The Chinese Recorder und Missionary Jenna', February, Shanghai, American Presbyterian Mission Press.
The February Recorder "opens with readable paper bearing the rather bald title Tllustrations. " In these days of the deluge of pictorial magazines the word "Illustrations" makes one expect pictures and curiously enough the Recorder " lis for a frontispiece a view of Nagasaki har-hour. The picture, good us it is, does not seem to illustrate anything beyond the evident desire of the publishers to be up-to-date; and we soon learn that the illustratious Mr. Darroch writes of are preachers illustrations of the gospel drawn from Chinese sources. A goof deal has rightly been said and written regarding the abuse of texts and illustrations. We once heard of preacher, in an address to journalists, using the text: "They could not come nigh unto him for the press." Many another text and illustration has obviously been used either as bait or pretext, and we are glad to sce that. Mr. Darroch takes a higher view of the value of illustrations in a sermon than to regard them merely as a means of tickling the ars of the hearers, and bribing them as it were to give attention to a discourse which otherwise they would tind ton tedious to endure.
In the instalment in the "Recorder" before us Mr. Darroch draws attention to illustrations drawn from the construction of Chinese characters or ideographs, and gives illustrations drawn from classical sayings from the Four Books, the sayings of Confucius and Mencius. We note two references to fortune-tellers. Mr. Darroch seems to have a genuine respect for some of them. His experience dently has been that fortune tellers counsel patience, forbearance, and moderation, Miss Laura White's History of Church Music" contains much valuable information pleasingly conveyed. She succeeds in striking a high key note in her closing paragraph. Dr. Kate C. Woodhull opens {debatable subject in her short paper on "Individual Communion Cups." Space allows us only room, however, to draw attention to two contributions in the Educational Department, Dr. Martin's remarks on the Worship of Confucius and Miss C. P. Hughes' observations on some striking points in Japanese Education,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.