Press comments on The Prophets and the Promise by Dr. Beecher and on The Work of Preaching by Dr. Hoyt :

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"You have conferred a great blessing on the church by publishing it," writes a prominent minister, concerning The Prophets and the Promise. It is just the book we all need, and its clarifying view of the right attitude of present day faith toward the Old Testament scriptures is most helpful."

“It is admirable. I shall use your book and recommend it to my students."

“The sanest, clearest and most satisfactory account of two of the most intricate subjects in the Bible that I have ever seen," says a prominent theologian about The Prophets and the Promise. Can be understood by laymen who wish to study the Bible, and will be a treasure in the library of ministers."

The name and fame of the author guarantee this work. The result of many years of ripe study is here represented. The book is a strong, logical discussion of the Prophets and their Messianic messages. It will fill a permanent place in theological literature, and be accorded a place on the working shelves of an intelligent Christian ministry."-Christian Observer.

"Dr. Beecher writes clearly, forcibly and interestingly. His study of the Prophets is important."-The Examiner.

The Western Christian Advocate says: The Prophets and the Promise is a stimulating and attractive volume. The author has been Professor of Hebrew in the Auburn Theological Seminary for a third of a century. He is recognized as one of the keenest investigators and clearest thinkers in the ranks of American Biblical scholars. The aim of this volume is to re-state the doctrines pertaining to messianic prophecy in the terms of modern thought. The book occupies a niche by itself."

"A product of studies accumulating during many years, devoted to the prophets and their messages relating to the Messiah. The conclusions are the old orthodoxy transposed into the forms of modern thought.' The work will take its place among valuable text-books in theological literature."-Lutheran Observer.

THE WORK OF PREACHING. "The seventeen brief lectures in this volume by Professor Arthur S. Hoyt, of Auburn Theological Seminary are, as the title page intimates, for a professional class. But they are free from scholasticism, and sensitive to the demands of the present time, which is viewed as at once a harder and a better time for the

preacher than any time before, and demanding better preachers. How to preach, and also how not to preach, is shown, with fulness of direction and caution; but the two things most insisted on are the true theory of preaching and the study of its illustrations in great preachers. The sermon is regarded as not manufactured, but borna message from God born of the spirit in the heart, a gospel message for salvation; but these terms are broadly construed as applicable to all that is included in the making of man,' yet holding the spiritual aim supreme. For practical delineation of the ideal the great lights of the modern pulpit are freely introduced-above all, Phillips Brooks, and Henry Ward Beecher, 'the Shakespeare of the pulpit.' Though a professor of sociology as well as of homiletics, Dr. Hoyt abstains from special advice upon the peculiarly difficult problem of properly relating the two in applying the gospel to the puzzling questions of a complex age.' If the general counsel given on how to preach is followed, such advice will be less needed."-The Outlook.

"THE WORK OF PREACHING " by Professor Hoyt of Auburn Theological Seminary, though primarily a book for the class-room, may be found helpful also in the study. It is a course of seventeen lectures, each preceded by a careful analytical outline. First the importance of preaching is urged and its ideals set forth; then, the general and specific preparation are considered; then the use of scripture, and then, at some length, the most persuasive methods of presentation. A good word is said at the close for plain speaking."-The Churchman. THE WORK OF PREACHING. "The experienced author of this attractive volume has given us a fresh book on a trite theme, one that is edifying, entertaining and energizing in an imminent degree, and one that is well adapted to awaken enthusiasm, inspire diligence, and promote efficiency on the part of the preacher in the faithful pursuit of his sacred calling. The significant title of his book, The Work of Preaching, is suggestive of his avowed aim the interpretation of preaching as a living message,' and both title and aim find full exemplification in the practical and vivid manner of presentation employed by the author in the elucidation of his theme.

The thoughtful reader will find this to be a thoroughly live book without a dull line from first to last, containing in rich measure the ripened fruit of intelligent observation and matured experience, with the garnered treasure of prolonged study and extensive reading, all conducing with common trend to a sane comprehension and sound interpretation of the word of God."-The Baptist Commonwealth, Philadelphia.

"Dr. Hoyt is a man of experience in teaching the theory of preaching, and he has produced an excellent book for Christian workers. It

sets forth the whole work of the preacher in clear and lucid style, and gives very helpful suggestions concerning it. The author notes the special difficulties in the way of the preacher in this age of materialism, social unrest, and critical spirit; and gives some practical advice as to how they should be dealt with. A helpful table of contents and bibliography of the subject precedes each chapter. If men in the active work of the ministry would frequently read such handbooks as this, it would help much to keep them out of ruts, and up with the times.”—R. B. P., The Record of Christian Work.

Bishop John H. Vincent has written to The Macmillan Company to express his warm and hearty approval of Professor Arthur S. Hoyt's recent volume on The Work of Preaching. He styles the volume a book full of wisdom," and goes on to say: "The writer understands his subject; has read widely about preachers, and preaching ; has heard sermons; has preached, and has lectured to preachers. Into this book he has put the best things about sermons that the best preachers and critics have said, and has himself here written as good and wise things as he quotes, and as a result we have a book on sermons, their preparation and delivery that no student of the science and art of preaching can afford to leave out of his library."

