Aleph the Chaldean. By E. F. Burr, D.D. (Oliphant, Anderson,
and Ferrier.)—The sub-title of the tale is "The Messiah as Seen from an Alexandrian Point of View." No small amount of pains has been expended, it is evident, in furnishing this story with the due amount of local colour. Nor does the author fail in taste. He is not one of those writers who do not scruple to invent narratives and discourses that are, so to speak, supplementary to the Gospels or the Acts. On the other hand, the story does not fascinate, scarcely attracts. To compare it with what may be fairly taken as a standard, General Wallace's " Ben- Hur," it does not stand in the front rank of Scriptural tales. Dr. Burr seems to have transgressed the probabilities of the case when be speaks of "descendants of the prophet Daniel."—We must own that Stephen, a Soldier of the Cross, by Florence Morse Kingsley (S.S.U.), does not approve itself to our judgment. It seems too err in the very respect in which the tale noticed above, whatever its shortcomings, is worthy of commendation. It is dis tinctly a shock to any sober taste when we find Stephen sug- gesting a doubt as to the conduct of the Eleven in using the lot to determine the election to the vacant apostleship. Ananias and Sapphira are not personages whom it is necessary to treat with respect ; still we need not accentuate their baseness, or im- pute to the woman the failing of vanity, or hint that the man was a drunkard. We have no wish to say anything unkind of Mrs. Kingsley's book, but we must frankly express our opinion that it is a mistake.
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