Baruch; with the Epistle of Jeremiah.-A prayer of distressed Israel and an appeal to walk in the wisdom of God, ascribed to Baruch, the friend of Jeremiah, with a fiery denunciation of idolatry ascribed to Jeremiah; all dating from long after Jeremiah's time. The Prayer of Manasseh.-A prayer ascribed to King Manasseh, who is said in Chronicles to have repented in his old age of the evils done in his cruel reign. (See 3:290.) Of these books the most valuable are Ecclesiasticus, the Wisdom of Solomon, and I and II Maccabees. The others vary much in their interest and importance. Until about 1850 the books of the Apocrypha were printed between the Old and the New Testaments. There appears to have been no reason for discontinuing this practice except the matter of economy in printing. |