Among the Books

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 12, 23 March 1905, Page 20

Among the Books

' The Pulpit Orator.' We have received from the publishers (Fr. Pustet and€o., New York and Cincinnatti) a set of the tenth (revised) edition of their fine publication, ' The Pulpit Orator.' It consists of six large, well bound volumes ofc close on 500 pages each. The work, which is intended chiefly for the clergy, ccntains se\cn elaborate skeleton sermons, or homiletic, dogmatical, liturgical, symbolical, and moral sketches for every Sunday in the year, as well as elaborate skeleton discourses for the chief festivals and other occasions. Here is a specimen set of subjects, for the fourth Sunday in Lent, which will give ' some iflea of the wide range of interesting subjects with which the gifted author (Father Zollner) deals: (1) Homiletic sketch — Agar and Sara, types respectively of the Jewish and Christian Church ; (2) homiletic siketch — the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes ; (3) dogmatic sketch— the firm purpose of amendment ; (1) liturgical sketch— the Lentrn Masses- ;•■• (5) symbolical sketch— five loaves of bread for the sanctification of man ; (6) moral sketch— haw we are to go -to Communion ; (7) moral sketch— Chrisiti-an benevolence. There are times when our hard-wrought clerpv, however learned! and industrious, stand in need of a^Ki.stafoe in the work of preparation for the sacred office of preaching. And we know of no more valuable aid than is to be fojuava in the pages of this fine publication,

which has been received with such marked favor by the clergy throughout the English-speaking world. The scholarly Father Lamibing sums up the salient characteristics of ' The Pulpit Orator ' in the course of an introduction to the work : ' Ranging through the wide field of degma, moral, liturgy, and symbol, sullying s>uch a fund of instruction as is rarely met with in any work and certainly not in our language, these volumes cannot fail to be acceptable to the zealous laborer in the vineyard of God. And the manner in which the whole is arranged is no less happy. The theme, the text, the exordium, the division, the proofs from Scrip--ture, the exttacts from the Fathers, the illustrations, and the peroration containing the practical conclusion, are so disposed as to be taken in at a glance. And while all is systematic, judicious, instructive, and solid, the illustrations are in many cases so ingenious and striking, and so different from what is commonly heard by our people, that they cannot fail to arrest the attention of the audience, and engrave deeply on the memory the lessons they accompany.' We have only to add thart. each volume is furr ni-shed with a complete index, and Wiat the work may be procured direct from the publishers, or through any bookseller advertising in our columns. Australian Catholic Trut'i Society. A few weeks ago we made reference to the first batch of publications issued by the Australian Catholic Trirth Society. These consist of the following twelve neat penny pamphlets :-* ' Priests and People of Ireland : A Vindication,' by the Cardinal-Archbishop of Sydney ; ' The Rise and Progress of the Chuuß in Australia,' being the inaugural address at the second Australasian Catholic Cone,rc^s by the Archbishop of Melbourne ; ' Mary Immaculate and Democracy,' 1 by the Most Rev. John Keane, D.D., Archbishop of Dubuqi.e, U.S.A. ; ' Radium,' by Monsignor Molloy ; ' The Dn nkard,' a temperance sermon, first preached in Australia in 1833, by Airchbishop Ullathorne ; ' The Lamp of the Sanctuary,' a story, by Cardinal Wiseman ; ' The Catholic Church and Temperance,' by the Very Re- Father F. C. Hays ; ' God's Masterpiece Marred by Drin'c,' by W. L. Bowditch, M.A. ; ' Modern Astronomy,' by Arthur Wadsworth ; ' Gordon, the Australian Poet,' by Ifac Rev,. Father J. J. Malome ; ' Kendall, the Australian Poet,' by the Rev. Father J. J. Malone ; 'Christinas Ciib, arl a Sprig of Holly,' a story. The reader may see at a glance, by leferring to the list, iiow wide a ranse of interests is provided for in the inaugural set of publications of the A.C.T.S., and how F 31y it is, thus far, living un to its ideal. It is conducting ' a crusade for God against irreligion, immorality, and ignorance ' ; it refutes ' current popular errors about the Faith of the Church, and will defend leligion from the attacks of its foes.' But it does more than this. Its object is al*o 'to provide and circulate (more especially anuni; the poor) bright, healthy, cheap literature, suitable for Christian homes. The publications will embrace subjects of current intc/rest in the varied fields of truth, and will include .short stoiies of a wholesome and elevating character.' Its prospectus adds : ' Nothing of real human interest in the wide field of truth is beyond its scope, whether in religion, science, history, philosophy, or fiction.' All of these aried fields of usefi 1 work are touched— and adorned, too — in the first twelve pamphlets of the A.C.T.S. The science papers of the Society of which, we ho"~e, there will be a long series— are, we believe, destined to play an important part in combating the infidel notions that are spread abroad through the publications of the Rationalist Press Agemcv and the unscientific ' scientific ' romances of siuch writers as Clodd and Grant Allan. Apart from thp, we notice, too, witn much pleasure that even the scientific and literary pamnhle.ts and the fiction are scientific and literary pamphlets and the fiction are made the vehicle of lclpsons of faith and piety which car.not In the fine paper on ' Modern Astronomy, ' especially, the lessons of God'.s infinite wisdom and power are read in language that rises to the noint of eloouenee. Tn Father Malone's "paper on Kendall the moral lesion is suggested rather than directly drawn ; in the same gifted writer's ' Gordon ' it, is set forth in direct and l ieturesque and forceful phrase. The co - c- is adorned with an effective design containing the title of tke Society surmounted by a cross and surrourded with sprays of wattle-blossom, Australia's typical and fragrant flower.