THE PROBLEM OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, considered with reference to recent criticism, by James Orr, D. D., Professor of Apologetics and Systematic Theology, United Free Church College, Glasgow, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1906.

This is the volume that has just won the Bross prize of $6,000, for the best book on the connection of the facts in any department of knowledge with the Christian religion. But even without that, Dr. Orr's reputation is a sufficient guarantee that his work is the product of a large brain and of untiring industry. His familiarity with the accumulated literature of the subject is something prodigious.

The book is a defence of the essential historicity of the Old Testament account of the religion of Israel, including the essential Mosaicity of the pentateuch, in opposition to the criticism that denies these. Dr. Orr accepts all critical results that are correctly inferable from the phenomena found in the scriptures. He takes no stock in any merely mechanical doctrines of inspiration. He goes to an extreme in provisionally yielding points to his opponents. He bases his polemic on the record of the case as made up by them, rather than on an original study of the Old Testament itself. But he exposes mercilessly their lack of literary and religious appreciation, their contradictions

among themselves, their flabby and unscientific logic. He thus vindicates the essential truthfulness of the account of the origins of Christianity as given in the scriptures, which is mainly the account heretofore accepted in the churches.

The book exhibits mental greatness, breadth of view, good temper, thoroughness in investigation, and is in these respects an encouraging specimen of the new conservative literature that is now happily coming to the front.

WILLIS J. BEECHER.

THE WORK OF PREACHING by Arthur S. Hoyt, D. D. A book for the class-room and the study. The MacMillan Company, 1905, pp. viii, 355. 52x7% in. $2 net.

The great preacher is born not made, and he is a law unto himself. Had theological seminaries only students of this order the department of homiletics would prepare no text-books. Even the man of talents finds his own way and a tradition grows up that men succeed without training or in spite of it. As groups of ministers discuss this topic one and another comment on the inefficiency of their training excepting in the hard school of experience. Beside all this the way of the genius and the waywardness of the student who can learn only by failure, is the miserable sentimentality which substitutes trust in the spirit for manly preparation and hard work. And, one more factor, in many seminaries of old the homiletic chair was filled" by some eminent and passé“ Divine” whose people had wearied of him and whose own weariness demanded a saint's rest. No wonder homiletics is an art fallen—in the seminaries—into disrepute.

And yet how absurdly false is the estimate. Even the genius is the better for criticism and training, while all the others-nine hundred and ninety-nine in a thousand—are dependent upon it. The youth of talents may be ruined by his success. He needs criticism and teaching, not indiscriminate praise; the clear judgment of the expert, not the admiration of the multitude. And the average man! his career is made or marred by his training. In any body of theological students it is pitiful to note how many are foreordained to failure by their incompetence in the art of public speech. By it they stand or fall, an art difficult of acquisition and practiced in the sight and hearing of a multitude. Yet the average student has the audacity to enter the ministry, though he has neglected to master the technique of his profession. With his crudities of style, his barbarisms of manner, his provincialism of utterance, he inflicts himself upon his congregation and blasphemes his God by praying for the Spirit to fill such an ungainly and lazy instrument. Neither the Spirit nor the congregation has any use for him, and the dead line shows itself before he has

got his first call, for his real vocation is to the sale of insurance or of books. Think of singer or actor or painter neglecting the study of technique. I feel like saying to every student, as you value your ministerial life whatever you neglect don't scamp your work in homiletics.

It is the glory of Auburn that it has exalted homiletics-Johnson, Upson, Hoyt,-where shall you find a succession to excel it? And behind it is the Hamilton College tradition. This much Hamilton and Auburn prove, that the average student may be taught to express himself in public clearly, creditably, acceptably-more we may not rightly ask of our schools, less we should not accept.

Prof. Hoyt worthily succeeds Johnson and Upson. Higher praise I cannot name, and this book is representative of his method,—simple, clear, to the point, practical; the working book of a man who works with students. It is the outcome of the class-room, and if one may not have the inspiration of the presence of its author, it is still a guide which will put the student on the right road. We highly recommend it to men who wish to learn the art.

GEORGE Wм. Knox.

THE MESSIANIC HOPE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT by Shailer Mathews, University of Chicago Press 1905, XX. 338 pp., 6x9 inches. $2.50 net. This is one of the decennial publications of the University of Chicago. Its theme, always of interest to the student of the New Testament, is made doubly so by the writer's earnest effort to get at the exact concept of Messianism in the literature of Judaism; to compare that concept with the New Testament expression of it and then to discover if possible, what is essential in the whole presentation. It is virtually an application of the historical method in the study of this significant subject. Prof. Mathews begins with the Messianism of the prophets and shows us how the way was prepared for the development of the whole concept in the times immediately preceding the coming of Jesus. These days big with meaning for Judaism gave birth to several distinct movements, all of which were in some way controlled and inspired by great hopes regarding the Messiah. It is in the literature connected with these movements, as far as they had a literature, that one comes first upon those expressions which one finds in the New Testament. Have they the same meaning in both places? Chapter III is a valuable contribution to the means for answering this question intelligently. It reviews with insight and discrimination the witness of Jewish apocalyptic literature and gives a summary of its teachings. We are thus made ready to open the New Testament and ask if it seconds what we have learned. As far as Jesus himself is concerned, our author thinks that of the seven fundamental elements of