Stories from the Bible. By the Rev. Alfred J. Church.
(Mac- millan.)—Professor Church has, in a greater measure than perhaps any contemporary writer, the gift of narrating a simple story in English that is at once simple and scholarly. Such a gift could not be better exercised than in tolling, in the light of such recent contributions to Biblical literature as Dean Stanley's "Jewish Church," the old stories of Abraham and Joseph, Moses and Joshua, David and Ahab. Professor Church has wisely adhered as much as possible, not only to the simplicity of Scripture, but to that phraseology which, from its being associated with childhood, has come to be accounted part and parcel of the narrative. How unfamiliar would the story of Abraham look, if it were not stated that his belief in the Lord "was accounted to him for righteousness " ! A certain charm would be lost even if the old "peradventure" were omitted. But while Professor Church tells the old stories in the old style, he gives a number of useful, ex- planatory, and, in the best sense, rationalising notes. In a way, this book is, in the form of a series of biographies, a history—and an eminently readable' history—of the Jews, for if it begins with the story of Abraham, it ends with that of the Maccabees. The illustrations, which are "after Julius Schnorr," are small, but carefully executed, and quite worthy of the letterpress.
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