NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15769, 9 December 1916, Page 7

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

<A SPIRITUAL PILGRIMAGE."

The Rev. R. J. Campbell, at the suggestion of some of his Nonconformist friends, has written a book entitled "A Spiritual Pilgrimage," in which he sets out ta explain his action in re-entering the Church of England, and submittine to re-ordination after a period of twenty years spent in the Congregational ministry. Mr Campbell, as most of our readers are aware, was for many years one of the most prominent Nonconformist preachers in London. Ho succeeded the Rev. Dr. Parker at the City Temple, and there could have hardly been a greater contrast than that which existed between these two men—l>r. Parker, portly and vigorous, not to eay pompous, was a Boanerges of the pulpit, while Mr Campbell was frail, ascetic-looking, with prematurely white hair, very quiet in his style, very thoughtful and scholarly in his manner. He himself says, with perfect accuracy, if somewhat doubtful grammar: "People hearing me for the first time often seem to expect a Boanerges'in the pulpit, and are quite surprised to find a speaker who indulges in no flowers of rhetoric, and whom they havo to sit very still to hear at all."

Whether Mr Campbell's Nonconformist friends will be satisfied with the reasons ho gives for submitting to re-ordination is a question npon which we need not enter. The chief interest of this fascinating volume consists in its autobiographical details, and the process of religious evolution which it describes. Mr Campbell's childhood was spent with his maternal grandparents in the North of Ireland, whither he had been taken from london when ho was a few months old m tho hope of saving his life. He has always had to struggle more or less against ill-health, and his -portrait gives one the idea of a man between sixty and seventy years of age, although actually he is only about fortynine. Has grandfather was an Ulster Presbyterian, but of liberal views, ana, it is clear, a man of saintly character and a gentle, loving disposition. When he was entering his teens, young Campbell returned to his father, who was a United Methodist minister in England. He was, however, educated at a Church of England grammar school, and on leaving wa s appointed ljunior master in a small high school in Cheshire. The whole tono of tho school was Anglican, so ho had to teach the Church catechism and prepare boys for the Oxford and Cambridgo local examinations in divinity, as in other subjects. Ho was confirmed in Manchester Cathedral by Bishop Moorhouse, arid remained a communicant of the Church of England for the next eight years, none of his family raising any objections. *- In duo courso he went up to Oxford, and entered at Christ Church, where he camo strongly under tho influence of Anglo-Catholicism, and tolls us that he "felt tho nearness of God and heaven as never heretofore in his adult years." One of tho greatest spiritual iielps he received was the privilege or worshipping with tho Cowley Fathers in their little chapel, sinco replaced by an ornato church. Ho actually chose one of tho clergy of Cowley St. John as his confessor, but he says that Paget, of whom ho speaks in tho hignest'tcrms, was of more - use to him than anybodv during this period of uncertainty and mental strain. Mr Campbell was expected to take -a first in tho Honours school, but, unfortunately, was seized in tho examination room with one of the worst illnesses he ever had. Two things seem to have prevented Mr Campbell from following what would have seemed his natural course at that time, namely ordination as an Anglican minister Tho first was that in .Nonconformity, and especially in the Presbyterianism of his childhood, he had seen a tvpo of Christian character and a piety .-is true and earnest as anything within tho Anglican system. The second was that 60 Tar as he could then 6ee, if the Anglo-Catholic theory of the Church was a true one, he would not feel safe outside Rome, and he was not prepared to go to Rome. In regard to the second point, it may be mentioned that throughout his ministry he was always on friendly terms with Roman Catholics, and he ventures to say that they always trusted him. When ne went to Spain, he wanted to see something of the inside of the Catholic life in that country, und told Cardinal Bourne so. The latter promptly opened all doors, and he was treated throughout his tour as if he had been a Catholic himself. Indeed, he was moro than once taken for one, and on one occasion was actually asked to say

