Occasional and Immemorial Days. By A. K. H. Boyd, D.D
(Longmans, Green, and Co.)—Although this volume comes as a. Bert of sequel to the three volumes upon St. Andrews, which gave a second lease of reputation to the author of "Recreations of a Country Parson," it contains no gossip, edifying or entertain.. ling. It consists entirely of sermons and addresses preached mainly on special occasions by the now veteran minister of St. Andrews on such subjects as "Known in Adversities," " Satis- fied," "Lessons of Autumn," " Faith and Light," and "Church Life in Scotland,—Retrospect and Prospect." Most of these are quite in the style with which the readers of Dr. Boyd's more didactic essays are now familiar, and their note is not so much pure spirituality as a sort of spiritual shrewdness. Occasionally— though not, when all things are considered, unduly often—the author's innocuous egotism makes a somewhat irritating appear- ance, as when he says, "Poor Cromwell—ay, poor man, pity him— and he went at- fifty-nine." Dr. Boyd takes, on the whole, a very hopeful view of the Church, to which he is undoubtedly very warmly attached. This is given in the address he delivered when Moderator of his Church's General Assembly, and which he has here republished under the title of "Retrospect and Prospect." Thus one is glad to read such statements as :—" Tried by literary and critical tests, one may say that the present preaching of the Church has attained a very high level of helpfulness and excellence. Likewise of cultivated intelligence, I do not think that any educated preacher, addressing an educated congregation, and making use of their sympathy, would now make an end of Sir Walter by calling him contemptuously 'a writer of idle tales,' and of Burns, 'a writer of as idle songs." "A. K. H. B.'s " latest book may not be very profound ; bat it is interesting and characteristic, and contains a very fair amount of the gold-leaf of religious and ethical wisdom.
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