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To Jerusalem Through the Lands of Islam

Among Jews, Christians and Moslems

By Madame Hyacinthe Loyson
Preface by Prince de Polignac

Pages viii, 375, cloth, gilt top, 8vo., profusely illustrated, $2.50

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HIS remarkable book, the work of one of the most remarkable women of our time, the joint work rather of a remarkable woman and a remarkable man,for Père Hyacinthe is joint-author of it from cover to cover though he is not the writer of it, -this remarkable book is beyond the skill of the reviewer. It would be easy to blame it. Men in a hurry for copy, or in a hate at Pere Hyacinthe, will fill their columns with quite plausible matter for blame, and salt it well with superiority. But when the most is said this is what it will come to, that Madame Hyacinthe Loyson remembers the words, "He that is not against us is on our part," and remembers that they are the words of her dear Lord. He who should say that she exalts the Koran above the Bible, that she sees only the good in Islam, only the evil in Christendom, gives himself into her hands. For she writes down what her own eyes have seen; and though she has many examples of Christian prejudice and many of Muslim charity to record, she never for one moment finds Muhammad standing in her thoughts beside Christ. All that it comes to in the end is this, that Christians are rarely true to Christ, Muslims are often much better than Muhammad.-Expository Times, London.

This is one of the handsomest books of oriental travel which we know. The book pays special attention to the religious conditions of the Copts, Jews and Moslems of the East. It presents a tremendous indictment of the liquor traffic in Malta and elsewhere. The white man's vices are the greatest obstruction to the mission work in the non-Christian world. - Methodist Magazine and Review. She has woven in much of general archæological and anthropological information. Records of the Past. Mme. Loyson, despite her excessive iteration of rather explosive comments, is a woman who cannot help being interesting, so her descriptions of places and account of personal experiences in Egypt and Jerusalem and elsewhere are immensely interesting, and make the reader seem to see it all.-Chicago Evening Post.

Her notes of social visits give interesting pictures of Arab manners. The Arabs she pronounces "the best behaved and most forbearing people in the world," and not unlike "the best type of our New Englanders." She evidently moved in the best society, but even among the common people she noted points in which Christians might learn of Mohammedans. Polygamy, however, is noted as the black spot on the brow of Islam. Evidently the tour of the Loysons accomplished good. It were well if all missionaries were animated by their spirit. The volume is handsomely printed and illustrated. -The Outlook.

The Open Court Pub. Co., 1322 Wabash Ave., Chicago

London: Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd.

evil is, but give me, O God, that sublime belief, that seeing evil I yet have faith."

My Little Book of Prayer

BY MURIEL STRODE

If you want to know the greatness of a soul and the true mastery of life, apply to The Open Court Publishing Company for a slip of a book by Muriel Strode entitled simply "My Little Book of Prayer." The modern progress of sovereign mind and inner divinity from the narrow cell of the ascetic to the open heaven of man, made in God's own image, is triumphantly shown in it, yet a self-abnegation and sacrifice beyond anything that a St. Francis or a Thomas a Kempis ever dreamed of glorifies the path. To attempt to tell what a treasure-trove for the struggling soul is in this little volume would be impossible without giving it complete, for every paragraph marks a milestone on the higher way. That the best of all modern thought and religion is garnered in it, its very creed proclaims:

Not one holy day but seven;

Worshiping, not at the call of a bell, but at the call of my soul;
Singing, not at the baton's sway, but to the rhythm in my heart;

Loving because I must;
Doing for the joy of it.

Some one who has "entered in" sends back to us this inspiring prayer book, and to seize its spirit and walk in the light of it would still the moan and bitterness of human lives, as the bay wreath ends the toilsome struggle in the hero's path. Measure the height attained in this one reflection for the weary army of the unsuccessful: "He is to rejoice with exceeding great joy who plucks the fruit of his planting, but his the divine anointing who watched and waited, and toiled, and prayed, and failed and can yet be glad." Or this, in exchange for the piping cries of the unfortunate: "I do not bemoan misfortune. To me there is no misfortune. I welcome whatever comes; I go out gladly to meet it." Cover all misfortune, too, with this master prayer: O God, whatever befall, spare me that supreme calamity-let no afterbitterness settle down with me. Misfortune is not mine until that hour." Here, too, is the triumph of the unconquerable mind: "The earth shall yet surrender to him and the fates shall do his will who marches on, though the promised land proved to be but a mirage and the day of deliverance was canceled. The gods shall yet anoint him and the morning stars shall sing." And this the true prayer for the battlefield: "I never doubt my strength to bear whatever fate may bring, but, oh! that I may not go down before that which I bring myself."

Nuggets of pure gold like these abound in this mine of the mind which the victorious author has opened for us. To seek it out swiftly and resolve its great wealth for himself should be the glad purpose of the elect. And who are not the elect in the light of its large teaching? To claim them in spite of themselves is its crowning lesson. "It is but common to believe in him who believes in himself, but, oh! if you would do aught uncommon, believe in him who does not believe in himself-restore the faith to him."-St Louis GlobeDemocrat, March 5.

Printed on Strathmore Japan Paper, Gilt Top, Cloth, $1. Alexis Paper, Bds. 50c Postpaid The Open Court Publishing Co., 1322 Wabash Ave., Chicago

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