p. 13 | LITERARY NOTICES

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 12, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 28.

LITERARY NOTICES.

FACING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. OUR COUNTRY; ITS POWER AND PERIL. By James M. King, General Secretary National League for the Protection of American Institutions. 640 large 8vo pages, copiously illustrated, maps. American Union League Society, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York.

The scope of the book is indicated by the following titles of the parts in which the book is divided: “The Sources of American Republican Christian Civilization;” “American Institutions [the State, the church, the school];” “Anglo-Saxon and Latin Civilization;” “The Menace to American Institutions from Politico-Ecclesiastical Romanism;” “Powers to Protect American Institutions;” “Manifest Destiny;” and a most useful reference appendix, with a copious index. The book is a warning note against the dangerous intermeddling of the Roman Catholic Church in politics. The author has evidently endeavored to faithfully, clearly, point out the nation’s peril from Rome. He has bravely done his work. The book contains many things which should cause the Christian and patriot to pause and ponder. But, and we say it regretfully, we wish, O, how we wish, that Dr. King had discussed the matter of his book, the perils that menace America, from the only true view-point, the principles of true religious and political liberty and the natural rights of men. Of course this is the standpoint of the Gospel. It is the standpoint of true Americanism as set forth by the founders of this government. If Dr. King had done this, he would not only have seen a foe to liberty in Romanism, but foes to liberty in the politico-religious organizations among so-called Protestants. He would have seen in the clamor for “Sabbath laws” (never mind the day, that is not the question) the very principles of Romanism. He would have seen in the very nomenclature of the “American Sabbath” the “American church,” and kindred religio-political terms, the very principle of Rome. An evil principle is no better held by Protestants than it is if held by Catholics. We wish the author could see this. He would then oppose all religio-political movements, organizations, and institutions.

WHY MEN DO NOT GO TO CHURCH. By Cortland Myers, minister at Baptist Temple, Brooklyn, N. Y. 16mo, cloth. Price, 60 cents. New York and London; Funk & Wagnalls Company.

The author says in his introductory remarks: “There are many problems which need the mathematics of heaven for their solution, but none more so than the absence of men from our churches. More than one-half of the inhabitants of this country do not attend our churches to-day. There are millions of men in this country who have no connection whatever with the Christian Church. What are the forces in modern life which are the producers of this evil? If we discover the cause of the illness, we are more liable to furnish a cure. Let us be bold in our diagnosis, but patient and skilful and hopeful with the remedy; by all means save the men. Whatever has been said or written upon this problem has been usually a fragment of the truth, a segment of the whole circle.”

Mr. Myers has made an earnest study of the question, and he considers boldly under three heads, the faults of the church, the faults of the man, and the faults of society, urging at the same time cures for these faults. The book will repay a careful reading.

WHAT A YOUNG WOMAN OUGHT TO KNOW. The second volume to women by Mrs. Mary Wood-Allen, M.D., published in connection with the companion books to men, by Sylvanus Stall, D.D., under the joint title of the Self and Sex Series. Vir Publishing Co., 27 Hale Building, Philadelphia. 264 pages. Price, $1.00.

The book is divided into three parts: the first treats of the value of the body and its hygiene; the second of special physiology and the laws of maturity, and the third of love, engagements and marriage. The author brings to her task the training of a physician, the sympathies of a mother, and the character of a teacher who is discerning the higher ideals.

The chapters on the care of the body are simple, sensible, and practical, and the directions given have in mind one result, and that is the attainment and maintenance of good health. In treating the subject of special physiology, the author avoids technical medical terms, and tells the young woman of the physical laws governing her nature, how to obey them intelligently, and what penalties follow their violation.

When we first looked through the book we wished that every true mother in the land (and would there were one to every girl, if not her own, some other good mother) would take the book and in quiet holy hours read it with her daughter.

POEMS BY RICHARD REALF. Edited by Col. Richard J. Hinton, the poet’s intimate friend and literary executor. 12mo, cloth, deckle edges. Price, $2.50. New York and London; Funk & Wagnalls Company.

The life of Richard Realf was a sad, eventful one, full of storm and stress, hopeless and disappointing. He wrote none till nineteen; in 1857 he joined the John Brown movement, was a member of the famous Chatham convention, and then went to England and France to lecture for the benefit of the movement. During his absence the tragedy of Harper’s Ferry occurred. He afterward served five years in the army. He died by his own hand in 1878 in San Francisco, pursued to his death by a woman he had married, supposing his first wife to be dead. Some of his poems are equal to the best of the masters of song.

BABY’S FIRSTS. By Mary Wood-Allen, M. D. Price, 35 cents. Wood-Allen Publishing Company, Ann Arbor, Mich.

The aim of this little work is to teach mothers the first necessary things for the new-born child. These come under the head of “The First Bath, First Dress, First Bed, First Food, First Tooth, First Year, First Work, First Education, The Baby Who Must Travel, The Baby Who Must Stay at Home, The Ownership of the Child, Nervous Children.” Dr. Wood-Allen has told in a simple charming way what mothers ought to know. There are those who will get along without such directions, but they are few indeed who would not be greatly benefited by following them; at least the little ones would. It is an exceedingly useful little book.

THE NATURAL FOOD OF MAN AND HOW TO PREPARE IT. By Mrs. J. R. Leadsworth, Healdsburg, Cal. 40 pages, neatly bound in cloth. Price, 40 cents; paper, 25 cents. Address the author.

This little work contains more than 150 recipes for cooking the natural food of man so as to dispense with the use of meat, eggs, butter, and milk, and these articles do not enter into the recipes. How to cook (or make) grains, sauces, breads—leavened and unleavened—legumes, vegetables, nuts, fruits, is told concisely and clearly. “Food for the Sick” is treated by J. R. Leadsworth, M.D., a successful, conscientious and skilful physician, with 28 recipes of food preparations for invalids.

MY YOUNG MAN. By Rev. Louis Albert Banks, D.D. 12mo, cloth. Price, 75 cents. New York and London; Funk & Wagnalls Company.

This is a companion volume to “The Christian Gentleman,” by the same author, a book which has had a large sale. This book consists of a series of ten addresses to young men in their relationships as sons, brothers, church-members, members of society, lovers, husbands, citizens, to wealth, and to themselves. The aim of these addresses, or character studies, is to awaken in young men a love and respect for things that they are too apt to regard lightly. The reader may not always agree with the author, but the book is a helpful one to any young man.

July McClure’s contains the interesting articles: “The Unsolved Problems of Astronomy,” by Prof. Simon Newcomb, fully illustrated from recent telescopic photographs by Prof. E. E. Barnard and other eminent astronomers. “The Automobile in Common Use; What It Costs, How It Is Operated, What It Will Do,”—in short, the Automobile, or horseless vehicle, as we find it in actual service to-day. The articles are illustrated with pictures of all the more-important types now under trial.

Among the interesting articles in the July Cosmopolitan are: “The Building of an Empire—Omar,” by John Brisbaine Walker, “The Organization of a Home on $2.50 per Day,” and “What One Should Know about Swimming.”

Funk & Wagnalls Co., New York, announce that they have in preparation and will publish about the end of the present year the latest work of Dr. Parker, the “Pulpit Bible.” The size will be quarto; the Bible text will be in pica type, and the wide margins of the page will contain pithy, suggestive comments on the verses of the text. The practical value of these marginal comments is seen at a glance. The “Parker’s Pulpit Bible” is declared by those who have examined the work to excel both the “People’s Bible” and “Studies in Texts.”