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other church and Sunday school that have their mission as ministers to the growth of the "Inner Life" which this welcome little book is so admirably suited to "aid and strengthen."

18. Rambles Overland - A Trip Across the Continent. By Almon Gunnison, D.D. Universalist Publishing House. $1.00.

We would give a good deal if we could write what we think of this book with as facile a pen as that wielded by the author. He is not only the prince of tourists, but a poet and artist, a word and thought painter, who sees everything at its best, and knows how to transfer what he sees to the canvass of his page so that you can see it too. We took up the book when very busy, intending to give the slip to those chapters devoted to regions through which we had ourself passed not very long ago, but unfortunately we opened at the chapter on The Yosemite. The title started pleasant memories well, we will read the opening paragraph and hurry on and we did, but we read all the other paragraphs, and all the other chapters to the end; and then turned back, and read up to where we started from. And we venture to say that whoever begins the book will finish it, even those who read his Letters in the Leader, for it is by no means a re-hash of those letters, but, with the exception of a few passages, entirely new and fresh in its observations, descriptions and incidents.

"Rambles Overland" is in fact a portfolio of exquisite pictures sketched and colored from nature with equal skill and delicacy. Beside this it is a book of adventures (not without perils and "hair-breadth 'scapes"), and of amusing incidents and experiences by rail, by stage (" over the Rockies"), on shipboard. on horseback and mule-back, and on foot. On one page the reader will be charmed with a glowing description of scenery, alive with all the beauties of poet and painter; and on the next he is compelled to stop reading for laughter over some ludicrous incident, or some comical photograph of man or beast, in terms and similes so entirely unexpected and amusing as to suggest first cousinship to Mark Twain or Artemas Ward. It must be a rare privilege to travel in company with the author of this book - who sees wonders and beauties which most people overlook; who takes in all the teachings of God's glorious world; who is always alive and alert; never weary but on the Fifty-Mile Walk"; never complains except when he has to foot it and live on beans, and only beans, for three days; who is never without a good story; and who can find and even enjoy the ludicrous side of disappointment, accident and failure. If we should ever again enter upon a long travel, at home or abroad, commend us to the companionship of Almon Gunnison.

19. Lamps and Paths. By Theodore T. Munger Author of "On the Threshold." N. J. Bartlett. 50 cents.

Mr. Munger knows how to talk to the level and understanding of children, without being soft or silly. These sermons, preached on Chidren's Sunday, are admirable examples of how to talk to a Sunday school or a company of children. Divine truths and moral precepts are so mingled with pictures from nature, with flowers and birds, with stories from life and history, with illustrations full of poetry and inspirations toward duty, kindness, unselfishness and manliness, that we venture to say the children who listened to them were all sorry when the pleasant taĺk ended. And every truth and precept is so surely fastened to some

pleasant incident, or some one's good word or deed, that it will be diffi. cult for them ever to forget it.

"Vows Assumed " is a pastoral address to a company of young persons when uniting with the church. We commend it to the attention of the same class in our own church as full of good sense and wise counsel. The last chapter on "Home and Character" is in the same spirit. It is in substance what we have often preached and talked, regarding what Home should be, and the kind of life lived in it It is the sort of talk to which every parent should listen. One utterance in it is unworthy of its author, for certainly what he condemns in an earthly parent, he has no right to ascribe to God. Aside from this we should be glad to see the book in every Home and Sunday School Library.

20. Living Thoughts, The Model Prayer, Golden Truths, and Words of Hope. Lee & Shepard.

Here are four small quarto volumes, neatly and tastily gotten up, filled with short extracts in prose and poetry, well suited for instruction and consolation. The last two, edited by Mrs. C. M. Means, are more especially intended to comfort those in sorrow, and inspire the bereaved with Christian hope and resignation. Some of the selections are very beautiful and fitting, and a few only are touched with the shadow of orthodox dogmas. Indeed when one attempts Christian consolation for the dying and the bereaved, he must shut out the lurid glare of the Calvinistic creed, and open the window that looks toward Universalism.

The Model Prayer is an excellent example of how to teach through the sermon. It takes the abstract principle or precept and puts it into the concrete form of action, as exhibited in history and biography, in daily life and conduct. Deeds take the place of words, and the thought of Jesus becomes visible. The author is a Baptist clergyman, whose creed of course tinges his treatment, though he will not say "Deliver us from the evil one" after the Revised Version.

