Connecticut western news., 1890-09-17

~
 ARAB INHABITANTS.
 fishing Company, of Philadelphia. Through the courtesy of Mir. H. s. Smith, president of the company, am enabled to tell something about the work in advance, for I have seen the proof sheets.
 The book differs from all other lives of the Christ in this, that it is simple narrative in which no theological ques- tions are propounded, no "views" ex- tOlled, and there is no straining after effect.
 It is made up of 600 pages, with over 400 engravings, copies of famous paint ings by the old masters illustrating scenes in the life of Christ and portraits of the Saviour by many famous paint CTS. In addition there is 8 splendid panorama of the cruciAxion in colors, ten feet in length, which is a great achievement of the publishers.
 As 8 literary effort the book is the most tambitious of the great preachers life. It fulfills all the requirements of literary style and finish. Each fact was carefully weighed and scrutinized be- fore put on paper. Nothing was taken for granted. It is not the work of an idle hour, but rather the life work of a strong man still in his prime. It should meet with a cordial welcome. It is not written above the head of the average reader. On the contrary, it Is a series of magnificent word pictures, so simple that child would be interested in them. The reader is taken to every spot made remarkable in the Holy Land, and the guide is like delightful elder brother sitting in the twilight re- haarsiae the old, old story, e~ernew .-7
 II have been writing that book for thirty-five years" Dr. Talmage told me recently, and he supplements this in his preface by saying:
 Tn my American home, on the Att lantic, on the Mediterranean, on cameps back, on mules back, on horseback, under chandelier, by dim candle in tent, on Lake Galilee, in convent, at Bethel, where Jacobs pillow was stuffed with dreams and the angels of the ladder landed; at the brook Elah, from which little David picked up the of five smooth stones. four more than were needed for crushing like an eggshen the skull of Goliath; in the valley of Ajalon, over which, at Joshua's command, Astronomy halted; on the plain of Esdraelon, the battle field of ages, it's long red flowers sug- gestive of the blood dashed to the bits of the horses brides; amid the shat tered masonry of Jericho, in Jerusalem, that overshadows all other cities in rem. iniscence; at Cana, where plain water became festal beverage; on Calvary, whose aslant and ruptured rocks still show the effects of the earthquake at the awful hemdrrhage of the five wounds that purchased the worlds res cue, and with my hand mittened from the storm, or wet from the Jordan, or barred to the sun, or gliding over table, this book has been writ ten.n
 Dr. Talmage is the only author of a life of the Christ who visited the Holy Land for the purpose of seeing for him. self the scenes made famous by the birth and crucifxion of the Saviour. and this record of his life is one of the most interesting portions of the book. The writer wildly portrays the visit of Mary and Joseph in Egypt:
 lover the hills and down throuph the deep gorge they urge their way. By Hebron, by Gaza, through hot sand, under blistering sun; the babe crying, the mother faint, the father exhausted. How slowly the days and weeks pass Will the weary three ever reach. the banks of the Nilea Will they ever see Cairo2 Will the desert ever e1d7 When at last they cross the lns beyond which old Herod has no right to pursue their Joy IS unbounded. Free at last! Let them dismount and rest. Now they resume their way with less anxiety. They will find a place somewhere for shelter and the earning of their bread Here they are at Cairo, Egypt. They wind through the crooksR Rstreets, which are about ten feet wide, and enter the humble house where I have been today. It is nine steps down from the level of the street. It is such a place as no leader of this book would like to dwell n. I measured the room, and found it 20 feet long and 2 1-2 feet high. There Ire three shelvings of rock, one of which I think was tho cradle of our Lord. There is no window, and all the fight must have come from lantern of 'andle. What place for the king of leaven to live inl"
 As he approaches Jerusalem the doe or can hardly contain himself. He is fitting on patient camers back writ ng these words: "Along the. route I lm amazed beyond expression at the 'oldness and jaggedness of the scenery 'f the Holy Land. I expected to see it ough, but not Alpinian and Sierra Nevadian in grandeur. The hills are mphitheatres, piled up galleries of Iray rock, with intervals of soil, brown