SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice ouch Books of the week as hare not been reserved for review in other forma.] The Bible-Reader. By E. Nixon and H. R. Steel. Part III. (Norman, Sawyer, and Co., Cheltenham. la. net.)—We are 'glad to see a new instalment of an excellent teaching manual, of which we have had occasion twice before to speak in well-deserved praise. The period of history included in the volume before us is "The Early Hebrew Monarchy." Samuel as an influential personage, both before the establishment of the new regime and during its early years, occupies a place. The authors deal with the perpetually recurring difficulty of a different moral standard with frankness and courage. They do not hesitate, for instance, to say that "they cannot help hoping that the story of Samuel killing Agag is not true." It does not, indeed, help us to get rid of it in view of the command that "babe and suckling" were to be included in the slaughter. The volume is illustrated with judiciously chosen selections from the Psalms.—With this may be mentioned Old Testament History, by the Rev. F. Ernest Spencer (Longme.ns and Co., is. net), a volume in the series of "Anglican Church Handbooks." Much that is serviceable for teachers will be found in the book, but we regret the line taken on certain difficulties. There is the Deluge, for instance. Surely Mr. Spencer has no right to suggest as one cause "the inrush of the ocean through the depression of the hind." Are we to suppose a general depression of the land and a general rising again ? What hint of such a thine is to be found in the narrative?
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