BOOK NOTES.

The Illustrated Catholic Family Annual. 1884. Catholic Publication Society. Very handsomely gotten up. The illustrations are unusually good, and some of the articles are interesting and informing. Those on the "Albigenses" and "Waldenses" could have been improved historically by telling both sides of the story.

The Old Testament Student contains a great deal of fresh and very useful information on Biblical history and criticism, independent of its specialty in Hebrew, which cannot but interest all Bible students. Try a single number, costing only 15 cents. The entire volume of numbers may be had for one dollar. Published by "The Old Testament Book Exchange." Chicago, Ill. The last October number contains the first of three papers by the Editor which discuss the question-"Is the Book of Jonah Historical?"

The Manhattan, a handsome Monthly Magazine from New York, has made its regular visits to our table for some time, and we ought long ago to have acknowledged its welcome presence. It is a purely literary magazine, and is conducted with ability and enterprise. Its illustrations are equal to anything found in Harper's or the Century, and its corps of contributors takes in some of the best known names in our literary world. The Nov. and Dec. numbers contain some excellent articles-two on Matthew Arnold, his “Critical Writings" and his Poetry; a delightful sketch, with illus

trations to match, of "New York in 1783," and "A Corner of Acadia." In the November issue Dr. McCosh writes of "Carlyle and his Influence on the English Language," and makes a good argument in his favor. There is an appreciative paper by H. C. Pedder on "Wordsworth and the Modern Age," and a pleasing historical sketch of "The Old Cradle of Liberty" Faneuil Hall. The illustrations of these papers are admirable; and the whole make up of the magazine is in the best style. $3.00.

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The English Grammar of William Cobbett. Carefully revised and annotated by Alfred Ayres, author of "The Orthoëpist," "The Verbalist," etc. D. Appleton & Co. $1.00.

Philosophic Series, No. IV. Certitude, Providence and Prayer. By James McCosh, D.D., LL.D., etc., President of Princeton College, Charles Scribner's Sons. 50 cts. See a passage from this able treatise in the "Religions World" of this number, which will give the reader a taste of its quality. Of course Dr. McCosh is not a Universalist, but he does not attempt to prove that Nature paints the Divine portrait in the soot and sulphur of the Orthodox creed.

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Universalism and Universalists- "What I Believe Concerning Endless Punishment and "Further Remarks on Universalism." By Rev. R. G. S. McNeille, Pastor of South Congregational Church; With Replies Thereto by Rev John Lyons, Pastor of the Church of the Redeemer, Universalist, Bridgeport, Ct. American Publishing House. Mr. McNeille is evidently an honest, outspoken man, but not well informed regarding the doctrine he attacks. He respects 'niversalists as good men, but hates Universalism as a bad doctrine; forgetful of the Savior's statement that "an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit." Mr. Lyon follows up his orthodox brother's assertions and proof texts with "a sharp stick," as the Dutchman said; and shows very clearly the difference between proving punishment for sin, which every one believes, and endless punishment, which no one ought to believe.

The Bryant Calendar is a very pretty thing from the Publishing House of D. Appleton & Co. A beautifully illuminated card, 13x9 inches, with an excellent likeness of the poet; to which a calendar is attached containing selections from his writings for every day in the year; each with some beautiful thought or some useful lesson helping to make the passing day a minister to the pleasure or instruction of the Home.

The Works of Orville Dewey, D.D. With a Biographical Sketch. New and Complete Edition. American Unitarian Association. $1.00.

Body and Will: Being an Essay concerning Will in its Metaphysical, Physiological and Pathological Aspects. By Henry Maudsley, M.D., author of " Body and Mind," Physiology of the Mind," etc. $2.50.

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The following came to hand from Charles Scribner's Sons just as the last pages were made up.

Kadesh-Barnea-Its Importance and Probable Site, with the Story of a Hunt for it, including Studies of the Route of the Exodus and the Southern Boundary of the Holy Land. By H. Clay Trumbull, D.D. $5.00.

Among the Holy Hills. By Henry M. Field, D.D,, author of "On the Desert'' "From Egypt to Japan," etc.

Where Did Life Begin?