Mass in a monastery in San Sebastian. . When he enlightened his kind host, tno latter was grcatlv amused, and speculated as to what "might havo happened had ho taken him at his word. . Still, it must have been somewhat or a surpriso to his friends when -MJ" Campbell decided to accept a call to tho Union street Congregational Church, Brighton. Two days after his induction he was offered a lectureship at Oxford, hut it came too W*From Brighton ho went to the City Temple, and these were tho only charges he ever had until ho finalJy joined tho Church of England, and was appointed on the Cathedral staff at Birmingham. It is evident from his hook that there was always a greater bond of sympathy between Mr Campbell ana his Anglican friends than with the .Nonconformists. His congregation at the Citv Temple consisted largely of Anglicans. Canon Fleming often camo in tho season, and brought others with him. The late Sir Henry CamnbellBannerman, Mr Bonar Law, Mr Lloyd George, and Mr Balfour, were all among his friends. Ho goes on to say however, ihat "Amongst Xonconfromists I had few intimate friends then or at any other time, a fact to which I attribute most of the misconception which attended my later ministry. Personal touch is everything in such a case, and I did not possess it. This ■was partly, no doubt, my own fault— I ought to have mixed with my brother ministers more, and taken more account of their prejudices as well as their deep-rooted convictions —but partly it was duo to other causes. I had not been trained in one of their theological seminaries. I did not realise until long after I was in the Nonconformist ministry that there is a species of trades unionism about it. Men who belong to 1 tho same institution or group of institutions naturally band together, and outsiders aro on a different footing. My own great college was no recommendation to Nonconformity. Still, I admit this could have been got over if I had taken tho necessary pains, which I never did; and if I were having mv time over again, I should take care" to cultivate Nonconformist fellowship more earnestly. It does not do to stand aloof, and is harmful in many ways. Isolation means loss of sympathy and of tho force that comes of corporate action.'' While at the City Temple Mr Campbell had some exciting experiencea. One Sunday morning a homicidal maniao quietly walked up the pulpit steps behind him, and leaning overjhis shoulder whispered, "I have been specially sent by Almightv God to kill you, Mr Camptbell, if you do not preach the Gospel. I shall remain hero and listen, and if you fail to preach the Gospel I will slay you as a false prophet." Turning his head round. Mr Campbell answered in an equally low tone, "Go down to the floor of the church at once." . He smiled, bowed, and did so, keeping a keen eyo on him all the time. Mr Campbell beckoned a sidesman up and asked, "sotto voce," to havo him removed. With difficulty tho request was obeyed, for the fellow made a furious fight onco he was outside, but tho congregation never knew, and the service proceeded without interruption. Another time a well-mannered gentleman who had written for an appointment in the ordinary way came into his vestry and carefully shut tho door behind him:—

He then explained that ho considered himself a special instrumont in God's hands for getting rid of dangerous teachers, and that he thought of beginning on me. He said he was armed for that purpose, and indeed I saw that ho carried a weapon of some sort under his coat. I asked him to sit down and discuss the matter quietly, which the man did, continuing his discourse with the utmost courtesy. Meanwhile I was pressing with m_T foot a hell which communicated with tho outer vestry, where tho sexton or some of the office-bearers- were usually to bo found. But on that occasion, of all occasions, no one was there, and I was left alone closeted with a lunatic who had come expressly to murder mo. I did my best to show him that possibly ho was mistaken ih thinking that Heaven had 6ent him _to tho City Tomplo for his first victim, and I recommended a number of others, in my judgment, far more dangerous speakers and writers to whom ho might pay a visit, such as Mr Bernard Shaw, Mr Roosevelt. Mr Lloyd George and a few moro. I nearly brought on tho climax by mentioning Mr Lloyd George, for it appearedho was beneath the visitor's contempt, never having touched a serious subject in his life, and being prono to. tho use of unclassical language. I suggested Mr Winston Churchill as a substitute, and ho eecmed _ better satisfied. In tho end he decided to givo mo another chanco, and t weni off with a friendly warning on his lips. But wc must resist tho temptation to dip further into this interesting volume. What Mr Campbell has to sav regarding tho New Theology and the reasons which led to his re-entering tho Church of England must bo left to our readers to discover for themselves. It is a book which tho "man m the street" as well as theologians will find intensely interesting- (London: Williams and Norgatc.)

"THE PERILS OF PEACE.** "Wo havo no longer any anxiety on tho subject of ultimate victory for the Allied Army. Tho one danger to bo now guarded against is that of our being cajoled or trapped into a peace agreement which shall afford inadequate guarantees for tho future. "The Perils of Peace," by Cecil Chesterton, with an introduction by EElaire Belloc, is a book which we hope will have a wide circulation, and be attentively studied by tho British people. It shows conclusively that any peace which, leaves the present German Empire in existence with its centro in Berlin would be a moro truce. Mr Bolloc thinks that tho perils of a shameful ending to tho war so far as England is concerned aro by no means imaginary. Ho points out that if the war should proceed beyond a certain period—and ho suggests some time in the New Year as the probable beginning of tho now phase—owners of great wealth will bo faced not merely with ''severe taxation upon their current revenue for a short time, but with an actual diminution of their permanent revenues throughout all time. Ho docs not think that they would dare to fight openly against a continuance of the war but they might try to do so by indirect means, and the most obvious indirect means would be to spread the conception abroad that a further struggJe would become impossible '.on account of some mysterious thing called financial exhaustion." He sees great danger in tho control of the Press in England by a very small number or very wealthy men. and suggests, "It will probably be the very newspapers which were most vulgarly violent against weak opponents in the past, which have shown the most offensive lack of chivalry in military matters, which have shrieked the loudest while opinion was still violent and tenacious in the earlier phases of the present war. that will try to create towards the end of it a current of opinion leading towards an inconclusive peace." Mr Chesterton shows clearly enough that so far from the war being a financiers' war, it is a war undertaken in the teeth of the unanimous opposition of cosmopolitan financiers, and those who desire to achieve a complete triumph for the Allies will have to achieve it in the teeth of the financial opposition. His exposure of the traitors within our midst —the "Potsdam pacifists"—is trenchant and unsparing.

