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The poem has a tender quaintness of its own. "It was with a smile on my lips that I wrote it," said the author. "I cannot read it without a sigh of tender remembrance." The illustrations are extremely sympathetic, and many of them are as quaint as the poem. The village streets, the town crier, the wintry woods, the leafless forest, the deserted graveyard, are illustrated with poetic suggestiveness. The most pathetic of all is that of the old man bending in the twilight over the mossy slab deciphering the half-effaced but well beloved name.

The mossy marbles rest

On the lips that he has prest

In their bloom,

And the names he loved to hear Have been carved for many a year On the tomb.

Eastern Customs in Bible Lands. By H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., D.D., Canon of Durham. New York: Thomas Whittaker. Toronto: William Briggs. Price, $1.50.

Canon Tristram has written some of the most valuable books of travel

and exploration in Bible lands. He brings to his task a thorough acquaintance with the original tongues of the Old and New Testaments, and a wide experience and observation derived from repeated journeys in Palestine. In this volume he gives us the result of his studies and observation in a series of instructive chapters. He describes journeying in the East, Feasts and Festivals, Pastoral and Agricultural Life, Costumes and Customs, Wars and Sieges, Jurisprudence, Trade, Money, Taxation, etc. He also throws much light on the ministry of Jesus as Teacher and Healer, and on many passages of the Old and New Testanient.

The book will be a valuable

aid to Bible study.

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of years has made his home among us should have so thoroughly identified himself with his adopted home. A large proportion of the essays contained in this volume first appeared in the Canadian Monthly or other Canadian periodicals. The historical essays are marked by the wide reading, the keen insight and the felicitous phrasing, which are so striking a characteristic of this writer. Among these are noble studies of the Greatness of the Romans," "The Greatness of England" and "The Great Duel of the Seventeenth Century." The latter is the most brilliant account of the great struggle between Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein and Tilly that we have ever read. Other historical papers

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are Falkland and the Puritans,' "A Wire-puller of Kings,"-A Character-Study of Baron Stockmar— "The Early Years of Wolfe," "King Alfred," "Abraham Lincoln," and "A True Captain of Industry-Mr. Brassey, Constructor of the Grand Trunk Railway." There are also a number of papers on literary and social topics that will interest every

reader.

Documentary History of Canada. From the Passing of the Constitutional Act, of 1791, to the Close of Rev. Dr. Ryerson's Administration of the Education Department in 1876. Vol. I: 1790-1830. By J. GEO. HODGINS, M. A., LL.D. Toronto: Warwick Bros. & Rutter, and William Briggs.

To few men is it given-we doubt if it has ever occurred before -to educational interests of their country. give half a century of service to the This has been the happy experience of Dr. J. George Hodgins. The present work, and the complementary volume which we may shortly expect, continued public service. will be a fitting crown to this longFinis

coronat opus.

The preparation of this work has been a labour of love. It has involved much delving amid the records of the past, and patient collection of documentary evidence

on the important subject which he treats. This arduous labour is completed with Dr. Hodgins' characteristic accuracy and thoroughness. He goes back to the very beginnings of our colonial history, and gives personal sketches of the early governors and other public men. He recounts the modest beginnings of our educational system and its gradual development.

A conspicuous figure in this period is the Rev. Dr. Strachan, whose energy in connection with the education in his day, and especially with the establishment of King's College are faithfully chronicled. Incidentally light is thrown upon early grammar and common schools, and allusion is made to Sundayschools in Kingston in 1817, and to the founding of Upper Canada College. The companion volume treating the subsequent development of education in Ontario, the founding of Victoria, Queen's and Trinity Universities, and to the administration of that greatest of Canadians, Dr. Egerton Ryerson, promises to be of no less interest than this volume.

The Dominion of Canada. By KARL BAEDEKER. Leipsic: Karl Baedcker. Toronto: William Briggs. Price, $1.25.

