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mology, biology and psychology. These four chapters constitute a coherent presentation of the traditional theistic arguments, adjusted to the conditions and terms of modern German thought, and influenced by Professor James' philosophy, Kant's epistemology, and the theology of Schleiermacher and Ritschl.

The volume contains matter that is worthy of careful examination by competent students. Its arguments cannot be adequately understood and estimated by untrained thinkers; and they presuppose some knowledge of the history of modern philosophy. As a constructive plea for theism, it has some value; but it is very German, and its standpoint is not that of historical Christianity as we understand it.

FRANCIS J. HALL.

The New Death. By Winifred Kirkland. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1918. $1.25.

This volume of 173 pages is an elaboration of the article in the May Atlantic, 1918, with the addition of 75 pages on various problems of reconstruction. The New Death is described by the writer as "the change in standards being wrought in every-day living by the present concentration upon death." It is distinguished from "the Old Death," by its universality, it being the creed not of isolated individuals, but of the multitudes of mourners, who, independent of dogmatic authority, traditional practice, and priestly initiative, are finding in the contemporary experience of the average man the evidence of personal immortality and a complementary philosophy of life. "There is in this creed nothing new, except the incalculable novelty that never before did so many people evolve it, each for himself, and never before did so many people practice it as the deepest inspiration of their daily conduct." It is described as the unprecedented effort of popular thought to translate pity into motive and waste into the reconstruction of spiritual values. It is thus both consolatory and constructive. The youth, passionate idealism, and "hilarious heroism" of the voluntary victims have impelled the survivors to continue their unfulfilled labors and to find in the conduct of daily existence the conviction of immortality. "The more we practice the hypothesis of immortality the more we shall believe it."

Frankly pragmatic, the New Death makes experiment and personal desire the basis of conduct and conviction. It is the application of Tennyson's "In Memoriam" to the rank and file, who find in "shared suffering, shared resilience." To those, therefore, who recognize no

authority for belief and conduct other than conjecture, intuition, and feeling, the book will make the usual subjective appeal. To those, however, who require, in religious, as in secular matters, expert testimony, testimony based on less fickle and fleeting evidence than that gathered from contemporary experience, the New Death offers no consolation comparable to that of the Catholic religion, with its body of revealed truths that have been tested by ages of faith and practice. Well may the author ask: "Should it have cost millions of lives to teach us the truth of immortality?" Should it, indeed, when every Christian knows that the death of One Young Man on the cross settled that question once for all? It was the fact of His resurrection that took the sting out of death and stripped the grave of its boasted victory. That was the New Death. With this key as our common heritage, why "climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate?" Moreover, the old doctrine of the Communion of Saints, preached and practised by myriads throughout the Christian era, makes unqualified provision for this very union of the dead and the living, which the author believes to be a special function of the New Death.

But is it true that the survivors of this holocaust share Miss Kirkland's preoccupation with this "new adjustmet of dying to living," so that they feel with her that they "cannot go on living one day longer until they have decided the relation of dying to every hour of existence?" How could one obtain a consensus of opinion on such a subject? Knowing as we do the infinite variety of temperaments reacting on this universal experience, why should we expect one homogeneous product to issue from the crucible? If we may judge, not from the testimony of the poets, but of the rank and file, it would appear that there are just as many who have come out of this experience with no faith at all, as there are those that have found in it confirmation of the faith already held, be it Catholic or Protestant. The effects of this war will be found to be as manifold as the interpretations of its causes, according to the personal bias of its interpreters. Miss Kirkland's interest in the New Thought has led her to make unwarranted generalizations. Nor, indeed, would it be desirable, when so many problems confronting the living call for immediate consideration, that people should "live as if saying 'good bye' to life."

The book presents an interesting phase of contemporary thought, but it is only one phase, and that a transitory one, too chimerical and sweeping in its application to carry conviction. E. F. B.

The Moon of Israel. By H. Rider Haggard. New York, Longmans, Green & Co., 1918. $1.50 net.

In this romance Sir H. Rider Haggard offers the public something quite novel in the realm of fiction. Most of us have often wondered how the Egyptians regarded the awful series of events which preceded the departure of the children of Israel out of the Land of Bondage. This is what the author makes the scribe Ana tell us. The plagues were magic, pure and simple. For a while the Egyptian magicians were able to keep pace with Moses; but finally he beat them at their own game -as they considered it. This the Chief Magician, Ki, admits, fully and freely. The crossing of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh and his host was only the culminating proof of the superior magical power of Moses. And, when we remember that this great leader had been educated in all the lore of Egypt, which included magic, we are not at all surprised at Ki's interpretation. Much of the interest and the charm of the book consists in the presentation of this Egyptian point of view. It is only fair to add that the heroine and her uncle balance this with the Hebrew view point.

This heroine is Mer Api, the Moon of Israel, a beautiful Hebrew maiden, whose mother was a Syrian. She and Prince Seti, the hero, meet and love. Their love story, charming and tender, is closely interwoven with the historical action. The contrast between her and Userti, the Egyptian Princess and the official wife of Seti, is very effective. Throughout, the character drawing is excellent.

