The Minister's Hand-book. For Christenings, Weddings, and Funerals. Cloth Sacred Songs for Public Worship. A Hymn and Tune .75 1.00 Leather 1.50 Unitarian Catechism. With an Introduction by E. A. Horton. 1.50 Cloth, ་ 30 2.50 Mr. Savage's weekly sermons are regularly printed in pamphlet form in "Unity Pulpit.' Subscription price, for the season, $1.50; single copies, 5 cents. GEO. H. ELLIS, Publisher, 141 Franklin St., Boston, Mass. Published weekly. Price $1.50 a year, or 5 cents single copy. Entered at the Post-office, Boston, Mass., as second-class mail matter. The preface by Mr. Savage gives the reasons, clearly and concisely, why a book like this is needed. It answers a great demand, and it will supply a serious deficiency. Having had the privilege of reading the contents very thoroughly, I gladly record my satisfaction in the character of the work, my hope of its wide acceptance and use, my appreciation of the author's motives in preparing it. The questions and answers allow of supplementing, of individual handling, of personal direction. It is not a hard-andfast production. There is a large liberty of detail, explanation, and unfolding. The doctrinal positions are in accord with rational religion and liberal Christianity, the critical judgments are based on modern scholarship, and the great aim throughout is to assist an inquirer or pupil to a positive, permanent faith. If any one finds comments and criticisms which at first sight seem needless, let it be remembered that a Unitarian catechism must give reasons, point out errors, and trace causes: it cannot simply dogmatize. I am sure that in the true use of this book great gains will come to our Sundayschools, to searchers after truth, to our cause. EDWARD A. HORTON. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. This little Catechism has grown out of the needs of my own work. Fathers and mothers have said to me, "Our children are constantly asking us questions that we cannot answer." Perfectly natural! Their reading and study have not been such as to make them familiar with the results of critical scholarship. The great modern revolution of thought is bewildering. This is an attempt to make the path of ascertained truth a little plainer. This is the call for help in the home. Besides this, a similar call has come from the Sunday-school. Multitudes of teachers have little time to ransack libraries and study large works. This is an attempt, then, to help them, by putting in their hands, in brief compass, the principal things believed by Unitarians concerning the greatest subject. The list of reference books that follows the questions and answers will enable those who wish to do so to go more deeply into the topics suggested. It is believed that this Catechism will be found adapted to any grade of scholars above the infant class, provided the teacher has some skill in the matter of interpretation. GEO. H. ELLIS, Publisher, 141 Franklin St., Boston, Mass. JESUS AND WHAT HE ATTEMPTED.* PERHAPS it will be well for me at the outset, and by way of introduction, to place before you as simply and as briefly as I can the outlines of the historic life of Jesus. Jesus was born about four or five years- we do not precisely know which-before the year ordinarily called the year one. That is, the popular date of his birth is now known to be incorrect by four or five years. His birthplace, I have no sort of question in my own mind, in spite of the popular tradition, was the little hill village of Nazareth, in the northern part of Galilee. Next Sunday, perhaps, I shall give reasons naturally falling under the other topic for holding this opinion. His father's name was Joseph, his mother was Mary. Of his childhood we know nothing at all. The only way we can throw any light on it is by considering what the ordinary life of a peasant in those days was likely to be. Tradition says that he was presented in the temple after the custom of his people; and one of the evangelists tells us that at the age of twelve he was taken to the temple on one of the yearly pilgrimages made by his parents to attend one of the great annual feasts. Here he manifested, as the story goes, most remarkable spiritual insight and intellectual power. With the exception of this brief glimpse, we know absolutely nothing, practically, of his childhood and youth or his young manhood. He was not taught science, he was not taught philosophy; but he probably was taught the traditions of his people, the story of their history, the wonders of the early time, and the important sayings of the * Phonographically reported. fathers. He was also undoubtedly taught a trade, and probably tradition is correct in saying that it was the trade of his father, that of a carpenter. This does not, as it might, according to the social conceptions of some other parts of the world, at all derogate from his dignity, or touch the question as to whether he was properly educated or not. It was the almost universal custom among the Jews of this time to teach every child a trade. They had a saying, “A man who does not teach his child a trade brings him up to be a thief." So that this, as I have said, does not militate against the idea of his being a scholar, or of his being well taught according to the custom and idea of the times. The first glimpse that we gain of him that is of any importance is in his connection with John the Baptist, who, as a new reformer, baptized in the river Jordan all those who were brought to him by the fame of his eloquence and power, and then proclaimed the coming of the kingdom of God. Jesus, at about the age of thirty, comes to John, becomes, temporarily at least, one of his disciples, and receives baptism at his hand. He does not immediately begin to preach; but soon John is arrested and thrown into prison, and then Jesus takes up the mantle of the departed prophet, assumes his mission, and goes forth among the people with the same words ringing on his lips that John had uttered,— The kingdom of God is at hand. His public life then began and lasted, according to the best authorities, a little over a year, perhaps a year and a half. According to one of the Gospels, it was three years. There is a tradition in the early church, without any foundation, which says that he lived until he was fifty years of age. Of course we cannot fit these stories in with the actual history of his life. His public life was a little over a year; and into that one year he crowded all that teaching, all that work, that tenderness, that sympathy, that force of example, that inspiration, that high love for God and love for man, that have made him the supreme figure in the history of the world. We cannot decide as to the order of the events; for |