We have previously, in a brief notice, recommended to our readers Barnes' Notes on the Gospels. But a more extended acquaintance with that work has very much increased our sense of its value. We never have opened any commentary on the Gospels, which has afforded us so much satisfaction. Without intending, in the least degree, to disparage the many valuable commentaries which now aid the Christian in the study of the Bible, we cannot refrain from expressing our gratitude to the Author, for the interesting and profitable instructions he has given us.--The volumes are characterized by the following merits. 1. The spirit which imbues them is highly devotional. It is a devotion founded on knowledge. It is a zeal guided by discretion. 2. The notes are eminently intellectual. Apparent difficulties are fairly met. They are either explained, or the want of a fully satisfactory explanation admitted. There is none of that slipping by a knot which is too common in many commentaries. 3. The notes are written in language definite, pointed and forcible. There is no interminable flow of lazy words. Every word is active and does its work well. There are no fanciful expositions. There are no tedious display of learning. There may be passages in which we should differ from the writer in some of the minor shades of meaning. There may be sometimes an unguarded expression which has escaped our notice. We have not scrutinized the volumes with the eye of a critic. But we have used them in our private reading. We have used them in our family. And we have invariably read them with profit and delight. We have just opened the book to select some passage as an illustration of the spirit of the work. The Parable of the rich man and Lazarus now lies before us. The notes explanatory of the meaning of the parables, are full and to the point. The following are the inferences, which Mr. Barnes deduces. "From this impressive and instructive parable, we may learn, "1. That the souls of men do not die with their bodies. "2. That the souls of men are _conscious_ after death; that they do not sleep, as some have supposed, till the morning of the resurrection. "3. That the righteous are taken to a place of happiness immediately at death, and the wicked consigned to misery. "4. That wealth does not secure us from death. "How vain are riches to secure Their haughty owners from the grave. "The rich, the beautiful, the gay, as well as the poor, go down to the grave. All their pomp and apparel; all their honors, their palaces and their gold cannot save them. Death can as easily find his way into the mansions of the rich as into the cottages of the poor, and the rich shall turn to the same corruption, and soon, like the poor, be undistinguished from common dust, and be unknown. "5. We should not envy the condition of the rich. "On slippery rocks I see them stand, And fiery billows roll below.