IX. NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

THE FAMILY ALTAR. Helps and Suggestions for Family Worship. Prepared by Annie E. Wilson. 16mo., pp. 29. Cloth, 20 cents; paper, 15 cents. Richmond, Va.: Presbyterian Committee of Publication. 1896. The first part of this little treatise is a plea for the family altar. Then follow suggestions as to the methods of its conduct, as to the reading, singing, and prayers, with suggestions of Scripture readings for daily use, and for use on special occasions. Then fourteen specimen or "model" prayers are given, two for each day of the week. The work is well done, but will hardly displace other and fuller discussions or forms covering the same subject.

THE DAUGHTERS OF THE PARSONAGE. By Belle V. Chisholm, Author of "Who Wins?" "Consecrated Anew," etc. Illustrated. 12mo., pp. 346. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. 1897.

A wholesome, charming story, descriptive of the practical life of a minister's family, with just enough of romance wrought into it to make it thoroughly entertaining, and yet not enough to mar its sweetness and beauty, or to deprive it of lifelikeness.

BIBLE STUDY BY DOCTRINES. Twenty-Four Studies of Great Doctrines. By Rev. Henry T. Sell, A. M., Author of “Supplemental Bible Studies," and "Bible Study by Books." Chicago, New York, Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company. 1897. 12mo., pp. 152. 50 cents. It is quite the custom to denominate as "Studies" something which is not to be dignified by the title treatise. The term reminds one of the preacher who calls his plainer efforts "talks," when he feels that they are scarcely worthy of the name sermon or discourse. So these are "studies" in the book before us. They are sound and good, but there is nothing of special value in them. Completer works in Biblical Theology cover the grouud more fully.

WHEN WERE OUR GOSPELS WRITTEN? An Argument by Constantine Tischendorf. With a Narrative of the Discovery of the Sinaitic Manuscript. New York and Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company. 1897. 16mo., pp. 95. Cloth, 40 cents.

This is a reprint of a little work most familiar to many, but always fresh and interesting and deserving to be made familiar to all readers. The ac count of the finding of the Sinaitic Manuscript, the most valuable of all the sources from which we ascertain the true text of the Word of God, will never cease to interest those who are desirous of knowing or telling others of the means of transmission of that Word.

THE MEMOIRS OF JESUS. By Robert F. Horton, M. A. Philadelphia : Henry Altemus. 1896. 16mo., pp. 36.

In this monograph on the Synoptic Gospels, the author first announces and almost ridicules the principle of inspiration, and then seeks to show that the narratives are more helpful and sweeter without the support of infallibility. It is a case of first cutting out the heart from the body and then showing how much better the body is without it. It is an attempt to adapt the new critical principles to popular thought and acceptation. In the place of the authority of inspiration, he maintains that the Lord is not taken away from these gospel narratives, or Memoirs, but is truly presented in authentic contemporary records; that the truth of the picture which they present is guaranteed not by the writers, but by the picture itself; and that, chiefly, the whole gist of the testimony given by these records, is that the subject of them is alive and among his people now, and that, therefore, all are brought to this issue, If he is alive and active and recognized among us now, how can it be said that his reality rests on the authority of any ancient writers?

SUNDAY-SCHOOL SUCCESS. A Book of Practical Methods for Sunday-school Teachers and Officers. By Amos R. Wells, Author of "Business," "When Thou Hast Shut Thy Door," "Social Evenings," etc. New York, Chicago, Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company. 1897. 12mo., pp. 300. Cloth, $1.25.

Out of a wealth of personal experience and success, the author, one of the most widely known and singularly successful Sunday-school workers of the world, gives here practical suggestions as to the methods to be used in reaching success in the work. His reliance, however, is not upon mere method or machinery, and hence the book is not a set of rules and regulations to be rigidly carried out or of methods to be applied. His suggestions lie largely along lines which necessitate personal effort and enthusiasm on the part of the officer and teacher. He knows that the "live" officer or teacher will enliven all his work, and hence the effort here is to develop that feature first of all. The book should be read by all who wish to make the best of themselves in this important department of work. There is not a teacher in the land who will not profit by its careful perusal.

