SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.] Reform in Sunday School Teaching. By Arthur S. Peake, M.A. (James Clarke and Co. 1s. 6d. net.)—Professor Peake pleads for a reasonable method of teaching the Bible. He says practically : Follow the development of the religious idea as the Bible gives it. He is criticising, it should be said, the scheme known by the title of " International Lessons," and he uses no little severity in doing so. His method is at once like and unlike that which was discussed at some length in the Spectator of February 24th, 1906. Professor Peake would make more use of Old Testament history. Here we must own to a certain difficulty. Progressive morality is a quite satisfactory theory in itself, but is not easy to explain to a class of village children. And, indeed, the whole of this controversy seems somewhat above the level of the Sunday- school as we conceive of it. We much doubt whether the average teacher could form any definite opinion as to the rights and wrongs of the controversy which Professor Peake and the advocates of the International Lessons are carrying on. Pre- sumably it occupies a more important place in the Methodist Churches than it does among us.—With this we may mention a second edition, "revised," of How to Teach the Bible, by A. F. Mitchell (Williams and Norgate, 2s. 6d. net). It would be a profitable thing to compare this with Professor Peake's book. The two men agree so closely in principle that their differences in practical application are especially instructive.
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