.He points oat that unless Prussian ] militarism is absolutely destroyed, Prussia 'will simply bide her time. "She will refresh, and recoup her ! strength. Sho will re-arm. She will intrigue, and bribe with the object of securing now supporters and disarming old enemies. And sho will then -seek to recover as- much as possible of what she has lost by some treacherous stroke against such rival as she thinks she can most easily and completely isolate. ''And there is no shadow of doubt as to the name of the rival against whom such a blow is already planned as the first effort to be made after the war. "It is England." Hie goes on to point out that if the war ends inconclusively no patriot will dare to think of anything else than the immediate peril hanging over England. "Everything will have to give way to the piling up of such armaments as may just avert—and that narrowly— the subjugation of our country. Conscription in the strictest form will have to be universally enforced. The iron discipline of war will have- to bo continued in peace. And all the time the very same rich men whose fear and greed haro been largely instrumental in bringing about so shameful and disastrous a surrender to tho foreigner will take advantage of the very peril they themselves havo created, and pursue without check or hindrance their settled policy of enslaving their poorer fellow-country-men." He urges that the essential thing about the settlement which is to follow the war is that it shall not be negotiated as between equals, but imposed "by the victor on the vanquished, and ho holds that no settlement will be complete which does not include the punishment df tho \crimioal. Ho says:— "When I read of tho Wittenberg horrors—the climax so far as we are concerned of Prussian infamy—l own that I entertained tho hope that I should never again hoar an Englishman SDeakjof peace, at least until we had the enemy beaten to his knees. There is one* particular episode in that hideous s~tory which I would like to see written up in large Qetr ters on every hoarding and taught to the children in every Board School. It is that of the German doctor —by name Aschonbach —approaching the hell to which* our men were condemned, standing afar off, protected by mask and gloves and other precautions for his personal safety, and i calling the brave soldiers among! whom lie and his like had deliberately ppread a filthy plague, 'English swine.' "There are oniy two alternative courses to be pursued in regard to those words. "One is to note them, to remember them, and, please God, in due time, to take full vengeance for them. The other is to deservo them." The "book is one which every British patriot should read and lay to heart. (London: T. Werner Laurie, Ltd., 8 Essex street. Strand, \Y.C. Christ- ' church: Whitcombc and Tombs. 35.) THE GERMAN' WOMAN. ' Under tho title of "The German Woman and Her Master," Henry do '. Halsalle, the author of "Degenerate i Germany," writing in conjunction with • Mr C. Sheridan Jones, gives an appalling picture of the manner in" which the womanhood of Germany has shared in tho degeneracy of the race. Mr Halsalle reverses the process by tracing the degeneracy of the race to tho low position allotted to the sex in the' Fatherland, and adds that this has reacted on German women themselves in an appalling degree. The traditional view of the German woman as a good "haus-frau" is no doubt very largely correct, but she is the slave of her husband: ' "The German husband knows all about the butter and, dripping, curses at excesses in soap, milk and sauerkraut, is abusive as to fuel, tyrannical as to candles and red herrings, and is a monster on the subject of eggs and bacon. A woman is no more mistress of her ■ own house in Germany than a janitor of tho House of Lords is master thereof. Tho German woman is simplv an 'upper servant,' and it may be said that the dull drudgery of her existenco no 'upper servant' would endure.' 5

