BOOK REVIEW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 153, 30 June 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOOK REVIEW.

"CHRIST AtfJ> THE THIRD WISE MAN." Since Baring Gould, we have had no more indefatigable and prolific writer than John OxQnham. The number of ]iis. novels- and writings on the most diverse'subjects is astonishing. Another book from his pen has now come to hand. It is entitled "Christ and the Third Wise Man/ , and ie published by Longmans. It purports to be the story of the "Third" Wise Man, who calls himself Caspar, the son of a noted Wise iJaii belonging to Persia. Caspar tells how, impressed by the appearance of a new star, he joined the other two, and, with them, travelled to Bethlehem and saw the infant- Jesu3, giving us a wonderfully etched description of their adventures by the way. As time passed the other Two died, and : he again travelled to Palestine, first ' to see Jesus as a boy, and later as a man whose name was on everybody's lips. Finally, lie tells how he saw Him on the cross with the two malefactors, and afterwards alive after His death, concluding with tlie conversion of Saul, of ' his transformation into a faithful and eager follower of the Saviour, and of the part he himself played in connection with it. . The whole story, which is, of course, largely imaginative; is told with a simplicity and beauty of diction that make it delightful reading, nnd the •■. admirable type and format of the book . are in. keeping with it.