CURRENT LITERATURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17348, 20 December 1919, Page 12 (Supplement)

CURRENT LITERATURE.

NOTES ON NEW books' Br came.' , :?,■'■;■ Christmas being "one of the festivities of the Church, it may be accepled as a fitting time to ponder a little over one of the reconstruction problems of the day. For, side by side with every other paramount question, that of the religious life of the nation holds a higher place than many people may care to acknowledge. National religion has come to the parting of. the ways has been tried severely in the war years; it stands awaiting the verdict of the people. Many religionists BaVe""Teluctantly to acknowledge that the evidence is against our once-triumphant forms of religion. Book after book has been written by army chaplains, by divines of undoubted standing, and in one and all the old-time methods of the Church, of every church, stand condemned. To retain its hold on the peopleand' it is inconceivable that our ration should not hod to religion—every man and woman who undertakes church work has from now on to consider each step taken, "for the world is watching for false steps and hoping not to find them. THE ARMY AND RELIGION. " The Army and Religion"—(Macmillan, London). —This book purports to be an inquiry and its bearing upon the religions life of the nation. A questionnaire was prepared and issued to a number of individuals and groups of the most various kinds. Nearly three hundred memoranda were thus obtained. Generals, privates, chaplains, doctors, nurses, hut leaders and workers, base committees in England and Prance, collected and gave evidence. The report then was edited by Dr. Cairns, an analysis was made by Mrs. Bailey, and the whole submitted to a conference at Hatfield. The Bishop of Winchester writes the preface to this immenselyimportant work. The three main topics which formed the questions were: —

1. What the men are thinking about religion, morality, and society. 2. The changes made by the war. 3. The relation of the men to tha churches.

The latter is, perhaps, the most direct, for it includes such questions as'the following —" What percentage would you say are vitally related to any of the Christian communities? What are the hindrances keening them out of the churches? What do they really think of the churches, their aims, their activities, and what they count for the national life? Do they look at all to the Church for help in facing thn social and national problems of the future? What kind of help do the men need and look for from the Church, and what changes in the churches' methods would meeting those wants involve? Do intellectual hindrances count for much in pro"ducing indifference to the churches?.

-,?;Veay" candid are some of the replies wry: searching th» criticism. One writer points out that the; army was not a class apart: it was' the nation merely transplanted to new environment. "The religion of 90 per cent, of the men at the front," wrote one Scottish officer, " is not distinctively Christian, but a religion of patriotism and of valour, tanged with chivalry, and, at the best, nierely coloured with sentiment and emotion borrowed from Christianity." From a woman hut worker at a base. in France comes this: - " Christ is a far-off historical character, the great ideal of clean living, the hackground to dur child prayers, the beautiful beneficent figure in art productions, but He has nothing to do with the daily round." From an ex-miinister and ofiicer with a West Country regiment: "Their ideas are vague, few, and of little import. They believe that He lived, and was the essence of all that is kind, good, and just, but a trifle fioft. The Virgin birth they think a kind of made-up story. The' death of Christ means as little to them as the death of Socrates."

'i-l Though there is this side, there is also the. other. A sergeant of the R.A.M.C writes of "a walking case." He could only just walk very slowly. The conversation turned! upon religion. He said to me that he believed in Christ, hence had no fear. We were going through a barrage ■ , area, and as he spoke a shell fell within ' twenty feet of us. I know for a fact that i he felt neither fear nor panic, and the conversation was not interrupted except J for his putting np his coat collar against the clods of earth that fell upon us. We spent some time getting through the barrage, and he spoke the whole time in a .quiet, unperturbed voice. Christ was to him a Reality."

The blame of the indifference to coneti-' tuted religion is sifted very thoroughly. , An instructive and very frank chapter is I given on the lack of proper education in sex .matters. Social conditions, sweating I wages of girls all under payment which J renders marriage difficult, the artificial | social convention which leads to postpone- ■. ment of marriage on account of reluctance ' to face wholesome simple hardships, the failure of Church and State alike to placA a positive and reasonable ideal of the worth of chastity, these are among the indictments accepted by the editors of the volume, who conclude vrith an earnest call to all to get a new vision of God and of the spirit of Christly lova. pioTjoir. " The Rising of the Tide"—by Ida Tarbell (Macmillan, London). The acceptance of Ida Tarbell as a reformer is worldwide. Her pre-war efforts for right commercial living in the States won her instant and general recognition as a woman leader of great movements. This, her first novel, is photographic of the general development of American public opinion with regard to the war. The town, Sabinsport, is.a typical States town. Its one newspaper fulminates against the two capitalists. War comes, and the gradual evolution commences. Ralph Gardner, editor of th SabinspoTt Argus, sets his face against the admission of America's interest in the war. He becomes for awhile the tool of ,a pro-German, but the town turns its mills into munition factories. Two girls, the daughters of the capitalists. Mulligan and Cawder, return from Europe, aflame with the wrongs of Belgium and Servia. Ralph is in opposition to th» whole spirit of the town until he discover* the German origin of some of the " peace" talk. Then he publicly recants and enlists. As the reader will no doubt expect, a love affair with one of the " capitalist" daughters complicates the situation. As a novel, the story needs bracing; as a recapitulation of the development of the war spirit, it is excellent.

"Shavings"— Joseph Lincoln (Appletons, New York). —Lincoln's stories ar» set to the key of simplicity. This of " Shavings" is a happy venture, sure of popularity. Jed Winsfow is a manuiacturer of toy windmills; he lives alone; is loved by those who know him and ridiculed by the superficial. To an adjoining cottage owned by him came a young widow and her little girl. The child and Jed are great friends. The dialogue circles about the war and its incidentals, and, in particular, about the family affairs of Mrs. Ruth Armstrong, as touching upon the life of the lonely bachelor.

The Betrayers"— Hamilton Drummond (Stanley Paul, London).—Drummond chooses »edia;val Prance and Italy for his seme of action, and introduces many historical personages. His hero is Mark Bisson, known to readers of ajormer novel, "The Half-Priest." Battle and intrigue, escape and imprisonment, fill the 'pages, but the clash of arms is not too loud for the admittance of a love plot.

" Wildersome"—by HaMiwell Sutcltffe (Ward, Lock, Melbourne).—The squire loves the farmer's daughter, and the fanner does not approve. But love triumphs even over the murder scare that I*4s {r£. central incident of this "up-