and the natural order of life as to win attention from the beginning. The simplicity of his style, and the adaptation of the narrative to youthful minds, are features that recommend the book, not only to the fireside, but to all, old and young, who gather around it.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Prize Synopsis of the Course of Study for the First Year for Itinerant Preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church. By the Rev. C. M. HEARD. 16mo, pp. 89. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. New York: Hunt & Eaton.

The Itinerants' Club movement is already producing a literature. Last year Bishop Vincent offered a prize for the best synopsis of the books in the first year's course of study for our ministers. Upon examination of manuscripts prepared in response to this offer, the prize was awarded to the Rev. C. M. Heard, of Minneapolis, whose work now appears in published form. We commend this small book to our under-graduates because it abbreviates the large books in the course, and more particularly because it is suggestive of the synoptical work every minister should do for himself. He should write his own commentary, systematize his theology, prepare his introductions to the various books of the Bible, plan his archæologies, and condense into synopses all the post-graduate courses of studies he pursues. Mr. Heard's plan of reducing a book to outline is commendable, and it should stimulate probationers, deacons, and elders to methodical work in study. It should also induce our ministers to organize schools or clubs among themselves for the special work of mutual cultivation in what is called scholarship.

Cradle and Nursery. By CHRISTINE TERHUNE HERRICK, Author of Housekeeping Made Easy, etc. 16mo, pp. 298. New York: Harper & Brothers. Price, cloth, $1.

This is a book for young mothers. It commences with advisory statements concerning the treatment of a child from the first week of his birth, and is full of hints and practical suggestions touching his training until he leaves the nursery. It is not a book of theories or of philosophizing on responsibility, but contains helpful and judicious advice from one who is every way competent to give it. For its purpose it is a satisfactory book, clearly written, and animated with a benevolent spirit.

Shoulder Arms! or, The Boys of Wild Lake School. By JOHN PRESTON TRUE, Author of Their Club and Ours. 12mo, pp. 328. New York: Hunt & Eaton. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. Price, cloth, $1 25. The author is an advocate of the athletic development of boys and girls, and recounts the good effects of military drills and various physical exercises in Wild Lake School. The gymnasium has its function in American life, and our schools and colleges cannot longer neglect to provide for muscular as well as intellectual development and culture. The book reflects one of the theories of education, and is valuable for its timely suggestions.

Celestial Scenes. By FRANZ LUDWIG NAGLER. Part First. 12mo, pp. 116. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. New York: Hunt & Eaton. Price, cloth, 90

cents.

A poetic exposition of some religious ideas relating to the other life. A real poet would not pronounce favorably upon it, but the average reader may find some stimulating suggestion in the "Scenes" here outlined. Margaret Ellison: A Story of Tuna Valley. By MARY GRAHAM. 12mo, pp. 325. Philadelphia. Price, cloth, $1 25.

The plan of the story is well conceived, the manner of telling it is excellent, and the moral tone is wholesome.

School-Boy Life in Merrie England. Pen Pictures of the Great Public Schools of England, with Sketches and Stories of Famous Scholars. By HENRY FREDERIC REDDALL, Author of From the Golden Gate to the Golden Horn, Who Was He? etc. 12mo, pp. 286. New York: Hunt & Eaton. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. Price, cloth, $1. Intended for youth, this book deals with educational matters in England in such a way as to make it useful to adults and teachers in this country. It is a rare thing to find such a well-written account, and in so brief a space, as we have it here, of Manchester College, Eton College, St. Paul's School, Shewsbury Grammar School, Westminster School, Harrow School, and Rugby School-all of them more or less famous in the history of England. The book should go into the family, the Sunday. school, the public-school library, the reading-room of the university, and the library of the student.

A Visit to the Bjórkheda Parsonage. CARL LARSEN, 12mo, pp. 273. Hunt & Eaton. Price, cloth, $1. The parsonage, the church, the church-yard, the pastor, and all the accessories of pastoral life and work, with their varying incidents, come to view in this well-written book, only the scenes are in far-away Sweden, and not in America. The mere fact of distance has its fascination in the make-up of this story, though it proves that human experiences are about equal in kind every-where. Every Sunday-school library should add this volume to its collection, and every scholar should read it at the earliest opportunity. Nor should it fail of having a good effect on pastors and people as well as youth.

From the Swedish of H. HOFSTEN. By Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. New York:

Cards.

Their Significance and Proper Uses, as Governed by the Usages of New York Society. By the Author of Social Etiquette of New York. 16mo, pp. 66. New York: Frederick A. Stokes & Brother. Price, cloth, 75 cents.

A valuable book on the etiquette of cards. It treats of all kinds in use in the social relations of life, and informs as to size, color, monogram, or whatever should appear on the card in connection with the person's name. Ladies, gentlemen, and children will find in it model forms, with suitable instructions, for all occasions. Education in etiquette in this particular is considered a refinement, and manual on this subject is quite as helpful to a knowledge of the proprieties as a fashion-book is suggestive of styles of dress. It ought to have a place in every boudoir.

