Studies in Oriental Life, and Gleams from the East on the Sacred Page. By H. CLAY TRUMBULL. Pp. xviii-437. Philadelphia : John D. W ttles & Co. Toronto: William Briggs. Price, $3.00.

It has often been said that the Holy Land is the best commentary on the Holy Book. The more they both are studied, the more apparent does this become. Even to one who for years has been familiar with the East by reading, it is a revelation when for the first time he visits the Orient and notes on every side remarkable confirmations or illustra tions of Holy Writ.

In the handsome volume before us the accomplished editor of the Sunday-School Times groups and classifies in a very lucid manner his personal studies of the unchanging manners and customs of the Orient. This is not a book of travel, but gives the result of wide journeying and acute observation. "In the nomad life from Chaldea to Egypt," says Dr. Trumbull, "the scenes of the days of Abraham are the everyday scenes of now. Hosts and guests and tents and bread and slaughtered calf and salutations are the same to-day as they were forty centuries ago."

Instead of a bare itinerary of travel, with its incidental illustrations of Scripture, Dr. Trumbull gives what may be called the scientific classification of Eastern manners and customs which throw very striking side-lights, often like electric searchlights, upon innumerable passages of Scripture. It begins with the subject of Betrothals and Weddings in the East, and discusses in turn, Hospitalities in the East, Funerals and Mourning, The Voice of the Forerunner, The Oriental Idea of Father, Prayers and Praying, Primitive Idea of "The Way," Food in the Desert, Calls for Healing, The Pilgrimage Idea in the East, The Samaritan Passover and its Significance,

This

Dr. Pierson, the accomplished editor of the Missionary Review, is possessed as are few men with a sense of the unspeakable importance and urgency of the early conversion of the world to faith in Christ. By tongue and pen he ceases not to urge this high commission. series of eloquent lectures is like a bugle blast summoning a lethargic Church to its privilege and duty. He recounts the glorious triumphs of this century of missions, the new Pentecosts, the new open doors on every side. He exults in the new apostolic succession, "the apostles of the anvi and the loom," the consecrated cobblers, who, sneered at and jeered at by witlings and scoffers, have become the glory of the new era of missions. The new apostolate of woman is illustrated by many noble examples. The vision of the world-wide field, waving white unto the harvest, the voice of the Mas

ter loudly calling, the new lessons of the converting power and the ministry of the Spirit are strongly presented. The new signs and wonders, the miracles of grace, the new converts and martyrs, the new motives and incentives, the blessed hope and outlook of the future are all urged as reasons for a great missionary revival.

Accompanying the volume is a chromo-lithographic map of the world, and chart, which show the prevailing religions of the world, their comparative areas, and the progress of evangelization. Golden stars studded through darkest Africa and sombre Asia and among the islands of the sea, shine like heralds of the dawn. We wish that every school, Epworth League and Mission Circle would read this book and ponder this map, and then consecrate itself as never before to the blessed work of "telling out among the heathen what the Lord our God has done."

The Lowell Lectures on the Ascent of Man. By HENRY DRUMMOND, LL.D., F.R.S E., F.G.S. Pp. xii-346. New York: James Pott & Co. Toronto: William Briggs. Price, $2.25.

One of the epoch-making books of the times was Professor Drummond's "Natura! Law in the Spiritual World.' It at once placed him in the front rank as one of the most brilliant interpreters of science. The present volume bids fair to rival, if not surpass, the interest of that book. Although only a few weeks before the public, it has already reached a third edition. Prof. Drummond like Dr. McCosh, embraces heartily the doctrine of theistic evolution, not a blind operation of law apart from the Lawgiver, but the unfolding of the purposes of God throughout the ages. He admits that the theory of evolution is yet only a hypothesis. "Indeed," he says,

no one asks more of evolution at present than permission to use it as a working theory." But the theory of gravitation, the undulatory theory of light, and the theory of an interstellar ether, are only hypotheses

which explain a great number of facts.

