In this book—published by the Unitarian Sunday-school Society, at a low price—we have a compendium of just such information as is needed by students of the Hebrew Scriptures. Questions about the origin and history of the books of the Bible are now at the front. People want to know about Obadiah and his one brief poem, about Moses and the many books attributed to him, about Joshua, Esther, and Kings. These questions Dr. R. P. Stebbins answers in an intelligible, fair way.
Somebody may possibly ask, Who was Dr. Stebbins? He was a Unitarian minister, hard working and strong-headed, who began his work as pastor in Leominster, Mass., fifty years ago; went to Meadville, Pa., as pastor of the church and president of the Unitarian Theological School there, polishing many a fellow into a preacher, who had no special aptitude for the profession; returned to Massachusetts as the Woburn minister; was the active head of the American Unitarian Association the year it frightened itself by raising over a hundred thousand dollars; went to Ithaca, as both minister of the church and lecturer to scores of young men in Cornell University; came to New England again to preach in Newton,—dying just as he was ready to put the harness off. The book under notice was his last, and he so regarded it; but it is the fruit of sixty years of student life.
It has been assailed by the Radical for being so conservative, and by the Orthodox for being too free. Several years ago the Doctor set forth some of his views in a clerical convention, and was taken to task by a Hebrew rabbi, as altogether behind the times. This opposition is a pretty clear indication that the book is just what plain folks need, a book judicious, not extravagant,—deliberate, not impulsive. It was written by one who had no theological axe to grind on the Old Testament stone, but desired to present frankly, but reverently, the conclusions reached by careful scholarship.
