BOOK NOTICES.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 4871, 24 January 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

BOOK NOTICES.

(From the "New Zealand Mail.”) THE NAZARENE.” MB ABTHUB ADAMS’S LATEST POEM. , “The Nazarene: Tho Study of a Man.” Phillip Wcllby, Henrietta street, Covent Garden, Louuon; S. and W. Mackay, Wellington. The > Dean of Ripou In a paper on “Natural Christianity” declared recently that the accounts of the Virgin birth of Christ might be understood without any violation of biological law, that tho incarnation and divinity of our Saviour stand on tho firm ground of what Ho did and thought and what Ho has been to mankind, and that tho Resurrection was not a return to the mortal conditions of this life, but a manifestation’ of the spiritual state and tho spiritual body. This week (writes our London correspondent, under date 21st November last), while public opinion is stm exorcised over those utterances of a pillar of the Church, Mr Philip Wellby publishes quite at tho psychological moment Mr Arthur Adams’s latest poem, “Tho Nazarene: A Study of a Man. Therein the author of “Maordand, greatly daring, seeks to reveal to us Christ as “Tho kindly teacher, tho sweet patient

■ man. One of our human family, Mary’s son!” “I null not,” so ho begins the prelude in which ho expounds liis conception oJ the Christ, “I will nob have this human story dimmed And shadowed over by His divinity. Ho was of us, all human, brother, friend, Ho strove, was vanquished, strove and won—a Man.” A prologue of twenty-four lines Prepared tho reader for “hasty glimpses, vaguely caught,” of . Christ, and die six sections of the poem give tho impressions severally formed of “the sweet familiar Nazarene” by Mary the Mother, John tho Baptist, Judas, Sirach at Pilate and Mary ot Magdala. “Mary knew the w*oe of motherhood; For Jesus filled to brimming all her

heart. Yet iu his simple majesty of soul, Suffused with a fierce love for all man-

kind, : Sho hold ono part—no more: and she would have The whole of love—no less.” So Mr Adams sums up Mary’s attitude. John the Baptist is pictured in his cell on the eve of his execution, pondering over the Jesus whom he had baptised, and wopdering whether the “venger and wiclder of the flail,” whose wrathful advent ho had prophesied, could bo the Jesus of whom tales had penetrated his cell “The Son of God a bridegroom bringing joy!”

I Jealousy is made tho masterspring oi Judas’s motives. Judas is depicted with Renibruudtesquo force staggering through the night from the last supper, mad with jealousy of John auci Alary AltufdiiloJto. To him comes a tempter, suggesting that Judas alone rightly comprehends the ‘’dread divinity’' of tho Saviour and that a betrayal of the Jews will strip

“This ianguor from him, make this Alan

take up His awful burden of omnipotence And hlazo forth God.”

Siracii, writhing “beneath his torment, of uncertainty” as to tho meaning of life, listened to Christ “interpreting all things in terms of love.” A new worm opened before him in which ho was a child groping for a hand. Hurrying to Gcthscmano after the soldiers, Sirach witnessing the betrayal aim seizure, experts a miracle “to prove inc Christ s divinity.” hut sees instead “but a common culprit taken and hound.” But in tho midst of tho throng which marched to Jerusalem, Christ “marched with head erect,”

I “Grown taller, nobler, toweringiy a i King.” I'ilrdo is another forcible character si rich. In a letter ho excuses himsoll to Fahrus the Philosopher, Pilate describes to his friend at court the nature of tiie proud ianatic race of Jews. He could find r.o evil in Christ, tho Hebrew demagogue, who dared “to doff his race and preach for Alan,” and sought to save him from tho Jews first by having him scourged and derided —to slink unharmed to obscurity—and then by offaring the mob Uarabbas. But’ tho Hebrew priests had Pilale deep-netted in their sophistries. The cost to bun of saving Clirist from death would have boon—- “ The liigh-pricsthood incensed, Romo stirred, Caesar annoyed, and 1 recalled — Perhaps reproved! His life or my i career!” ; Alary Alagdaleno is imagined in that silent moment after tho body had been taken from tho cross and given t o the weary and broken-hearted watchers. Thrusting Mary the Mother aside, she “drooped upon” him with a “quivering cry,” claiming tho hour as hers. “They drew her reverently away, and swathed With white tho body” ; and tho poem closes with a pathetic picture of “the Nazarono carried to nis rest.”

| Tlxis outline of tho poem is a bald ! one, but it will servo to explain the scheme of Mr Adams’s study. The quotations have been selected merely io , sum up tho pith of each section of tno poem, and give no idea of tho beauty and pictaresquoness of its finest pa,sagos, such, for example, as the description in the prelude of the burial ol “the sweet humanity that was Iht . Christ” under the splendid trappings or modern worship, or tho peaceful, "loping description of Christ’s baptism, ro- : calling a Turner sunset or tho vigorous sketches of tho prophet-martyrs railing against Jerusalem, of Judas’s face when bo realised tho consequence ; of Ids action, or the final contrast between Christ’s interment and some groat funeral of pomp. Whatever controversy tho poem may evoke, there is no doubt that Mr Adams has handled his theme with groat reverence and tenderness, restraint anrl reticence, depth of thought, and keen insight into human character. I'shall ho surprised if London literary critics do not admit that a new and genuine poet has arisen in their midst.

A marked feature of tho poem is the repetition of certain striking passages, by which Mr Adams seeks to emphasise his meaning, much as a counsel nugut reiterate his points when, addressing a somewhat ohtuso jury. I doubt whether tho poem is in any way btreng-ff-cned hy this device, which, effective occasionally, is to my mind resorted to too often. In expressing my regret that Mr Adams has not given us his conception of Simoii Peter and of tho workings of his mind. I am only expressing the keen interest which his other character sketches have awakened in m 6.

AVo have to thank the publishers lor sending ns a copy of tho hook, v.hicn is a. volume of some seventy j ages, printed on thick paper and handsomely bound. It is dedicated hy Mr Adams “To my keenest and kindest critic—my father.” Tho published price is 4s 6d.”