Such is the title of a work just issued from the press by Brother J. W. McGarvey. To say that the work is creditable to its patient and laborious author, would be a poor compliment indeed. It is a high honor to him. Throughout it bears most obvious traces of his fine ability; clear, calm, close thought, and unremitting application. It is not too critical to be eminently useful to the common reader, nor too popular in its style to be richly entertaining to the scholar. It is admirably adapted to both. We are positively thankful for the work, and have high pleasure in commending it to our brotherhood. It is the first book of the kind ever offered to the public by any one of our brethren; and we have no hesitation in pronouncing it the soundest work on the subject of which it treats now in print. Its soundness is its chief praise, and this is always high praise. We want our brethren to purchase, own, and distribute ten thousand copies of the work at once. Our cause demands this, and the merits of the work demand it.
The author has selected Acts of Apostles as the field for his critical and literary labors. We hope he will make it the field of his life-long toil. This book we want Brother McGarvey to make the book of his life. We want him to review it, re-write it, re-think it, and improve it, until nothing shall be left to be done in this particular department. We want him to make it not merely respectable, but masterly—a grand final work. Such a work will be an imperishable monument to himself, and invaluable to the world. We hope the brotherhood will so liberally and cordially encourage the work that in a few years its author will feel called upon to give us a splendid new edition of it—on fine paper, large type, and in the most fascinating style.
But now that the work of Commenting has commenced among us, who will be the next to furnish us a similar work? Let each man select his book in the New Testament, and on this bestow the labor of his life. No other course can prove so eminently successful. The Lord willing, before many years we have a word to say on the Letter to the Saints in Rome. Will not Bro. Pendleton, Bro. Loos, Bro. Proctor, et al., join us in the same grand work? We hope for a hearty yes. [199]
[Volume I: December, 1863]
A transcription of the 7th edition of J. W. McGarvey’s Commentary on Acts is online in the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
Return to Lard’s Quarterly index.