Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-15

get a little bright, and gllmmer OF rose
color makes its appearance on ahead, be-
hold, it is only the sunset, and the book
| comes to an end.
Tho Drift of the Story.
PEOPLE who read novels for amusement
will not find the "History of David Grieve"
amusing.
Nevertheless, here is notable novel. 1t
| will not serve very well to drive dull care
away, but it will invite the reader to good
and profitable thinking. Mrs. Ward has
| written it with religious earnestness. 1t
needs to be read in the same spirit. 1t is the
| story Of, the development of two human
beings, brother and sister, living in the same
environment, yet different from the begin
ming and following the paths which the
diverse heritage of their birth seems to have
set for them. 1t is study in heredity,
which is almost fatalistic in it's teaching
On the other hand, in that which makes
up the larger and more important part of
the story, in the career of David, there is a
strong encouragement. Here is boy, who,
in the face of q hostile environment, pushes
his way up and wins success. That the boy
has in him some of the waywarl spirit of his
mother is shown in the singular episode of
his life in Paris But he conquers and keeps
on, translating hindrances into helps and
sets an example full of encouragement.
A Promise Not Fuf filled.
Or course, after Robert Elsmere, one
looks with most in terest after the religious
treatment of the story. Some advance
notices of the book mad promised that the
hero would show the practical working of
Elsmere's doctrines in the uplifting of the
poor. But the promise is not fulfilled. There
is little likeness between David Grieve and
An vat fhar.a n alot
and most significant one. Here to many
readers, is the most interesting part of the
book.
David gets far enough away from orthodox
Christianity, but he grows gradually to think
better of it. Mrs. Ward has not changed her
opinions but the two books present two
quite different cases. El>mere is a clergy
man who gradually comes to lose his former
faith; Grieve is a self-educated working man
who out OF secularism comes into a better
understanding of Christianity. To most peo-
pie, accordingly, the new book is pleasanter
than the old.
Naturally, the clergyman pays great deal
of attention to certain outside matters OF
religion, such as the question of the inspira-
tion and authorship of Holy Scripture and
the metaphysica statement of certain doc
trines. and we are given long disquisitions
upon these points in "Robert Elsmere."
But David Grieve." beginning at that end.
works toward the truer side of Christianity
which has really nothing to do with ques-
tions such as these.
What Must BE Learned in These Days
Thus, saws David, ''the legend of
Bethlehem and the my ology of the Trinity
are no longer matters of particular interest
or debate with me. After period of three
fourths assent. followed by one lasting over
years of critical analysis and controversial
reading, have passed of late into a concep-
tion of Christianity far more positive, fruit
full and human than have yet had" And
he concludes that what the individual has
to learn in these days is 'to dissent no
longer with the heat of narrow antipathy,
but with the quiet of a large sympathy"
David has an increasingly high opinion of
the value and of the sincerity of the Chris
tan ministry. He goes not unfrequently to
service, and that at n rftualistic church. 1t
is true that he objects to have his little son.
Sandy, instructed out of catechism, "in
which the little child, asked about the NUN.
Der and names of the archanGels, gave de-
tailed answer" 1t is true that he finds him.
self i'll disagreement with many of the
things which he hears in the sermons at st. |
Damian's. Yet here we can many of us SYM
pathize with him.
s'He knew the perls of his own nature and |
there was in him stern sense of the diff |
Guilty of living Alright and the awfulness of |
the claim made by God and man on the |
strength OF the individual. It seemed to |
him that he had been taught of God through |
natural. affection, through repentance,
through sorrow, through the constant ener-
gies of the intellect. Never had the divine
voice been clearer TO him, or the divine |
Fatherhood more real. Freely he had re-
ceived-but only That he might freely give.
On this Christmas night he renewed every
past VOW of this sort, and in so doing rose
once more to that state and temper which is
mans pledge and earnest of immortality
since already, here and now. is the eternal
life begun
Thus the book ends like the last sentences
of spiritual sermon.