The Atheist Shoemaker. By Hugh Price Hughes, M.A. (Hodder and
Stoughton.)—This "page in the history of the West London Mission" is a true story—we are told, and can readily believe— with the names changed. John Herbert, a man of noble type, has been turned against Christianity by the contradiction between the faith and the lives of professing believers, and by social wrongs, especially the hardness of his own lot, doomed as he is to an early death by the conditions under which he has been forced to work. He is brought to a better mind by seeing lives more in harmony with the profession of those that live them. It is an affecting story, with all the impress of reality upon it. But there is one thing to which we feel bound to call Mr. Hughes's attention. The man makes this statement :—" I am killed, while still a young man, killed by a Christian employer, who has kept me and my shop- mates in a foul hole, where we have to burn gas all day long. A short time ago we heard the Factory Inspector was coming. Ah !' we thought, 'now we shall be relieved, now we shall have a little fresh air and daylight.' Not a bit of it. Our Christian employer took him upstairs, and they had a glass of sherry together, and then he went away without ever putting his nose into our sweating-den. And your Christian Government pays him .2500 a year." Now here we have a man identified in all but name. He is a factory inspector at the West End and he has .f..500 a year. This man is guilty of a shame- ful breach of duty. Mr. Hughes is bound not to leave the matter here. He should report the case to the Government. On the other hand, the inspector is bound to vindicate himself.
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