“Home Worship, and the Use of the Bible in the Home,”[M] is a book of
real excellence, and will do good. Home, worship, and the Bible as the
basis and inspiration of both, are things of no ordinary importance,
and it is a joy to every Christian philanthropist that, severally, and
in their relation to each other, they are attracting the attention
of the thoughtful. The work, heartily commended, is a book for the
times—meets a want that many have felt, and guards against dangers to
which all are liable. In the midst of multiform benevolent activities,
plans and schemes innumerable, for public service, it is quite possible
to be so much occupied with the out-door enterprises of the church, as,
unwisely, to neglect the religion of the home. The plan and execution
of the work are both admirable. The well arranged scripture readings
open up the Bible in the richness of its practical teachings, and the
daily lessons are readily found suited to every need. The notes, with
but few exceptions, express in a plain, terse, common-sense manner,
the truth, as held by most evangelical Christians. Being eminently
practical, devout in spirit, and free from any offensive dogmatism,
they will be accepted as most valuable, even by those who, in a few
instances, might suggest a different exposition. As a help to the
spirituality and joyousness of domestic worship, the book will prove to
many a treasure of priceless worth.
“Christian Educators in Council,”[N] a well filled volume, containing
sixty addresses delivered in the National Educational Assembly, at
Ocean Grove, August, 1883. The book, like the Assembly, whose work it
reports, must do good, and we wish for it a very wide circulation.
For this great Assembly, from whose discussions and methods much is
expected, the country is indebted to the indefatigable exertions of
Dr. Hartzell. From years of toil among the lowly he knew their needs,
and the demand for greater and more concerted efforts in their behalf.
The thought of a really national convention, with a broad platform on
which all Christian statesmen, educators and philanthropists might be
represented, was to him an inspiration. After consultation the Assembly
was convened, organized, and furnished with a detailed program of the
exercises that proved intensely interesting to the multitudes that
were present. It was a grand assembly—grand in its conception, in the
objects contemplated, and not less in its _personel_. There were able
ministers of nearly all denominations, and honored laymen, not a few.
The Secretaries of the Benevolent Societies, the U. S. Commissioner
of Education, Presidents of Colleges, Editors, Teachers, and Elect
Ladies were all heard in person or through well written communications.
And they evidently speak from their convictions, confronting us, not
with theories, but with facts—facts bearing on the most difficult
problems with which the nation has to grapple, _illiteracy_, and the
_shame of polygamous Mormonism_. Ignorance is a foe to freedom that
must be expelled, and Mormon lust, that changes the home to a harem,
crucifies womanhood, and makes children worse than fatherless must be
made as perilous to the guilty, as it is infamous in the eyes of all
good citizens. The well considered, manly utterances from Ocean Grove
have our hearty indorsement. It is a pleasure to say the speeches that
so enthused those vast audiences seem worthy of the men and of the
occasion.
The admirable Home College Series has reached the eighty-third number.
A decidedly practical and useful idea it was to throw these terse,
interesting scraps of knowledge into everybody’s hands. The tracts
are all good. One that will please all reading people, as well as be
suggestive to those who do not know how to read, is Rev. H. C. Farrar’s
talk on “Reading and Readers.”[O] While it contains nothing new, it
tells well many true and essential facts that every reader ought to
consider.
There are no two characters in the list of English writers who hold
so warm a place in our hearts as Charles and Mary Lamb. We mention
them together, for who could separate him from her any more than they
could separate him from his essays? Mary, Charles, Elia, the tales
and sketches are woven together in a way unique in literature. It is
strange that with all its interests Mary Lamb’s life should never have
been written until now, save in scraps, and as the necessary complement
in every sketch of her brother. The cloud that hung over her gentle
life, the tender, close friendship of the brother and sister, and the
interesting circle of friends that formed their circle, make her an
exceptionally entertaining character. Mrs. Gilchrist[P] in her book has
given us the best that is known of Mary Lamb. Little of the material
is entirely new; with few exceptions it has all appeared before, but
never so well arranged. The story is carried from her earliest life,
when the unsympathetic mother would say to the child, whose brain was
full of morbid phantoms: “Polly, what are those poor, crazy, moythered
brains of yours thinking alway?” to the time when at eighty death ended
the shadowed life. The Hazlitts, Stoddarts, Coleridge and many others
receive much attention, but this is necessary, so intimately was Mary
Lamb’s life joined to her friends. In a few instances, however, notes
on people are introduced into the text, which seem entirely irrelevant,
and would have figured better as foot-notes, if introduced at all; as
in the case of the story of Mr. Scott, the Secretary of Lord Nelson.
Of all our elegant holiday books not one is more chaste and beautiful
than the Artist’s Edition of Gray’s Elegy.[Q] It is the first really
fine edition of the poem ever published. It could hardly have been
better done. The illustrations are the work of such eminent artists as
R. Swain Gifford, F. S. Church, etc., and are perfectly suited to the
calm, dignified and thoughtful beauty of the poem.
A pleasing book for fireside reading is “Bright and Happy Homes.”[R] It
is largely a compilation, and, too, on a subject on which much fresh
and valuable matter is being constantly written. The book contains,
however, the best and wisest articles on all varieties of home affairs,
and can not fail to both amuse and instruct.