retation. But the mode of
treating the subject which he had previously adopted, is not without
its advantages, and has a certain right to be retained. The former
character of the work, in so far as the avoidance of everything
properly ascetic is concerned, has been, in the present edition, also
retained.

Scientific Theology is at present threatened by serious dangers in our
Church. Works of an immediately practical interest more and more
exclusively occupy the noblest minds, since the problems which present
themselves in this field are indeed unfathomable. But the Lord of the
Church will take care that an excellent gift, which He has bestowed
upon German Christendom especially, shall not, for any length of time,
continue to be neglected. If such were to be the case, a more general
decay would be gradually brought on; and even those interests would be
injured to which at present, with a zeal, noble indeed, but little
thoughtful, solid theological learning is sacrificed.

"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Thy name give glory."

[Pg 11]

THE MESSIANIC PROPHECIES IN THE PENTATEUCH.

In the Messianic prophecies contained in Genesis we cannot fail to
perceive a remarkable progress in clearness and definiteness.

The first Messianic prediction, which was uttered immediately after the
fall of Adam, is also the most indefinite. Opposed to the awful
threatening there stands the consolatory promise, that the dominion of
sin, and of the evil arising from sin, shall not last for ever, but
that the seed of the woman shall, at some future time, overthrow their
dreaded conqueror. With the exception of the victory itself, everything
is here left undetermined. We are told neither the mode in which it is
to be achieved, nor whether it shall be accomplished by some peculiarly
gifted race, or family of the progeny of the woman, or by some single
individual from among her descendants. There is nothing more than a
very slight hint that the latter will be the case.

After the destruction of a whole sinful world, when only Noah with his
three sons had been left, the _general_ promise is, to a certain
extent, defined. Deliverance is to come from the descendants of Shem;
Japhet shall become a partaker of this deliverance; Ham is passed over
in silence.

The prophecy becomes still more definite when the Lord begins to
prepare the way for the appearance of this deliverance, by separating
from the corrupt