"Evolution," says Prof. Drummond, "was given to the world out of focus, was first seen by it out of focus, and has remained out of focus to the present day." Hence many persons get a one-sided view of it. What is needed, he says, is an evolution theory adjusted to the whole truth and reality of nature and man. To such a theory the present volume is at least a contribution. The Darwinian theory of evolution emphasized too much the mere selfish struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest, that is, the strongest and most masterful. The very core and kernel of Prof. Drummond's theory is its introduction of a new force which is not selfishness but unselfishness-the struggle, not for one's own existence, but for the existence of others. From this has come the evolution of true fatherhood and motherhood, with all the purer, higher love of husband, wife and child-the development of this mighty principle which binds the world together, and is the source of its noblest heroism, devotion and self-sacrifice. "Marriage among early races," he says, "has nothing to do with love. Among savage peoples the phenomenon everywhere confronts us of wedded life without a grain of love. Love, then, is no necessary ingredient of the sex relation; it is not an outgrowth of passion. Love is love, and has always been love, and has never been anything lower. It is a divine gift through the agency of a little child." "Only by shutting its eyes," says Prof. Drummond. "can science evade the discovery of the roots of Christianity in every province that it enters

That Christian development, social, moral, spiritual, which is going on around us, is as real an evolutionary movement as any that preceded it, and at least as capable of scientific expression; and that prophet of the kingdom of God was no less the spokesman of nature when he proclaimed that the end of man is That which we had from the beginning, that we love.'”

8vo.

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Maple Leaves, 1894. Canadian History, Literature, Ornithology. By J. M. LEMOINE, F.R.S. C., Quebec L. J. Demers & Frere. Toronto William Briggs. Pp. 508. Paper, $1 ; cloth, $1.50. Mr. LeMoine has identified himself with Canadian literature in both English and French more pletely, we judge, than any other writer. In previous volumes of his Maple Leaves, of which this is the fifth series, he has gathered up the quaint legends, folk-lore and traditions of French Canada; and they are a perfect mine of information on almost everything connected with In the present its early history.

volume Mr. LeMoine discusses in a

charming manner the ancient capital of Quebec, its picturesque surroundings and its storied past. He recounts certain episodes of the war of the Conquest, discusses social life in French Canada, Christmas and New Year's in the olden time, and similar themes.

Part two of this volume gives a number of lectures and addresses,

manner.

all marked by the author's graceful There is a piquancy and picturesqueness of style peculiar to the French genius even when using the English tongue. Mr. Kirby, the author of the "Chien D'Or, writes a graceful introduction. A portrait of the author and an engraving of his beautiful home at Spencerwood accompany the volume.

Was the Apostle Peter ever at Rome? A Critical Examination of the Evidence and Arguments Presented on both sides of the Question. By Rev. MASON GALLAGHER, D.D. Introduction by the Rev. John Hall, D.D. Pp. xiv-247. New York: Hunt & Eaton. Toronto William Briggs. Price, $1.20.

Beneath the great dome of St. Peter's is the so-called tomb of the Galilean fisherman, and around the frieze of that mighty temple are the words, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church." If the episcopate at Rome of St. Peter be disproved, then the very

keystone falls out of the arch of Papal assumption. Dr. Gallagher, with very patient study, investigates the evidence on both sides of this question. Our independent studies of this question corroborate his conclusion. It is incredible that the Apostle Peter had any share in planting the Roman Church. The story of St. Peter's twenty-five years' episcopate at Rome is too absurd to require disproof. The very minutePeter is their own refutation. In ness of detail in the legends of St.

vain are

which tradition asserts that he sat, we shown the chair in the font at which he baptized, the fountain which sprang up in its cell in which he was confined, the floor, the pillar to which he was bound, the chains which he wore, the impression made by his head in the wall and by his knees in the stony pavement, the scene of his crucifixion, the very hole in which the foot of the cross was placed, and the tomb in which his body is said to lie. They all fail to carry conviction to any mind in which superstition has not destroyed the critical faculty.