A Brief Enquiry as to the Probable Place of Beginning: and the Natural Courses of Migration Therefrom of the Flora and Fauna of the Earth. A Monograph by G. Hilton Scribner. $1.25.

John Bull and his Island. By Max O'Rell. From the French under the supervision of the author. 50 cts.

A Day in Athens with Socrates.

public of Plato. 50 cts.

Translations from The Protagoras and The Re

All the works noticed under the head of "Contemporary Literature" and "Book Notes" will be found on sale at our Publishing House.

ARTICLE IX.

The Jew-From the Maccabees to Christ.

PART II.

WHERE stood the Temple, there stood national unity, stability, and resistance to progress. Where spread Synagogues, there teemed ever-multiplying centers of intellectual movement, diversity of view, and individual as against co-operate religion. Both worked together for the well being of relig ion, and outwardly, in harmony. Yet the thrill of the Synagogue troubled the conservatism of the Temple. And the gravity of the Temple misliked the nimbleness of the Synagogue. Still, the freest upholder of the Synagogue kept within the unity of Israel by frequent sacrifice in the Temple. But he felt its worship ponderous, its forms mechanical, while in the Synagogue thrusting aside priestly mediation, staple of the worship of the Temple, for himself, he stood face to face with God. The priestly party of the Temple reaching God less by soul than by symbol, resented, but silently, their own supersedure by the personal worship of the synagogue. Priests came there, but not heartily; and were received there, not quite as laymen, yet scarcely as priests. The aroma of their office clung to them, but faintly. They took part if they chose in the services, and at their close pronounced the benediction. But with that exception, only on a par with other worshippers they felt themselves supernumeraries, and the dignity of the Temple chafed at the equality of the Synagogue, and was uncordial there. And, rooted in the old paths, naturally the priesthood looked askance at the mind of the nation slipping from its old forms into the activities of the Synagogue. Nor did it oil the fracture, nor span the divergence, that, in the Temple lay the strength of the Sadducees, and that of the Pharisees in the Synagogue. From the rise of the Synagogue, ever more and more impossible became to the Temple its former monopoly of Jewish unity.

NEY SERIES. VOL. XXI.

1 Deutsch, 139.

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At the laying of the foundation of the new building, “all the people shouted with a great shout, (and) praised the Lord;" but the "ancient men that had seen the first house wept with a loud voice, so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the we ping.2" Unconscious welcomes and farewells were these; the sobs of the old, unknowing laments for the priestly unity of the past, the shouts of the young, salutations to the freer unity of the future, with body in the Temple, mind and soul in the Synagogue. Different this from the forecasts of Isaiah and Ezekiel. By "an high way from Assyria," "the outcats of Israel and the dispersed of Judah" were to assemble" from the four corners of the earth," no more two nations, but one," under "one shepherd, in the land and upon the mountains of Israel." 3

It was not so to be. The outcasts from Israel had sunk from sight like streams in the sand. And the remnant from Judah that returned, yeasting with germs from the incipient Synagogues of Ezekiel, could no more have re-settled on the lees of the past, than could the various Protestantism of today pack itself into the moulds of Hildebrand. Yet, to revive in the new conditions, the dead things of the old, fain are the legends of the return. At the Overthrow, snatched by flying priests from the altar, the sacred fire had been hidden in a pit. Pit and fire miraculously discovered at the Return, the fire had become Naptha. And to the prayer, that again in His "Holy place God would plant His people, His whole people, Israel, as Moses hath spoken," the Naptha, Fire sacred to Ormazd, consumed, by sanction of Nehemia':, the first sacrifice on the re-erected altar of Jehovah.5

The prayer, longs back to Mosaic unity. The sacrifice, offers "strange fire before the Lord; "offence under Moses, guilty of death. The past invoked by the petition is unreal; a dream shimmering through the glamours that glorify the

2 Ezra iii. 22, 13.

3 Isaiah xi. 12. 16; Ezekiel xxxvi. 21, 23.

+ Ezekiel viii. 1; xiv. 1; xx. 1; xxxiii. 30, 31.

6 Leviticus x. 1. 2.

at Baku on the Caspian

5 II. Maccabees i. 19-36. The Naptha still burns perpetually in the Parsee fire temples "All round the World, vol. ii. p. 299.

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