The Life of James Hood Wilson, RD. By James Wells,
D.D. (Hodder and Stoughton. 7s. 6d.)—Dr. J. H. Wilson was minister of the Barclay (Free) Church, Edinburgh, for thirty-nine years (1864-1903); for fifty, if we reckon in the eleven years during- which he laboured in Fountainbridge Church, the Barclay Church (so-called from the donor of the fund out of which it was built> having been erected to accommodate an overflowing congregation. It was not for want of invitations to other spheres of labour that he stayed there. Calls to positions in the Colonies and in London came to him. On one occasion it seemed as if he was to be removed against his will ; but he elected to stay where he was, though once at least he was moved by the importance of the work offered to him. That he was a thoroughly single-hearted man, who thought as little of self as any one, is clear from this-. biography, the work of one who knew him during almost the whole period of his ministry. He was emphatically, and before all other things, a preacher ; some would call him a revivalist ; to others the title of evangelist would seem more appropriate. We gather that the breadth of view which comes from a large acquaintance with the thoughts of other men was not his. He, was not a student, and his biographer evidently thinks the better of him for it. He writes :— " One of the saddest features of every well-educated country is. a certain idolatry of 'intellect,' a poor, self-regarding book- culture, which has no moral or spiritual dynamic. The situation is hopeless when we are proud of this barren scholasticism, and. prize learning 88 either the chief end or the chief means. Many influences now playing upon us dispose us to forget that sacred. learning should be an instrument more than a luxury ; that it is not intellect but character which conquers this world and inherits the next; and that the crown of Christian education is that sort of culture which claims the whole man for Christ, and is perfected
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