As Lectures on Isaiah had long gone out of print, I declined allowing a new edition till I had leisure to prepare a correct version and a somewhat fuller commentary. This is now entitled an Exposition of the Book of Isaiah, being rather a new book than a re-issue. Nevertheless it is called a new edition, as there is no change of any significance which occurs to my recollection, though there is a large addition of material and a much more minute investigation of the difficulties which try the reader. Details of grammar and philology can be found by those that seek them in Gesenius' German work on the Prophet, in S. F. C. Rosenmüller's Latin Scholia, or in the English volumes of Dr. J. A. Alexander edited by Eadie, and in Dr. Kay's contribution to the Speaker's Commentary. My aim has been, so far as I could, to clear the sense, especially where apt to be misapprehended, to trace the connection of the parts, and to make manifest the plan and unity of the book, dwelling at length on debated matters of moment, and saying but little on what is plain. The chronology in the historical chapters is here received, not the lower dates of modern Syrologists who prefer the vainglorious monuments of Assyrian monarchs to the sacred text. It is hoped that by the grace of God considerably greater help is here rendered to the Christian student, and even to the larger circle of those who seek more intimate acquaintance with the richest and most comprehensive of the prophets. Perhaps none of these classes will be more sensible of its shortcomings than the writer. Nevertheless he prays that, as he sought the Lord's guidance throughout, His own that read the inspired word with this aid, such as it is, may have instruction and enjoyment ministered to their souls. They will find short but sufficient guard against rationalist dreams old or new, and the still more prevalent misapplication of tradition, even when comparatively orthodox.
LONDON, December, 1896