The Clergy and the Pulpit in their Relations to the
People. By M. l'Abb6 Isidore Mullois. Translated by George Percy Badger. (Smith and Elder.)—Suggestions, criticism, experience abound in this book, and we can recommend it both to clergy and laity. The Abbe will startle English preachers by counselling sermons of four minutes in length. But he will shock some of them quite as much by saying that they ought to use short words and short sentences, direct and simple affirma- tives instead of ambiguous questions, thoughts instead of common- places, and humour instead of platitudes. His idea of a sermon is that an academician and an illiterate woman should both find something in it to enlighten their minds and improve their hearts. Yet how many preach to the poor as if they were academicians, and to academicians as if they were nothing but academicians.
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