14 APRIL 1894, Page 24

The First Saints. By James Rankin, D.D. (Blackwood and Sons.)

—These "Character and Church Studies in the New Testament" take a wider range than the limits of the Anglican Calendar. Dr. Rankin is himself a Presbyterian minister, and does not scruple to express his dissent from the policy which has stripped his Church of ancient and edifying instruments of devotion. He uses "ancient Latin hymns as well as Roman and Anglican collects." He has drawn also from stores of modern religions poetry, and has pro- duced a book which will be found a valuable aid for purposes both of study and devotion, not to speak of the obvious homiletic use to which it may be profitably turned.