THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS, by John Bunyan: The R.T.S. Tercentenary Edition. London: The Religious Tract Society. Price 6d. Paper covers.
This beautifully printed edition of Bunyan’s immortal book is a piece of work on account of which the Religious Tract Society deserves the sincere thanks of all lovers of Bunyan’s great masterpiece. In these days of high printing costs, it is marvellously cheap, even though it appears in paper covers. The typography is excellent, and the brief biographical sketch touches on the main events in the author’s career. At the end a list of 120 languages and dialects is given in which the “Pilgrim’s Progress” has been issued wholly or partially at the cost of the R.T.S. Let all our young people, who have not yet read Bunyan’s work, buy a copy and read it from beginning to end.
THE INFLUENCE OF FOREIGN REFORMERS IN THE ENGLISH REFORMATION, by the Rev. R. P. Blakeney, D.D., LL.D. Sovereign Grace Union, 98 Camberwell Grove, London. Price 3d, post free.
This excellent pamphlet, as its title indicates, shows the influence exercised by Calvin, Martyr, Bucer, A Lasco, Melancthon, and Bullinger. Like all the late Dr Blakeney’s works, it is characterised by clarity of statement and sound historical judgment.
JOHN BUNYAN: HIS LIFE, TIMES, AND WORK: by John Brown, B.A., D.D. (Minister of the Church at Bunyan Meeting, Bedford, from 1864 to 1903). The Tercentenary Edition revised by Frank Mott Harrison: with Marginal Notes, Addenda, and Appendices. Profusely illustrated. London: The Hulbert Publishing Company. Price One Guinea.
This noble biography, the standard life of John Bunyan, has been given a new lease of life in the splendid edition published by the Hulbert Publishing Company. Dr Brown’s biography is so generally recognised as a masterpiece that it would be presumption to speak of it as if making its first appearance. The biographer took every opportunity of gathering every scrap of information he could glean about Bunyan, and he produced one of the classic religious biographies in the English language. One would have thought that there would be little to glean after Dr Brown’s lifelong gleaning, but Mr Harrison has
been able to add in marginal notes, addenda, and appendices quite a lot of interesting new material. The publishers have done their work well, and in issuing the book to the reading public they have done credit to the printer’s art in producing a book that is as pleasant to the eye as it is satisfying to the mind. Let all those who wish to get the fullest and most up-to-date account of Bunyan’s life, times, and work, if they possess the necessary means, procure a copy of this excellent biography.
LUTHER AND THE REFORMATION, by James Mackinnon, Ph.D., D.D., Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History, University of Edinburgh. London: Longmans, Green and Co., Ltd., 39 Paternoster Row, E.C., 4. Vol. II. Price 16s.
This is the second volume of Prof. Mackinnon’s important work on Luther. It deals with a very critical period of Luther’s life, and traces with masterly skill and thoroughness the development of Luther’s religious opinions which forced him ultimately to make the inevitable and irrevocable breach with Rome. No biography of Luther in English deals so exhaustively in tracing the development of Luther’s religious views in reference to indulgences, etc. The biography is extremely interesting to the student of history, as Dr Mackinnon quotes from Luther at considerable length, and the reader can thus judge whether Dr Mackinnon’s inferences from the facts produced are sound or not. The account of Luther at the Diet of Worms is a splendid piece of historical writing. Dr Mackinnon adopts no artificial means to impress the reader with the historical importance of Luther’s appearance before Charles V. He states the facts, and they are sufficiently impressive to speak for themselves. The pomp of earthly power is confronted with a mightier power, that of a conscience that cannot, and will not, bow to a lie however artistically it may be dressed, and however pleasantly presented. Dr Mackinnon says Luther was a strange blend of the pacifist and the fighter. He did not, to begin with, wish to break with Rome, but in attacking indulgences he delivered a blow at a corrupt system which was felt to its utmost bounds, and Luther learned by and bye that to remain in the Roman fold was to sacrifice the truth of God, and he was led to take the only possible step for a spiritually enlightened man, viz., to leave that communion for ever. Another two volumes will complete the work, and these are ready for the press.
THE MENACE OF FREEMASONRY TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH,
by Rev. C. Penney Hunt, B.A. Nottingham: The
Freedom Press, 8 South Parade. Enlarged Edition.
Price 1s 3d post free.
This timely and excellent exposure of Freemasonry has already been noticed in our pages. Mr Hunt has made additions, met some criticisms made against his statements in the first edition, and brought the booklet up-to-date, as notice his including the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland among the Churches, which have indicated that their members should not countenance the Lodge. Mr Hunt is having an uphill fight as the following extract shows:—”The Craft is troubled. All that can be done by terrifying book-sellers, editors, and journalists is being done. Grand Lodge actually issued a warning to deter men even from printing the book. They endeavour to control all the avenues of publicity in the press, even the religious press.” To those who have not yet read this exposure let them by all means purchase a copy and read it through from beginning to end.