It is a distinct honour to Canada that the editor of the best guidebooks in the world should make our broad Dominion the subject of one of his thorough, exhaustive, and up-to-date books of travel. We have in our possession over a dozen of Baedeker's guide-books, and consider them simply ind spensable for an intelligent acquaintance with any country which they treat. This book is a model of concentration. In the 316 pages which it contains we have a brief outline of the Constitution of Canada, by Dr. Bourinot, a geographical and geological sketch, by Dr. G. M. Dawson, a paper on its Sports and Pastimes, Canadian Bibliography and chief dates in Canadian History. It describes the means of travel through the highways and byways of each province, the island of Newfoundland, and an extension of travel to Sitka, in

Alaska. It gives lists and rates of hotels and boarding houses, rates of travel by rail, steamer, ferry, tramcar; and omnibus, cab and carriago tariff, the chief points of interesteverything, in fact, that travellers need to know. It has ten clearly drawn maps printed in colours, and seven plans of the chief cities of Canada. The only error that wo have noted is crediting Mount St. Elias, the highest mountain in North America-18,200 high- to the possession of the United States; whereas the recent survey just completed places it in Canada. Even Canadians who think they know their own country well may learn much that is new to them from this volume.

From Blomidon to Smoky, and Other Papers. By FRANK BOLLES. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Company. Toronto: William Briggs. Price, $1.25.

The picturesque Province of Nova Scotia has a rare fascination for American tourists. Longfellow and Charles Dudley Warner have made Grand Pre and Baddeck classic. Mr. Bell and Mr. Kenner-of telephone and Siberian fame-have charming homes in Cape Breton. A swarm of American summer visitors haunts the quaint old towns and picturesque and bold bays and headlands of the rocky peninsula. Few of them, however, receive such vivid impressions and have such graceful inode of expression as the author of, "From Blomidon to Smoky." He grows enthusiastic over the magnificent outlook from the Look-Off over Grand Piè. "I know of no other hill or mountain which gives the reward that this one dos in proportion to the effort required to climb it." The magnificent Gasperaux Valley, the broad Basin of Minas, with its poetic associations, and the majestic outlook from Cape Smoky on the far-cast coast of Cape Breton are graphically depicted. Another chapter describes the home of the Gloscap, the mythological Hiawatha of Nova Scotia.

"If the scenery failed to charm," says the writer, "the names of places did not fail to astonish us. Acadie, Tracadie, Shubenacadie, rang in my ears for days, and so did the less harmonious refrain of Tignish, Antigonish and Merigonish. When I heard of Pugwash the climax seemed attained. It did not seem possible that any swain could go a-courting a girl from Pugwash." The writer is an expert ornithologist and has a series of charmingly sympathetic chapters on the Ways of the Owl, Bird Traits, Individuality in Birds, and the like. Canadians may learn from this book much concerning their easternmost provinces.

The School of Life.

By THEODORE New York: James Toronto: Wiliiam

F. SEWARD.
Pott & Co.
Briggs. Price, $1.50.

This book is a treatment of some of the deepest problems of human existence. It discusses the august theme of the relation of man to God and of man to man. It shows the immanence of God-the great Soul of the world-in nature, and affirms that the time is rapidly approaching when the presence of an unseen God in the universe will be accepted on the same ground as the presence of an unseen soul in man. We see sure evidence in the universe, as in the human body, of a will working in and through it-a conscious Being who feels, loves, plans and execu:cs. This volume is an admirable antidote to the materialistic tendenc es of the age, and is in an important sense an "aid to faith" for earnest souls groping after God if haply they may find Him.

Canadian Independence, Annexation, and British Imperial Federation. By JAMES DOUGLAS. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Toronto: William Briggs. 8vo, price, 75c. We regret that a notice of this book has been unduly delayed on account of pressure of work. It is one of the most sensible discussions of an important subject that we have yet met. It sets forth the

difficulties and perils of annexation on account of the racial and religious divergencies of the people concerned. Iturges the freest possible commercial intercourse and utmost political and social harmony between Canada and the United States. But the author looks with favour rather towards the creation of a group of separate English-speaking states in both hemispheres, controlling without interference their Own domestic affairs, but bound together by common constitutional ties and common interests, each working out its own individual destiny while contributing to the strength, the influence and the prosperity of the whole.

A Sketch of the History of the Apostolic Church. By OLIVER J. THATCHER, of the University of Chicago. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Company. Toronto: William Briggs. Price, $1.25.

