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.]
In the Hand of the Potter. By Harold Begbie. (Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.)—Mr. Begbie tells in a very effective way some true stories of what is commonly called "conversion." There are many who deny that there is any such thing; there are those who would class all spiritual experiences as delusions ; others, in their zeal for sacramental ordinances, refuse to accept anything that seems to lie outside. And, on the other hand, there are some who discredit the truth by exaggerations and conventions. Let anyone who is in doubt read Mr. Begbie's book. His narratives bear a manifest stamp of truth; the men and women whom they picture to us are not by any means formed after one pattern. Their experiences are not all of the same kind. The characteristic common to all is that they show changes— sometimes sudden, sometimes worked out with painful delays— which cannot be accounted for except by the theory of some preter-human action. Perhaps the most remarkable are those of the dipsomaniacs, whom our author is careful to distinguish from drunkards. The true dipsomaniac, in whom the passion for alcohol is congenital, is pronounced by science to be incurable, yet con- version cures him.
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