The historic setting is most interesting. Instead of placing the Exodus in the reign of Meneptah, which is the usual course, Haggard removes it to the time immediately after that Pharaoh's death, which was a period of confusion. The succession appears doubtful. Whether Seti II. immediately succeeded his father, and Amanmeses succeeded him or vice versa, is not certain. So the romancer has a right to make his own arrangement, which he proceeds to do. Seti becomes, in this story, the wise and gentle ruler, who would let the people of God go, because he deemed it right, despite the decision of his father, with which Amenmeses, his cousin and rival, agrees. The cousin thereby wins the crown, and dies in the Red Sea.

We quite agree with our old friend, the late Professor Maspero, perhaps the greatest of all Egyptologists, that the author has entered most marvelously into the very spirit of Ancient Egyptian thought. He has even adapted his style most wonderfully to that of the Egyptian

story tellers, among whom Ana, the author of the famous "Tale of the Two Brothers," whom he makes tell this tale, was one of the greatest. And Haggard has done this, without in the least losing any charm or beauty of style, as we judge such matters. To all who love a clean, interesting historical novel, and a charming love story, and especially to all who can appreciate a remarkable novelty, we most cordially commend F. C. H. W. this volume.

Issues of Faith. By William Temple. The Macmillan Co., New York. $1.00.

This is a series of lectures delivered during Lent, 1917, in two London parishes. The aim of the series is to consider the articles of belief which are contained in the third paragraph of the Apostles' Creed.

To those who know the previous work of this scholarly and spiritually minded writer it would be needless to say that the treatment is thoroughly orthodox and admirable in every way.

Perhaps the chief merit of these addresses lies in their vivid and illuminating illustrations. For example, in discussing the article of the Creed dealing with "The Forgiveness of Sins" he says (page 50):

"If I have injured a friend and come to him and say "Can you not forgive me?" and he says, "Oh, yes, never mind!"-that is demoralizing; and If I have any real self-respect, I shall myself find it so and resent it. But if he should say, quite simply and sincerely, "I do not think anything ever caused me so much pain, but still we will forget it;" and if I really believe this, then the standard is upheld, the wrong is not condoned, yet the forgiveness may be complete. That is what we have in Christ. No one feels that his sin is made light of, when the word of pardon is spoken from the Cross. My sin cost God all that. Only because He has shown what it cost Him can He rightly forgive it, for only so is the forgiveness compatible with His own holiness or our moral welfare."

Ordered Liberty, or an Englishman's Belief in his Church. By A. S. Duncan-Jones. Longmans, 1917. $1.25.

The Episcopate and the Reformation. Our Outlook. By J. P. Whitney. Milwaukee, The Morehouse Publishing Co., 1917. $1.15.

These two volumes, written in the darkest days of the war, present a significant testimony to the vitality of genuine religious interest within the English Church, and may also serve as guide posts to the direction

which the post bellum reconstruction of English Church life is to take. The fact that, although the first book is by an active parish priest, the successor of Dr. Dearmer at Primrose Hill, and the other by the most scholarly of present day English professors of ecclesiastical history, there is a well recognizable unity of desire, aim, and method, common to both, is a most hopeful sign for the widespread demand of reasonable improvement in things Anglican.

Fr. Duncan-Jones takes up such large topics as "Christianity an actual and developing society," "Priesthood," "Nationality," et al., and develops two main themes. The first is that the English Church must become more true to herself, i. e., there must be more conscious, radical, and intelligent loyalty to English formularies. The second point comes, not as antithetic but complementary to the first, viz., that the English Church must realize her partnership in the life of Christendom as a whole, rather than dwell amid the insularity of fragmental evolution. Of course, there are numerous points at which legitimate difference of judgment will appear as to the precise interplay of these two principles, yet we do believe that in the above order and historically considered, they present a fertile line for genuine betterment.

Dr. Whitney's book takes up a narrower field, viz., the functional value in history, and especially in the history of the Reformation, of the episcopate. In thoroughgoing fashion, it seems to the present reviewer, he proves the thesis of his first page, that "a history of the episcopate would be itself a history of the Church." After a survey of the development of episcopal life and action during the Middle Ages, he discusses the treatment to which the mediaeval episcopate was subjected by the three chief Reformation shifts, Orthodox Protestantism, Tridentine Catholicism, and Tudor Anglicanism. There is in addition an all too brief tracing of the progress along these lines down to the present time. One important conclusion is that the Reformation made most headway where the episcopate was corrupt or at least remote from the ordinary life of the Church, and that where there was anything like an adequate and vigorous episcopate, the Reformation ravages were distinctly limited.

While both of these works were written primarily for England, a careful study of them would prove of real profit to many American Churchmen. It is too bad that Professor Whitney could not have devoted some space to a consideration of the episcopate in the United States. Probably this would scarcely come under his title, and yet such a study could hardly fail to be worth while, as along a number of lines

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