savoury in its own pure form ; but when saturated with human explanations, it is apt to cloy.” He used frequent prayer to fit him for the work : and when the Gnomon was sent him completed from the Tubingen press, the 28th of March 1742, he sang that evening the well-known hymn : —
“ 0 Thou, who our best works hast wrought,
And thus far helped me to success,
Attune my soul to grateful thought,
Thy great and holy Name to bless;
That I to Thee anew may live,
And to Thy grace the glory give,” etc.
Not to mention Rosenmiiller in his Scholice , Michaelis in his New Testament , and other German borrowers from the Gnomon, in our own country John Wesley, in his “ Expository Notes on the New Testament,” Lond. 1755, largely draws from it, acknowledging that he should “ much better serve the interests of religion by translating from the Gnomon of that great luminary of the Christian world , than by writing many volumes of his own notes.”
As early as 1706 Bengel had begun collecting Annotations upon Hedinger’s Greek Testament. Since 1713 he had gone every two years with his pupils through the Greek Testament. At length, in 1722, he determined on publishing a Commentary on it: he completed it within two years : yet he kept it by him eighteen years more be- fore he gave it to the public. So also as to the German Translation or Version; he could not bring himself to undertake the translation at all until December 1741, after he had just finished his preface to the Gnomon ; and he wrote the preface to it only a few days before his death. His reason for delay as to the Gnomon was, that he considered sound criticism what was most wanted, and therefore wished previously to send out his Apparatus Criticus. His reason as to the German Version, was his desire not to offend the strong prejudices which existed against the publication of any new ver- nacular translation ; especially as the Lutheran Version was in the main correct : He moreover hoped some one else, better qualified than himself, might undertake the task ; but as none did so, and as he felt convinced of the erroneousness of many of Luther’s render- ings, he at last thought it his duty to publish it.
The Evangelical Church Chronicle (vol. ii. p. 228), edited by Hengstenberg, well says of the Gnomon, “It is a rare performance, concise, original, vigorous, eloquent, and sprightly : it is an erudite exposition delivered in the spirit of fervent Christian love. It evinces the deepest reverence for the sacred text, and a most pro- found acquaintance with its contents. With remarkable simplicity and humility, it follows the drift of the inspired meaning, and in- duces the soul to open itself, even to the softest of those breathings of the Holy Ghost, which pervade the written word.” Hainan (vol. iii. p. 15) likewise remarks, “ It is an Exegesis altogether sui