IN HIS FOOTSTEPS: A Record of Travel to and in the Land of Christ; with an Attempt to Mark the Lord's Journeyings in Chronological Order from His Birth to His Ascension. By William E. McLennan. New York: Eaton & Mains; Cincinnati : Curts & Jennings. 1896. 8vo., pp. 111. .50, net.

This volume is intended to assist leaders of junior societies and others in teaching the Life of Christ to young people. Its plan is to follow Jesus from place to place, taking the Fourfold Gospel in harmony, and it is intended to guide the teacher in the use of blackboard, mounted pictures, and all sources of information, as he takes the pupil over these journeys in imagination. Ample instructions are given by the author in his preface and he tells us that

he has followed the method very successfully. The text while necessarily condensed contains many valuable hints and remarks. There are four fullpage colored maps and a number of sketch maps, and there are numerous illustrations. The plan and this guide are to be commended to those who really wish and are willing to make some little effort and incur a small expense to interest the young in the earthly life and doings of their Saviour. There is a peculiar misprint in the first line of page 13, which leaves us in doubt as to whether the author wrote "treasury" or intended to coin "thesaury." A grammatical error is found in the twenty-first line of page 73.

A CASTAWAY AND OTHER ADDRESSES. By F. B. Meyer. New York, Chicago, Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company. 1897. 16 mo., pp. 127. 30 cents net.

A neat little volume containing ten brief addresses, delivered at Carnegie Hall and elsewhere in the United States by this well-known representative of the Keswick teaching. The author tells us that what is taught in the addresses "will give a glimpse into those deeper aspects of Christianity, which are best adapted to nourish and quicken the inner life." Profitable reading! The teaching is clear and simple, the illustrations are apt. The addresses furnish a connected whole. There is little to take exception to. Possibly the theologian might object to his teaching that we cannot tell which comes first, faith or regeneration. But he is saying this to the ordinary man, as a preacher, not as a polemic theologian. Mr. Meyer says the Holy Spirit will not assist us if we undertake to preach on social reform, or on political crises, which we agree with; but he is a little inconsistent, on the next page, in commending preaching on the Arbitration Treaty. The typographical execution gives the impression of haste, but the print is clear, paper good, binding durable. Errors occur on p. 75, line 6, and p. 87, line 1.

SEVEN YEARS IN SIERRA LEONE. The Story of the Work of William A. B. Johnson, Missionary of the Church Missionary Society from 1816 to 1823, in Regent's Town, Sierra Leone, Africa. By the Rev. A. T. Pierson, D. D. New York, Chicago, Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company. 1897. 12mo., pp. 252. $1.00.

Given a thrilling subject, an able writer and a sympathetic reader, and by the literary Rule of Three you are sure to have an entertaining book. Such is the case here. Having read all of Dr. Pierson's previous books on missionary themes, we were ready to enjoy this latest. Dr. Pierson is undoubtedly a great writer in this field, able to awaken interest if it is dormant, and frequently to implant it when wanting. While he is palpably incapable of writing anything without introducing Slavery, or Abraham Lincoln, or Mrs. Stowe, or some other Abolition worthy, and so is destitute of the finer feelings, still he has a large following among the public people of his section in this respect, and the offense is somewhat palliated by his great power in presenting well whatever he writes about. In this volume he has reclothed and republished the story of W. A. B. Johnson's wonderful work in Sierra Leone, where he was the means, in comparatively a brief while, of working

such a transformation as only the Gospel and the Spirit applying it can produce among some of the most degraded of earth's population.

All who are interested in Missions, or wish a good subject for a missionary paper or address, will find themselves repaid in the perusal of this volume.

MISCELLANIES OF REV. THOMAS E. PECK, D. D., LL. D., Professor of Theology in the Union Theological Seminary in Virginia. Complete in three volumes. Vol. III., Containing the Notes on the Acts of the Apostles, and Briefs and Sermons, Selected and Arranged by Rev. T. C. Johnson, D. D. With Biographical Sketch of Dr. Peck, by Rev. C. R. Vaughan, D. D. 8vo., pp. 421. Richmond, Va.: The Presbyterian Committee of Publication. 1897. Cloth, $2.00.

