CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 6, 8 February 1900, Page 28

CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY.

Wecordially commend to the notice of Catholic schools, convents and colleges the latest addition to the St. Edmund's College Series of Scripture Handbooks. This is the Gospel of St. John, with introduction and notes by Dr. Mclntyre, Professor of Scripture at St. Mary's College, Oscott. Dr. Mclntyre "h introduction is a scholarly one, and his copious annotations on the saend text arc marked by acoinbinud fulness and lucidity that come as a surprise on any person who opens thiß unpretentious volume for the first time. The commentator knews well the value of words. He does not waste them, and his crisp, brief sentences are throughout crammed full of fact and suggestive thought. His chief authorities are Knabenbauer, Meyir, Kaulen, Comely, Battiffol. Salmon, and Davidson. Dr. Mclntyre has done his work with careful thoroughness within the limits of hia space. He has placed the youth in our schools and colleges, and adults as well, under a great obligation. The Holy Father has blessed and indulgenced the reading cf the Scripture by the laity. We hope that they will take advantage of such inducement to the study of the Good Book. Dr. Mclntyre has done much to make part of the task easy, and we trust that the admirable Series of Scripture Manuals to which he has contributed may speedily set aside those so-called ' annotated ' Bibles hitherto published, which were rather a deterrent than an inducement to the reading: of the Sacred Text.

2he Condition of English Cat hoi ten under Charlt* II is another important volume recently issued by the Catholic Truth Society. It is translated and amplified from the original French of the Comteeso It. de Courson, which receivtd the singular distinction of being the first book written in French by an Englishwoman that has been 'crowned' by the Academic Fran«jauc. Lingard is generally followed in thib work, and his testimony i-. corroborated in many instances by quotations from the works of Hume, Gieen, Gardiner, Macaulay, Strickland, and other non-Catholic writers of eminence. The book presents in the compass of seme 2.10 pages demy Bvo the facts of a stirring period of English history for the reasonably full treatment of which the reader would otherwise have to refer to many-volumcd and less accessible works. The treatment of the alleged ' Popish I'lot,' of the persecutions of the priesthood and the laity, and of the unhappy fate of the persecutors, is all well and temperately told. The value of the book is enhanced by a good index. The Catholic Truth Society has also brought out a very compact and useful JiirtVt-eyr View of Church Iliatonj. It ia written, as the author tells us, in order to induce the reader ' to look on the whole story as on a picture of the special dealing of God with His Bride, the Holy Catholic Church. The idea is sustained throughout and the little book wiJl be found useful both for the Catholic primary school and the general reader who has no leisure or no inclination to peruse more bulky manuals of Church hißtory. In the Bame style and binding the Society has issued two opuseula of Fra Girolamo Savonarola. Those who know him only as a dema-

gogue or reformer will welcome the translation of his little ascetical works on the Lord's Prayer and the Angelical Salutation. The great Dominican treats the Lord's Prayer as a subject for (1) reading, (2) meditation, (3) prayer, and (4) contemplation. The little book possesses a practical value to the devout as well as a curious interest for the historian.