Meditation and Mental Prayer, by the Rev. Wilfred Knox (Phillip
.Allan, 3s. 6d.), is a simple and interesting. elementary guide to the discipline and exercises necessary. to the cultivation of the inner life. The Ignatian- method is dealt with, also another method, and the truth is clearly .emphasized that a • comfortable con- templation of favourite texts is not meditation at all,- but day-dreaming. Meditation, on the contrary, is a straight and stony uphill path, " a means of learning how to bear the Cross." There is a short bibliography, mentioning, we note, the Life of Prayer in the World, but not, curiously enough, Miss ITnderhill's more recent Concerning the Inner Life. The last chapter, " The Prayer of Simplicity," describ- ing that silent communion of man with his Maker, transcending thought, is curiously reminiscent of certain Eastern contem- plative exercises. This is a book to be heartily commended to all who believe in the abounding power of prayer.
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