Welsh Journals

prayer over particular problems of social duty. Such companies would need to be united on the most intimate religious basis. We heartily commend this book to the notice of the clergy and the ministers of all denominations as a text-book for use in Bible Classes and Young People*. Guilds. Much has been written on this subject within recent years, but we venture to think that no book more admirable for its purpose has yet appeared in English. Its broad outlook, its discriminating analysis of the modem situa- tion, its clear, effective style, and above all the fine spirit that per- vades it from beginning to end, are qualities which are far too rare in books of its kind. Constructive Natural Theology." By Newman Smyth, D.D. (James Clark & Co., 3s. 6d.. net.) Anything from the pen of Dr. Newman Smyth is sure of a warm welcome from all serious students of theology. And this, his latest book, which consists of four lectures delivered to the students of Yale Divinity School is no exception. Believing strongly as he does that the scientific revelations of the processes of nature and of our own lives should be religiously accepted and also that the assured theories of modem science should be recognised in our theological thinking, the author gives us in these pages a brief survey of the abundant scientific materials waiting to be utilised in religious thought. Readers of his previous works, especially Through Science to Faith know how singularly well-equipped Dr. Smyth is for such a task. In the interests of this new construction of natural theology. Lecture I. gives us in brief outline some indications, drawn from the field of physics and biology, of the wealth of material that waits to be worked over in our religious thinking and it closes with a welcome and timely plea for clear and consecutive thinking as against a common pulpit infirmity, viz. "the liability, in thinking, of a sudden gaseous expansion of truth at a high tem- perature of feeling." After a discussion (Lecture II.) of the method and range of natural theology, the author passes on to the domain of psychology, and faces the ultimate fact of personality and its full realisation in the person of Christ. And although at this stage natural theology passes into revealed, the point of view is still the same, since nature itself leads to the perfect man as the end and final meaning of evolution Personality, ours and His. is to be finally interpreted in the light of the Christ of nature. the Christ of history and the Christ of experience. Either part of the interpretation is incomplete without the others. As the fundamental question for natural science concerns energetics, so, the author argues, the modem problem of the person of Christ is primarily one of dynamics-the dynamics of his mighty personality Our highest task therefore is to discover the meaning of personal life in this, its highest realisation, viz. in the self-consciousness of Christ. Dr. Smyth then goes on to show how, in two signifi- cant aspects of life. Christ is to-day as always, the spiritual dynamic of the world. These aspects are :— (1 ) the power of his spiritual energy in creating the Christian consciousness of life and (2) the potential energy in him to live his Godlike life among men. This third section of the book is richly suggestive, and both the apologist and the preacher will find here that the author is at his best. The volume closes with a plea for a more scientific type of spiritual mindedness-as distinguished from mystical experience and also from transcendental intuition. It is possible for the student of science to be at the same time a religious believer with- out becoming a kind of double personality Man is born both to live as a sceptical inquirer and as a spiritual believer he impairs his inheritance, he trifles with the rich complexity of his nature if he fails to recognise and make increase of himself through both. To be true alike to the natural and the spiritual is to keep to the end our personal integrity. This scientific spirituality was never more needed than to-day to check, on the one side. a perilous tendency to over. belief, and, on the other, a precipitous fall into unbelief. The value of this little book is out of all proportion to its mm. It is not in any way controversial. but positive and constructive from first to last. It cannot fail to serve as a healthy corrective to the baneful influence of our over-love of specialisation; and we could wish that this book found its way into the hands of our science and divinity teachers and students. The forthcoming larger work, to which this is a brief introduction will be eagerly awaited, as also will the volume now in preparation by the same author on the meaning of personality. "Awdl Dinistr Jerusalem." (Eben Vardd.) Edited by J Lias Davies. sometime Assistant Master at the Llangollen County School. and T. Carno Jones, Llangollen do.— Wrexham. Hughes & Son, 1912. Llyfr Darllen ac Ysgrifennu, by John Uoyd. MA, The County School, Barmouth.-Hughes & Son. 1913. "Enoc Huws. (Daniel Owen) by T. Howells. L.T.S.C.,& J. Milwyn Howells. Pentre, Rhondda.-Hugbes & Son. 1913. Teachers of Welsh in primary and secondary schools have consistently lamented the scarcity of text books for class use. The last three or four years have, however, witnessed a keen activity on the part of editors of books like the first and second above, both written for use in secondary schools. The first has a Foreword by Alavon; a serviceable expositoin of the com- plexities of the strict metres by one of the editors, and a complete glossary refreshingly abundant in illustrative couplets from the Welsh classics. The preface to the second -a book arranged, we suspect, on the lines of Kenny's text-books of English com- position-is very interesting reading. It advocates a departure from the old order of Introduction. Text, Notes and Vocabulary. Let the child hunt up his word in his Dictionary, it says picking and choosing it out of six or seven is good for him. The theory is sound enough, for the secondary school, with teachers who have specialised more or less in their own subjects, has not to cope with the inadequacies of a correspondence college. Still more significant is the Editor's depreciation of Translation as a means to mastery of expression. Who has not known pupils who could translate creditably from Welsh into English and who could not write one sentence of correct Welsh? If we must have translations let them be wholly, not mainly, from English, Latin or French into Welsh. Mr. Lloyd adds, In districts where Welsh is the language of the hearth let the child write naturally the language he speaks." This is true of Merioneth but not of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire (let alone South Wales) where the Welsh of children and adults is painfully slipshod. It is true that if educated Welshmen spoke good Welsh there would be much less English bandied between Welshmen of the North and South. Llyfr Darilen ac Ysgrifenrw took the first prize at the Wrexham National Eisteddfod We believe it will be the best text-book of Welsh composition for a good many years. The models have been chosen with taste and the exercises graduated with considerable insight. We read with great delight a play, adapted from Daniel Owen's novel Enoc Hum that will assuredly be much sought after by Dramatic Societies in the near future. It has many points to recommend it. The stage-directions will be much appreciated by stage-managers in out-of-the-way hamlets. Many ot them will also benefit, doubtless, by an offer of the loan of scenery for a reasonable fee on application to the Secretary of the Rhondda Dramatic Society, Treorchy. It is a play in four acts, and is comfortingly free from the outrageous breaches of dramatic convention which have betrayed the amateur hand in similar productions in the past. We do not see why the authors should have rendered Talk of the Devil," etc by Soniwch am etc." This sort of thing is not even Puritanism. The binding and illustrations are well worthy of the enter- prising Wrexham firm.