p. 15 | LITERARY NOTICES

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 2, 1901

LITERARY NOTICES.

“FORWARD MOVEMENTS OF THE LAST HALF CENTURY.” By Arthur T. Pierson, D.D. 12mo, cloth, 439 pp. Price, $1.50. New York and London: Funk & Wagnalls Co. The readers of the Missionary Review who have read some of the stirring thoughts of Dr. Pierson, embodied in this book, will gladly welcome it, not alone for these thoughts in a more permanent form, but for many others which the volume contains. It is not only a book to read, it will be a valuable book of reference. Many Christian workers do not know what the Oxford movement and the Keswick teaching mean. They are told in this book. Dr. Pierson notes the encouraging things in this century of spiritual apathy, the longing on the part of many for personal holiness, the “Revival of the Prayer Spirit,” “The Prayer Basis of Mission Work,” “The Pentecostal Movement,” “Woman’s Work at Home and Abroad,” “Ramabai and the Women of India,” “Organizations of Christian Young People,” “The Problem of City Evangelization,” “The Stimulation of Missionary Zeal,” “Systematic Christian Work among Soldiers,” and “The Growth of Belief in ‘Divine Blessing,’” and many other things, in the thirty-one chapters of which this interesting compendium is composed.

“MENTAL INDEX OF THE BIBLE,” by Rev. S. C. Thompson. Were we to recommend this book, it would be as a memory system rather than a mental index of the Bible. It is designed to furnish an ever-ready mental classification of the Scriptures to those who are not fully conversant with the contents of the Bible, and especially the location of texts by chapter and verse. There are a few simple rules and directions, and the law of association of ideas is applied throughout, a key word or sentence standing for every subject and chapter, and a majority of the verses of the Bible. But in order for it to be of practical benefit, it must be studied, and we are sure the same amount of effort placed upon the Scriptures themselves as would be placed upon the 280 pages of peculiar sentences of the book to memorize them, would fix in mind the contents of every book and the subject matter of every chapter of the Bible, together with a fair idea of the further details of verse and text locations. To those, however, who need something of this kind for the purpose named, it is doubtless the best that can be had. 300 pages, cloth, 12mo. Price, $1.50. Funk & Wagnalls Co., New York and London.

“POETRY AND MORALS.” By Louis Albert Banks, D.D. 12mo, cloth, 405 pp. Price, $1.50. New York and London: Funk & Wagnalls Co. A story or verse containing an appropriate and striking illustration of a moral truth is a pleasant and sure medium for enforcing a character lesson. Such an illustration arouses the attention, stimulates the interest, and causes conviction. In this new book by Dr. Banks, the author has arranged, in a skillful and winning way, several hundred simple truths, in paragraphs appropriately headed in full-face type. The truths are explained in a few terse sentences, and then verses, entire poems, or prose selections having direct bearing on the truth, are added, forming a unique storehouse of suggestive material for preacher and writer.

“A BOOK OF VERSE,” by Floyd D. Raze. On the title-page is the legend, “A Book of Verse, Both Bad and Worse.” But many of the little poems are not half bad by any means. 108 pages, 5x7 inches. The Editor Publishing Company, Cincinnati.