This volume completes the Miscellanies of Dr. Peck, edited by the faithful and sympathetic hand of his friend and pupil, Dr. Johnson. The biographical sketch of Dr. Peck which it contains appeared first in the Union Seminary Magazine, in March-April, 1894, and is therefore already familiar to most of our readers. Of the Notes on the Acts, it will be said by all those who were under his tuition that they contain matter which will be most helpful and suggestive to the thoughtful student of that part of God's Word, and that it is a blessing to those who were not under him that this permanent and available form is given to notes and comments which were gems of richness in thought and suggestion. Of these notes, Dr. Peck himself says that they were not intended to cover the ground covered by commentators, but are thoughts suggested by his own meditations or derived from books which are not commentaries. Most of them are merely short sentences, in the most strictly "note" form, but their meaning and spirit are easily determined. The Briefs and Sermons in the volume are first those upon passages in the Acts, and then upon other parts of the Scriptures. A Scripture index to this volume, and a general index to all the volumes close the work.

OLD TESTAMENT CRITICISM AND THE RIGHTS OF THE UNLEARNED ; Being a Plea for the Rights and Powers of Non-Experts in the Study of Holy Scripture. By the Rev. John Kennedy, M. A., D. D., Honorary Professor, New College, London, Author of "The Self-Revelation of Jesus Christ," etc. New York and Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company. 1897. 16mo., pp. 96. Cloth, 40 cents.

The sub-title of this little work declares its purpose fully. In the first part of the book the plea is stated, argued and illustrated. In the second part, confirmation of it is drawn from reasons which are independent of expert scholarship, as that the new theory would displace the hitherto unchallenged testimony of prophets and apostles and of our Lord, that the new theory places Christ's testimony in an ambiguous light, that it is condemned by the moral implications and bearings of its processes, that it does not give an intelligent and sufficient substitute for that which it seeks to displace, that the old theory is strengthened by modern archæological discoveries, that the new theory does not avow faith in the inspiration of the Scriptures, and that

the same sort of criticism, applied to any ancient or even modern book, might be made to yield similar results. The argument is well made and is strong. The only fault of the book is its failure to discriminate between a proper higher criticism and that which is advanced and destructive. Thoughtful students of God's Word should not allow the enemies of the Bible to have the exclusive use and control of a term which is rightly used to express a proper department of study of that Word.

THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST : Thoughts on the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Believer and the Church. By Rev. Andrew Murray. New York, Chicago, Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company. Pp. 394. This is a devotional study of thirty-one texts of Scripture, with seventeen notes of a theological character added as appendices. The author fails to recognize, or if he recognizes it fails to accentuate, the distinction between the spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Godhead. The believer has his individual life, the spiritual force that is the cause of all his religious phenomena, and the Church has an organic and communal life, which is the force which brings all its experiences into being. You have the analogue in the natural life of the individual and the communal life of the race. The author identifies the indwelling life of the Church and the Christian with the Holy Spirit. He does not mean that the Spirit is the personal cause of the existence and perpetuity and development of Christian Life, but that the Life is the Spirit. He makes the two identical. "It is as an Indwelling Life that the Holy Spirit must be known." According to a sound Theism, God created the world and all the Life that is in it, and somehow he preserves and perpetuates all that lives, but the Creating Spirit must not be thought of as identical with the created life of the world; that would be pantheistic. So God, by the Holy Spirit and through and on account of Christ, creates the new spiritual life of the believer, and sustains and governs it by the ceaseless actings of his power, but the Spirit always remains a distinct personal entity from the life which he originates: to identify the two is to cross over to a pantheistic premise. Mr. Murray's spirit is charming, and he has been deeply and genuinely regenerated, but we should hesitate, and so would he, to identify his spirit and the Holy Spirit. His Christian spirit is the product of the Holy Spirit, and it is sustained and cultured and nourished and made the sweet spirit that it is by the Holy Spirit, but his spiritual life is not the same entity as the Holy Spirit. Mr. Murray does not mean this, but he says so, and has made all his devotional and exegetical comments yield to this idea. The life of the world is not identical with the life of God; neither is the life of the Christian identical with the Holy Spirit, nor is the Holy Spirit identical with the personal spirit of the glorified Theanthropos.

THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE. By the Rev. John MacNeil, B. A., Evangelist. Introduction by Rev. Andrew Murray. New York, Chicago, Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company. Pp. 126.

This little book is familiar to the religious public. It is an unctuous ex