“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.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

“Life of Luther.” By Julius KÖstlin. With illustrations from authentic sources. Translated from the German. Charles Scribner’s Sons. New York. 1883.

“A Brief Handbook of English Authors.” By Oscar Fay Adams. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. 1884.

“The Odes of Horace.” Complete in English Rhyme and Blank Verse. By Henry Hubbard Pierce, U.S.A. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1884.

“Richard’s Crown; How he Won and Wore It.” By Anna D. Weaver. Published by the author. Jamestown, New York.

“An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.” By Thomas Gray. The artist’s edition. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1883.

“Probationers Catechism and Compendium.” By Rev. S. Olin Garrison, M.A. New York: Phillips & Hunt; Cincinnati: Walden & Stowe. 1883.

“Small Things,” by Reese Rockwell. New York: Phillips & Hunt; Cincinnati: Walden & Stowe. 1883.

“His Keeper.” By Miss M. E. Winslow. New York: Phillips & Hunt; Cincinnati: Walden & Stowe. 1883.

“Sights and Insights; or, Knowledge by Travel.” By Rev. Henry W. Warren. New York: Phillips & Hunt; Cincinnati: Walden & Stowe.

“Worthington’s Annual.” New York: R. Worthington. 1884.

“Appleton’s European Guide-Book for English-Speaking Travelers.” Nineteenth edition. Two volumes. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1883.

“Through Cities and Prairie Lands.” Sketches of an American Tour. By Lady Duffus Hardy. New York: R. Worthington. 1881.

“A Yacht Voyage.” Letters from High Latitudes. By Lord Dufferin. New York: R. Worthington. 1882.

“Across Patagonia.” By Lady Florence Dixie. New York: R. Worthington. 1881.

“The Watering Places and Mineral Springs of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.” By Edward Gutmann, M.D. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1880.