire. It would be very little to say that the
gemn is worthy of its setting. Mr. Inglis, in his preface, well remarks,
" It is not for a moment to be thought that any art can adorn the
sublime simplicity of the language of the seventeenth chapter of John.
The attempt to paint the lily, or gild refined gold, would be humility
itself compared with any endeavor thus to honor it; and it would be
a poor estimate of it to say, that it deserves to be printed in letters of
gold. The work has rather been prosecuted under the conviction that
no exposition or illustration could do justice to words which, though
spoken in the hearing of man, were addressed to the Father, by the
Son of his love. The utmost that man can do is to direct attention
to its pregnant phraseology; and it is hoped that this method of exhibiting it to the eye may subserve this purpose."
The whole work has been under the personal supervision of Mr.
John A. Gray, so long and well known as the head of one of the most
important printing establishments in the city of New York. It has
received his watchful, and it may be said, his loving care, at every
stage of its progress. The letters in the illuminated portions were de signed by him, and engraved by John Fahnestock.
The introduction, while it does not assume to be an exposition, is
well and ably conceived, and fitted to aid in the right understanding
of so important a chapter. It describes the chapter into two parts.
The first extending from verse first to verse eighth, containing the re lations of our Lord to the two parties, God and man; and so the
grounds on which his intercession proceeds. The second, extending
from verse ninth to the end, consists of the intercession itself, in its
several particulars. Mr. Inglis holds the pen of a ready writer, and
his pages are often illuminated with a fervid eloquence, beauty of ex pression, and always with an unction that render them very attractive
to the devout. Thus, referring to the profound import of its plain
and artless expressions, hle says, "It reaches back into the counsels of
eternal love, and forward into the eternal glories on which these coun sels are accomplished; and thus it is infinitely beyond the stretch of
all created powers. It penetrates the arcana of the relations of the
Father and the Son, and of the "covenant that was between them
both;" and thither created thought may not follow. It strikes out
into the ocean of the love of the Father, for his only begotten Son;
and who will come with the brief sounding line of human affections to
1871.]
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