METHODIST REVIEW.

JULY, 1890.

ART. I.—THE TITLES OF THE PSALMS.*

THE Book of Psalms has been cherished as a manual of devotion by the pious in all ages. the Old Testament, and never pensation to which it belongs. a clearer light upon the scheme of redemption, the afflictions of God's children, and the future glory, than the psalmists ever possessed. Nevertheless, their devout meditations upon divine things, their fervent breathings after communion with God, their confidence in him alike in trouble and in joy, their penitent confessions and earnest supplications, accord so entirely with the inmost experiences of the Christian heart as to show that true religion, in its essence, is the same in both dispensations.

True, it stands upon the plane of transcends the preparatory disThe Gospel of Christ has shed

The devotional value of the Psalter is not materially affected by critical questions respecting the age and authorship of these sacred lyrics. The religious profit which they yield grows out of the truth which they contain and the spirit which they breathe, irrespective of their origin or of the special circumstances by which they were suggested. Yet these are by no means a matter of idle curiosity. As the psalm must, in a measure, reflect the person of its author and the situation in which it had its birth, an acquaintance with the latter must conduce to the better understanding of the psalm, and the study of the psalm help to a better appreciation of both the writer and his times. Accordingly, if the date and authors of any of *We welcome so eminent a scholar as Professor Green to the pages of the Review. His is the fourth article in our series on Old Testament books.-EDITOR. 31-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. VI.

the psalms can be certainly fixed, valuable light will be thrown. upon the religious ideas and the religious life of the period to which they belong, and thus upon the history of the religion of the Old Testament in general.

The reputed authors of one hundred psalms are named in their titles, and some of these state the particular occasion on which they were composed. It hence becomes a question of no small importance, preliminary to the study of the book, Are these titles reliable?

The external evidence in their favor is as strong as could possibly be expected. They have been an integral part of the text as far back as that can be traced. They are prior to the Septuagint, the most ancient of the versions of the Old Testament, to the constitution of the Psalter as a whole, to the formation of the separate books of which it is composed, to that collection which antedates the oldest of these books, and is the most ancient of which we have any knowledge, the so-called "Prayers of David," Psa. lxxii, 20, the hymn-book of Solomon's temple. So far as the external evidence goes or the analogy of other Old Testament titles, every thing points to the conclusion that the titles were coeval with the individual psalms to which they are prefixed, or at least with their liturgical use. The evidence derived from this quarter is sufficient to create a strong presumption in favor of their truth and accuracy; so strong, at all events, that their testimony must not be wantonly disregarded, or discredited without valid reasons.

The only further test to which they can be subjected is that of the internal evidence afforded by the psalms themselves. Are the titles consistent with the contents of the psalms to which they are severally prefixed? Do these agree with what is known of their reputed authors, and can they be reasonably supposed to have originated under the circumstances there indicated? If so, the titles are vindicated, and they have a just claim to be believed. It is not necessary, nor is it to be expected, that a positive demonstration of the truth of the titles should be yielded by the psalms. A reasonable measure of correspondence between them and the absence of any contrariety is all that can be demanded, since the liturgical use, for which they were either originally prepared or subsequently adapted, naturally led to the sinking of the individual in what was

common to all devout worshipers, or to some particular class of them.

Psa. xc is entitled a prayer of Moses, the man of God. Delitzsch says: "There is scarcely any literary monument of antiquity which justifies the testimony of tradition as to its origin so splendidly as this." And Bleek: "There is no sufficient reason to deny that this song is from the great lawgiver; and in any case it bears a very decided stamp of antiquity." It is generally admitted, even by those who are most skeptical in regard to the titles, that the psalm is eminently worthy of Moses, and that the situation herein depicted matches precisely that of Israel perishing in the desert, in which they had been condemned to wander for their sin until the entire adult generation was consumed. And that this is really what was before the mind of the writer is confessed even by Dr. Robertson Smith, when he says: * "It can hardly be doubted that this is an example of the habit so common in later Jewish literature of writing in the name of ancient worthies."

"The days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil" (ver. 15), implies a long term of affliction and distress. The mortality common to men is in this case intensified by devastating judgments: "Thou hast swept them away as with a flood" (ver. 5); and is emphasized in a manner unusual in the psalms as the fruit of sin, and the consequence of God's displeasure. "We have been consumed in thine anger. . . Thou hast set our iniquities before thee." The earnest prayer for the speedy return of God's mercy (vers. 13, 14), and that from the lesson of their frailty they might get a heart of wisdom (ver. 12), is as appropriate as possible, and just what might be expected from Moses. And with equal appropriateness the psalm closes with a hopeful looking forward to new manifestations of God's power, and his blessing on those activities upon which they were about to enter when the fatal term should be over. No other time can be pointed out to which the expressions of this psalm seem so well adapted as that to which it is referred in the title.

And, what is very remarkable, there is a surprising number of coincidences between the language of this psalm and the books of Moses, particularly the song which he taught the people * Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. xx, p. 32.