IDEALS AND APPLICATIONS.
Ideals and Applications. By Henry Van Dyke, D.D. (Hodder and Stoughton. 3s. 6d. net.)-Dr. Van Dyke speaks his mind pretty plainly,—is it a sign of grace that a man can do. this nowadays without rousing the wrath of the classes against which he inveighs ? Sometimes his words have a special application to the United States ; commonly they may be taken to touch all English-speaking peoples, indeed all that claim to share in Christian civilisation. His first discourse—what are printed as essays were presumably delivered from the pulpit—deals with the everlastingly interesting question, "Is the World Growing Better ? " He puts his conviction on this matter very well. It is growing better, he thinks, " not in every eddy, but in the main current of its life ; not in a straight line, but with a winding course ; not in every respect, but in at least two of the three points of goodness ; not swiftly, but slowly, surely, really growing better." "Ruling Classes in a Democracy" is an able vindication of the democratic principle, "democratic" being used in its wide, not in its political, sense. " Christianity and Litera- ture" is also especially good. We should be inclined to go now and then a little further than the preacher. " There is the same religion in The Heart of Midlothian as in The Book of Esther," he says. We see in Esther no religion in the broad sense of the word, though plenty of the Jewish patriotism which was wanted to keep religion alive. It is this that justifies its place in the Canon.
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