The study of the early years of Christianity is of ever fresh interest. The beginning of that moral king. dom which was to fill the world is full of lessons of profoundest importance to this fin de siecle age. A moral Hercules even in its babehood, around its cradle lay the strangled snakes-paganism and pagan vices. In a series of its important chap:ers Professor Thatcher discusses the condition of the world at the advent of the Messiah, the Expansion of Judaism, the Spirit of Christianity, the Breaking of Jewish Bonds, and the burning questions between the Judaizers and St. Paul. A noble study of the great apostle and cognate themes make a book of unusual importance.

Master and Men, or the Sermon on the Mountain Practised on the Plain. By WILLIAM BURNETT WRIGHT. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. Toronto: William Briggs. Price, $1.25.

The sub-title of this book most happily explains its method. It expresses also the great need of the age-not abstract ethical sentiments

but the words of Jesus translated in the living act and fact. There is in these chapters a fresh and unconventional manner of preaching and a literary grace which make them fascinating reading, as well as fasten the truth they teach like barbed arrows in the soul. Parallel with the beatitudes expounded are given illustrious examples of their embodiment. These are remarkable character-studies of George Macdonald, the illustration of Blessedness and Power; St. Paul, of the Blessedness of Sorrow; Moses, of the Inheritance of the Meek; Socrates, of Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness; King Alfred, of Mercy; George Fox, of Seeing God; and Charles George Gordon, that heroic English Bayard, by a bold metaphor, soldier though he was, of the Blessedness of the Peacemaker.

In Distance and in Dream. By M. F. SWEITZER. Boston: Joseph Knight Company. Toronto: Wm. Briggs. Price, $1.50.

This is a tender and sympathetic story of a life after death. The translated soul does not forget the home joys and sorrows of survivors, and is permitted to minister heavenly consolations. It reminds one of Miss Mullock's beautiful “Little Pilgrim," but is of more human interest. It makes the other life seem more real and more vivid.

in the care of probationers. The counsels to young pastors are words of gold, as, indeed, is the whole book. The reading of this book is itself an inspiration and moral uplift.

even

Better Days for Working-People. By WILLIAM GARDEN BLAIKIE, D.D., LL.D. Edinburgh and London: Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier. Toronto: Wm Briggs. Price, 35c. the times. This is emphatically a book for The most pressing questions of the day are not so much political, scientific or religious questions, as social questions. The venerable Dr. Blaikie discusses in this little book such live topics as, What are Better Days? A True Guide to Better Days, The Sweat of the Brow, A Fair Day's Wage for a Fair Day's Work, Health and Strength and How to Keep Them, Home Sunshine, Reading and Recreation, Holy Rest, and Some Possibilities of the Future. Every preacher and teacher, every lover of once of the difficulties of the prohis kind, will have larger views at blem and of the importance of its

solution.

LAST June we had the pleasure of hearing an admirable lecture on "The Language and Literature of the Old Testament" by the Rev. H. C. Hatcher, B.D., delivered before the Theological Union and the Newfoundland Conference, in St. In- John. We were so impressed with the value of this lecture that we requested permission to print it in this MAGAZINE and had t put in We subsetype for that purpose. quently learned that it was an understanding that the lectures of the Theological Union should be published in the Methodist Quarterly. We have therefore transferred the article to the editor of that period

The Revival and the Pastor. By JONAS ORAMEL PECK, D.D. troduction by J.M. BUCKLEY, D.D. Pp. 279. New York: Hunt & Eaton. Toronto: William Briggs. This is the last word to the world of the late lamented Dr. J O. Peck. His pastorates were always blessed with great revivals, and he here writes out of a full experience as to the wisest methods of securing that all-important end of the Christian ministry. It is the pastor's supreme work, and is the result of a passion for souls. He discusses "Revival Power," Personal Work," "Revival Hindrances,' Preparation for a Revival," "Its Prosecution," and the important question of the duty of the Church after a revival

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IN the November number of this MAGAZINE there is a typographical misprint which conveys an erroneous impression. On page 428, line four, for 91,000 read 1,000-which is a very different thing.

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