Tho extraordinary prosperity of Germanv enjoyed in the two decades previous to the war brought with it, however, deterioration, of moral character, which seems to havo affected the women as much as the Mrs Sidgwick, who is anything but a sensational writer, and speaks with a thorough knowledge of German conditions, says in her "Home Life in Germany": —it makes ono open one's eyes to go_ to Germany to-day with one's old-fashion-ed ideas" of the German Frau, and hear what sho is doing in her desire to reform society and inaugurate a new code of morals. She docs not even wait till 6ho is married to speak with authority. On tho contrary, sho says that nmrriagc is degrading, and that temporary unions aro moro to tho honour and nrofit of women." Mr Halsalle shows that tho lot of the working woman in Germany is one of unrelieved wretchedness, and misery. His disclosures as to tho immorality prevailing in Berlin, Hamburg, and other large cities, are too shocking for quotation. The picture of German education, and the harshness of its discipline, is uninviting in the extreme. Even beforo the war hatred of Britain and Franco was sedulously inculcated, with a view to instilling an aggressive patriotism. The author draws a sinister picturo of the result: — "How docs this merciless and insensate curriculum affect the future mothers of Central Europe? In nothing but the cvilest way. _ The German schoolgirl grows up into a sentimental, sensual, oft times a callous and brutal woman, totally without religion, a teacher of ''hate" to her children, very often an adulteress; but always the slave of the man with whom sho cohabits. Of all tho women of Europe, tho Gorman woman is to be credited with the least amount of the graces and virtues of her sex. Sho has no 'character,' no inspiration, no aspiration beyond her connubial duties; and in contemplating her future—and her country's future —who can anything but irretrievable gloom?" (London: T. Werner Laurie, Ltd. Christchurch: Whitcombo and Tombs. 35.) SOME NOTABLE CHEAP EDITIONS. From Messrs Hodder and Stoughton we havo received several volumes of their Is net series of fiction, which furnish a most agreeable choice of, good reading for tho coming holiday season. The admirers of "Tho Adventures of Lieut. Lawless, R.N.," will welcome "Commander Xawless, V.C.," by tho same author (Rolf Bennett). This dashing naval hero has a spell in the Flying Wing, and earns his V.C. by a spirited attack on a Zeppelin, graphically described in the first chapter. He then returns to the Navy proper, and the record of his further adventures is to tho full as thrilling and realistic as the previous volume. Those who like detective stories will find nothing better than "Tho Circular Staircase," by May Roberts Rinehart; the lovers of romance and adventure will enjoy "Maid of the Mist," by John Oxenham, and "The Bubble Moon," by Roy Bridges; or if they prefer a dash of mystery infused into the romance they can select "The Red Mouse," by William Hamilton Osborne, author of "The Catspaw."

From Messrs Nelson and Son we have received "The Lost Tribes," by that de-

lightful humorist, Geo. A. Birmingham; "Tho Rod Cockade." Stanley Wevman's brilliant historical romance; and "Tho Shadow of tho Rope." by E. W. Hornung. When we add that these aro all •well printed and nicely bound, and published at 9d not. it will bo agreed that it would bo hard to gpt better value for tho money. CHRISTMAS CARDS AND PUBLICATIONS. Even tEo fact that tho war is in its third year has made no difference to tie output of calendars, cards, Christmas and Now Year greetings, and all tho marvels of artistic stationery and printing -which the famous art publishing firm of Raphael Tuck and Sons, Ltd., usually furnish at this season of the year. But tho war has naturally influenced the naturo of tho designs, and patriotic mottoes aro to bo found supplanting those of sentiment and romance This is particularly tho case with the Royal Christmas cards. His Majesty tho King has chosen a reproduction of Borjiard Gribble's painting, "Tho Navy at Work." with tho motto from Shakespeare. "The Heavens Give Safety to Your Purposes," and his Majesty's personal message, "Your welfare will never be absent from my thoughts." The Queen's card represents "Queen Elizabeth Reviewing her Troops at Tilbury," painted by Howard Davie, and tho cheering motto. "We'll Meet tho Future full of Faith and Hope." Queen Alexandra's card represents "The Prince of Peace," painted bv H. M. Bennct. and bears the hymn, "God from on High Will Hear." The Prince of Wales sends to his friends a reproduction of Howard Davie's painting of two knights in armour, clasping hands, with two apt tions from Shakespeare:— "Tho friends thou hast, and tieir adoption, tried Grapplo them to thy soul ■with hooks of eteel'' "God prosper your affairs, God Bend us peace." Many of the cards intended for the subjects of the King breathe tho same patriotic spirit—"We'll keep the flag flying and meet the future full of faith and hope." "God and our Rightr" These are "the word* E'er first upon our lips. Bn* next shall ba Old England's Flap. Our soldiers, and our ships! The calendars issued by this firm are as artistic as ever, and tho children's publications include, besides tho everpopular Friar Tuck's Annual, "Stories of Royal Children from English History," by Doris Ashley and others. There is "also the usual assortment of children's games and puzzles. . Messrs Gordon and Gotch send us Pears's Christmas Annual, containing a story, "The Woman in tho Cloak," by H. de Vero Stacpoole, profusely illustrated, and three very fine presentation plates, suitable for framing.