The mighty fane which rises sublimely in the heart of Rome like the religious system of which in honor of the Galilean fishernian, it is the visible exponent, is founded on a shadowy tradition, opposed alike to the testimony of Scripture, the evidence of history, and the deductions of reason.

A Help for the Common Days, Being Papers on Practical Religion. By J. R. MILLER, D.D. Pp. 320. Edinburgh Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier. Toronto: William Briggs. Price, 90c.

Dr. Miller's book on "Week-Day Religion," met with wide favor, and has helped many people over the hard places to a fuller, richer life. The present volume is a collection of chapters, he says, written out of his own experience in the hope that they may make the path plainer for others. Every line of the book is intended to bear on the actual life of the common days, to show why it is worth while to live earnestly at

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whatever cost. A note of sympathy with the tried and tempted is a conspicuous feature of the book, The chapters entitled "The Shut-ins," "Tired Feet,' Busy Hands," "Broken Lives," "Why Do We Worry?" "Look Forward and not Back, "Forgetting Sorrow," and the like, cannot fail to help busy toilers in this work-a-day world. Christianity in the Home. By THEODORE L. CUYLER, D.D. Pp. 264. New York: The Baker & Taylor Toronto: William Briggs.

Co.

Price, $1 20.

We sometimes wonder why gifted preachers do not more largely use the pen. Amid the urgent duties and engrossing cares of their office, they could still greatly enlarge their sphere and increase their usefulness by the written word, which can go beyond the spoken voice, and keep sounding on when that is silent forever. By his almost innumerable newspaper articles, and the like, Dr. Cuyler has done more good than even by his marvellously successful ministry. This new collection of papers has the same practical character as his previous volumes. What a theme he has! Among the topics treated are The Conversion of Children, Extravagant Living, the Flaw in the Wedding Link, the Home Side of the Drink Question, the Girdle of Love, God's Children in Dark Hours, God's Cure for Worrying, Rest but do not Loiter, Fruit in Old Age, and kindred topics.

The First Words from God, or Truths Made Known in the First Two Chapters of the Holy Word, also the Harmonizing of the Records of the Resurrection Morning. By FRANCIS W. UPHAM, LL.D. NA York: Hunt & Eaton. Toronto: William Briggs. Price, $1.00.

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Dr. Upham is the author of numerous valuable works on the Bible and its interpretation. He here treats with characteristic skill the story of creation and the fall, and in the second part presents a harmonization of the four records of the resurrection of our Lord. Both tasks are ably fulfilled.

Teutonic Switzerland and Romance Switzerland. By W. D. McCRACKEN. Two volumes in case, gilt top. Boston: Joseph Knight Company. Toronto: Wm. Briggs. Price, $1.75.

These dainty volumes are as graceful a treatment of the legends, traditions and folklore of Switzerland as we have anywhere seen. As good in their way as Howells' charming "Little Swiss Journey." The writer knows his Switzerland well, and describes with sympathetic touch the scenic attractions and historic and romantic associations of this fair land

of mountain and flood. These little books will add greatly to the enjoyment of a tour through Switzerland, and give just the sort of information which guide-books lack.

A Florida Sketch-Book. By BRADFORD TORREY. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Toronto: William Briggs. 16mo, 237 pages. Price, $1.50.

This is not a book of travel on a

hackneyed theme. It is a sympathetic study of bird-life and woodlore amid the everglades of the sunny South. The author reveals a wonderworld of beauty and mystery and subtle adaptation among the bayous and pine forests, till we feel that in the realm of nature nothing is common or unclean.

William Blacklock, Journalist: A Story of Press Life. By T. BANKS MACLACHLAN. Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier. Toronto: Win. Briggs. Pp. 320. Price, $1.25.

Newspaperdom has long been called the fourth estate, and in numbers, energy and influence it is, indeed, a very powerful estate of the realm. Every person is interested in newspaper ife, and this wellwritten story takes us behind the scenes, shows the seamy side as well as the smooth side of journalism, and describes editor-baiting, as well as editor-bullying. Amid the grinding of the press and the high-pressure life of newspaperdom, the tender passion seems to be a no less potent influence than in other spheres.