641 



Other Notable Books of the Month. 



THE ETERNAL QUESTION. 



Is man the sport of the gods, or is he master of his 

 fate ? Granted that man is " the noblest work of 

 God," can he attain the full freedom of spirit which has 

 been his aim through the ages ? World-old queries 

 these, discussed in the forum, fought out in the field, 

 and still wrestled with in the privacy of men's con- 

 sciences. The kingdom of " the flesh and the devil " 

 is still agitated by the psyche which persists in all 

 strata of human society. The " rude mechanical " and 

 the purse-proud continue in apparent indilTerence, 

 but here and there a few men and women, soon to be 

 an army, are developing a passion for a realisation of 

 what life holds for mankind. 



This tendency is illustrated in its ^•arying shades 

 in si.\ books* which can be best read and reviewed as 

 a whole. Dillering in degrees of authorship rather than 

 of inspiration, each represents that " leavening of the 

 lump " necessary to a fuller development. 



First we liave Mr. Ballard with his boldly challenging 

 title, " Why does not God Intervene ? " As might 

 be expected, he finds it dilfnult to justify his choice of 

 title, and he takes 375 pages to emphasise his conclusion 

 that the one tiling needful is the love of Jesus Christ. 

 We fear Mr. Ballard preaches only to the converted. 



The author of " Voluntas Dei " strikes a broader 

 note, and the much-harassed Christian will find ample 

 comfort in these pages. A pleasing harmony per- 

 vades the te.xt, from which we must be content to 

 make one extract : — " In the Christian salvation 

 the word God shall increasingly become to humanity 

 the synonym for all joy. Health, genius, beauty and 

 love shall well up in each heart at the blessed 

 Name, and all men .shall instinctively turn to high 

 emprise." 



THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS. 



The believer will be still further heartened by 

 Mr. W'almsley's introduction to his " I'ighters and 

 .Martyrs for the Freedom of Faith," in which he points 

 the present generation to the high endeavour of the 

 early saints. His selection of past heroes — Wickliffe, 

 Savon.irola, Hunyan, Wesley, and others who 

 moved mountains — gives his words peculiar weight, 

 for in these days with so rich a heritage o( blessing we 

 '' faint-hearts " .stumble at every molehill, and do 

 not realise that " the Free Churches have never vet 



• "Why Does Not God Intervene?" by Frank Ballard.U.l). 

 (Ilndilcr and Sl<)ii);lilon.) 



" Voliinias Dei," by llic author of " Pro Chrislo et Ecclcsia." 

 ' . nut. (Macniillnn.) 



" Fit;lilcrs and .M.irlyr» for the Krccdom of Failh,'' Ijy l.ukc 



Walnisliy. 3*. 6il. net, (James Clarke ami Co.) 



"The Oiurc'li and the New ARe," by Rev. Henry Carter, 

 6d. ntt. (lli)ddcr and Stouglilon.) . 



• PruMcms of Men, Mind, and Morals," by ErncM Bclfort 



\. ('t. net. (Ctniil Kirliards.) 



■■'riu- Sllndo»■^ll■'.^," by J. II. Ciiilc. 51. net. (Miitiutn 



d Co.) 



risen to the opportunity of their liberty." There 

 is apathy where such high purpose should prevail. 

 This brooding spirit of stagnation is considerably 

 ruffled b\- Mr. Carter in " The Church and the New 

 Age," which presents a searching analysis of causes and 

 conditions of latter-day indifference. We cordially 

 recommend this little book to Churchmen of all denomi- 

 nations, and hope it may save them from their opinions 

 —stereotyped even as " by law established." The 

 Church has done so much for the individual, 

 when will it face national problems in right-down 

 fashion ? W'e must warn readers, however, that Mr. 

 , Carter is somewhat blunt and apt to express his opinions 

 —he thinks Socialism good, and has the temerity to 

 say so ; in the same way our author, as a Christian, 

 strongly holds that the Church should lead m all the 

 affairs of man. He says : — 



The New Age needs the Church. That is the first truth to 

 grasp. The power that fashions the altruist, and makes him 

 strong to achieve, is in her keeping. Her sacred charge is to 

 declare the wealth of the Christ-nature, and to impart it, to pro- 

 claim ideals for Humanity, to purge the lite of man of the 

 unrighteousness that rends and .slays, and to base the world- 

 order on the righteousness of God. 



The correlative truth is this : To meet the needs of the New 

 Age the Church must be in closer fellowship with God and 

 men. She requires a clear apprehension of His Will for an age 

 dominated by social conceptions, and an intimacy with the poor 

 and disinherited no less free and constant than her present 

 inlinuicy with the well-to-do. Affairs go ill with the Church 

 because these essentials, in no small measure, are lacking. A 

 fre.sh vision of the Holy Will, with a quickened sensiiiveness to 

 human sutlering and wron},', will lead to a re-baptism of the 

 Chiistspirit. Then once ai^ain the Church will tread with reso- 

 lute purpose the Way of lite, leading the crusades of the 

 Hcivenly Kingdom ; for vision begets militancy, the uprising 

 of believing sons of God against the things of shame. 



To-day is the day of the time-server, and if the 

 Church is to count in the future : — 



.She must oppose a true Prophetic Witness to the false, 

 rejecting the assumption that in private life, in commerce, or in 

 politics, money interests can ever be superior to those of morality, 

 and asserting, on the contrary, the authority of social justice 

 and the obligations of brotherly love. 



Mr. Carter makes out a strong case, and in the face 

 of declining Cluirch membership it is time for plain 

 s[)eaking. 



THE APOSTLE OF THE FUTURE OF SOCIALISM. 



After the idealist comes the rationalist, and the 

 appeal is to the reason and not to the heart in the calm 

 critical pages of Mr, Belfort Bax, who has lost nothing 

 of his grip in " Problems of Men, .Mind and Morals." 

 Here the standpoint has changed; for Mr. Bax the 

 Church has no |)lace. no ethical value. To him the 

 Catholic Church is the " Derelict of the Ages," and to 

 assoiiate the ideals of Socialism with Christian in- 

 tolerance, unthinkable ! Mr. Belfort Bax's writing 

 is never commonplair ; and although he has nothing 

 Init plain words for plain men, he is no dull materialist 

 at heart, and, contleinning the prevarication of the 

 politician, docs not hesitate to assume the mantle of 



