A Parson in the Australian Bush. By C. H. S.
Matthews, M.A. (Edward Arnold. 6s. net.)—A reader in England must feel himself somewhat at a loss in estimating this book. Mr. Matthews
• pleads for the use of brotherhoods in organising ministerial work in the Australian bush. The single worker, he says, is at a most serious disadvantage. The distances are vast; the home life is intolerably lonely. A brotherhood, a clergy house, would send out its inmates on all sides ; they would always have a real home to come back to. It seems an excellent plan. Even in this country it might work well, though the parishes wish, and are right in wishing, to have a minister living among them. But the rule of these brotherhoods is a difficult problem. Mr. Matthews seems to favour the idea of a Bishop who should have a special charge of them, outside the ordinary diocesan arrangements. This might succeed, though it is clear that the extent of his diocese would be enormously large. Nor would his task be easy. Brotherhoods and sisterhoods are, as they have always been, difficult to manage. A very considerable space in ecclesiastical history is occupied by their efforts to escape from episcopal control. We have not been without instances of the same impatience of control in our own days. Quite apart from this particular subject, however, there is much that is both interesting and instructive in Mr. Matthews's pictures of life in the back regions ,of Australia as viewed from the clergyman's standpoint.
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