The major portion of the booklet is taken up by Henry Ridgely Evans on the mythical Napoleon. His contention is not that Napoleon was a myth but that the character of his celebrated person as it is held in the minds of the people and described in history has incorporated in it much that is fictitious. In his first sentence the author lays down this proposition, that "it has been the fate of the great historical personage warriors, priests, poets, kings, and reformers-to have woven about them tissue of myths and fables," and he then illustrates this general truth by analyzing the character of Napoleon and showing the mythical accretions that cling to it. This book is timely and suggestive. We commend it to the thoughtful students of the day.

A. E. TRUXALL.

TELLING BIBLE STORIES. By Mrs. Louise Seymour Houghton. Pages xiv +286. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905. Price $1.25 net. As the reader lays this volume down, he feels that there is hope for the child morally and spiritually, and that the Old Testament has undergone a transformation into a volume of delightful stories for children. In the opening chapter the author explains her philosophy of childhood and her conception of the Old Testament. The child is the true representative of human nature generally. "The spontaneous instincts of the soul as manifested in the child are the essentially human instincts." The Old Testament is the product of a child nation and reveals "human nature in all its elemental characteristics," and is therefore in its very nature the book for the children of every nation. "The unique value of the Old Testament lies in the God-consciousness with which its every page is saturated." The child, on the other hand, being born with this faculty of God-consciousness, sees God in these stories. It is with a view of helping parents and teachers to develop this faculty of God-consciousness of the child that the author has prepared this book. The author's view of the influence of twentieth century life in the development of this faculty of the child may best be seen in her own words. "If this nation is not to become like France-a nation where infidelity has the controlling voice in the national councils, a people whose highest faculty is wellnigh atrophied-parents are solemnly bound to recognize as their most important task that of developing the sense of God until it becomes the commanding factor in the child's life."

To supply the biblical material for this important work of parent and teacher, the author has classified the stories and arranged them in a graded series. The following are some of the headings of story groups: Morning Stories, Before the Flood and After, Patriarch Stories, Hero Tales, Romance Stories, and Pur

pose Stories. Constant emphasis is laid on the importance of bringing the child to the stories free from mental bias, and from notions of what the Bible must be and of what the Bible must teach. Two features in the book will commend themselves to parents and teachers who are in sympathy with the newer ideas of education and with modern thought. The author is in accord with the most approved ideas of psychology and pedagogy. And in her views of the Bible there are many ear-marks of her familiarity with historical criticism. For some readers the frequent use of the words myth, legend, epics, folk-lore, as applied to Bible stories, will place a ban upon its mission of usefulness. Parents and teachers can read this book with profit. Until some prophet arises to write a catechism for children, pastors will find the book helpful in training the children of the church in the fundamentals of moral and spiritual life. E. E. EMнoff.

ON LIFE AFTER DEATH FROM THE GERMAN OF GUSTAV THEODOR FECHNER. By Dr. Hugo Wernekke. Pp. 133. Chicago, The Open Court Publishing Company.

This little book, on that ever recurring question: If a man die shall he live again? was first published in 1835. The author seemed to have committed it to the future, feeling that if it were of God it could not be overthrown, but if it be of men it would perish. It has received such generous recognition within the last two decades, that would seem to prove that the author did thinking that answers some of the questions of this strenuous age. The author is a firm believer in God, and in Jesus Christ; and that we are destined through his mediatorship to become children. of God, and attain a higher spiritual union than through our mere natural birth.

Man passes through three stages corresponding to the threefold division of the trichotomist. The first stage has to do with the bodily organization; the second with the soul life; and the third with the spiritual. The first is a continual sleep; the second sleeping and waking by turns; the third waking forever. We leave the first stage by birth, and the second by death. There follows such a discussion of death that robs it of much of its terrors. The author seems to make too little account of the necessity of life in Christ. He would have but little room for Christianity pure and simple. There are pages where he comes perilously near making immortality to consist in leaving an influence upon other minds and lives, which by them will be perpetuated. There is also a pantheistic flavor in what approaches to be a final absorption of souls into the Father.

The reading of the book will bring comfort to weary spirits and

to those who are in danger of putting too little value upon righteousness and truth. It deals a death-blow to the commercial spirit that is too much with us. On the whole, it is an honest effort to help men make life so real, that it will be lived for God. The translation reads as though the book had been originally written in English. C. CLEVER.

A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY.

By Ernest F. Henderson. Two volumes in one. 9 A. D. to 1871 A. D. New York, Macmillan Company, 1906.

A history of Germany, by an American author, has rarely been attempted. The handbook prepared by Bayard Taylor has served a good purpose as a text-book for the classroom, but it scarcely satisfies the demands of the student at present. Dr. Henderson has, therefore, performed a valuable service in writing a history of Germany for English readers, which is based upon the latest historical research.

Two volumes are bound into one. The first covers 517 pages, including an index of 8 pages and a chronological table of 8 pages. The second covers 471 pages, with a chronological table of 9 pages and an index of 10 pages. A series of four maps of Germany at different periods of its development is found in the first volume; and the same number appears in the second. At the beginning of each chapter there is a record of the literature on the subject treated. This will aid the student in procuring the best authorities for further investigation and study.

The author shows himself a master in the arrangement of the mass of material with which he has to deal. The danger is that one will lose himself in details and fail to bring order out of chaos. But he eliminates the non-essentials and makes prominent the essentials. He selects the great movements in German history, and treats them in the several chapters in such a way as to weave into the narrative a vast amount of material and at the same time bring out the genetic process in each period.

The writer was especially interested in the contents of the second volume, beginning with the "Rise of the Prussian Monarchy," and ending with the "Attainment of German Unity.' In a fascinating way does the author trace the history of Prussia in its relation to the surrounding nations-France, SchleswigHolstein, Poland, Austria-and in its relation to the great men in Prussia, the Great Elector, Frederick the Great, the Emperor William I., Bismarck. A happy combination of principles and persons, of anecdotes and allusions, all of which serve to illuminate rather than burden the narrative, makes the chapters read almost like a romance. The author shows a wide knowledge of the best authorities on the social, political and ecclesiastical aspects of the history of Germany. He has thoroughly digested

his material, and has presented it with the stamp of his personality upon it.

We would heartily commend the work to all who are in search of a readable and authoritative history of the German people. GEORGE W. RICHARDS.

THE

REFORMED CHURCH REVIEW

No. 2.-APRIL-1907.

I.

THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON THE SUBJECT OF

WEALTH.

BY WILLIAM C. SCHAEFFER, D.D.

The

The modern world has seen three great revolutions. first is past; the second is passing; and the third is upon us. The first was religious; the second, political; the third is economic. Ultimately the same principle underlies them all. It is the struggle of the people for individual freedom and for personal rights. In the first the masses contended for religious freedom, for the rights of conscience, and for the liberty of holding immediate, personal communion with God; in the second the contention was for political freedom, for the rights of citizenship, and for personal equality before the law; in the third the contention is for economic freedom, for the rights of individual and social well-being, and for equal opportunity in the pursuit of happiness. The first was fought out in the Reformation of the sixteenth century; the decisive victories of the second were gained in the English, the French, and the American Revolutions; the battles of the third are being fought in the present conflict between capital and labor, in the strikes and lockouts of our factories and mines, and in the various industrial and social disturbances of the present day.