Can it be that it could not buy up paper mills, and break up great presses and buy off employes if it wished? Or is it true that it is powerless sometimes? Try to think it out. It is only one of the great world problems. Solve it for us and you shall have

another to puzzle over.

Wars and rumors of war. Peace and whispers of peace. The rumors of war have broken into the loudest thunders of this generation. The whispers of peace have been hushed. We thrill at the plucky spirit of little Japan. We wonder at the certainty, the preparation, the freedom from blunder of the youngest son of the civilized world. We pity the wounded bear and yet we cannot sincerely sympathize with the half-civilized Cossack. So we pour out our sympathy in rejoicing over the birth of the heir to the throne of the Czars. May he live to see the peace of which his father has dreamed; to enjoy the peace which the world has waited for since the angels' song in far Judea. We can wish him nothing that would mean more to him or to the world.

Westminster College is ready for the work of the new year with a new president. Rev. David R. Kerr, D. D., for so long at the head of Bellevue College, Nebraska, will not be long in making his influence felt in Presbyterian and educational circles in Missouri.

Another neighboring college to rejoice in a new president is Midland College, Atchison, Kansas. Rev. M. F. Troxell, D. D. leaves a successful pastorate in St. Joseph to accept this position in the college of his denomination which draws from all this region. The prospects for a successful year there are bright.

Rev. Samuel B. McCormick, D. D., LL. D. is a new president only in a change from college to university. We have known him while at the head of Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Now he is chancellor of the Western University of Pennsylvania, which is situated in Allegheny and Pittsburgh.

Another change in presidents worth noting is at the Western College, Oxford, Ohio. Miss Lillian Wyckoff Johnson, Ph. D. becomes the president. The history of the seminary under Miss Peabody was like that of Mt. Holyoke and Miss Mary Lyon in the East. Since becoming a college progress has been steady and the work excellent. The prospects are for continued development along wise lines, keeping clear the ideals for the best education of our young women.

At the close of the Civil War, Lane Theological Seminary took a new lease of life by calling to her faculty several successful pastors who were well known in the Presbyterian church, of whom Rev. Henry A. Nelson, D. D. afterwards gained the love of the church as editor of The Church at Home and Abroad, while Rev. E. D. Morris, D. D., LL. D. remains still on the faculty in an emeritus capacity. Again Lane has met a crisis in the same way. The faculty has been remade almost entirely. The new professors have been drawn from successful pastorates and under the leadership of President William McKibben, D. D. we expect Lane Seminary to regain its former prestige and power.

Parsons College, Fairfield, Iowa, also boasts of a new presdent who is likely to be so identified with the future of the institution that one or the other must lose its identity in the other. This is no prophecy of the new president's career though we wish him all success but the relationship of President Willis E. Parsons, D. D. to Parsons College will of necessity be close in name and we are sure the glory of that fair name will be very close to his heart.

President Broadhead of Missouri College has approved himself in his work in the Cumberland Presbyterian college. reputation is made and his opportunity has come. He has left Missouri for Louisiana where he becomes president of Tulane University at New Orleans. As president of the leading university of the South we wish him all success.

One of the noteworthy happenings of the last college year was President Hadley's baccalaureate address at Yale. His pointed words to the graduating class should be remembered not only at Yale. "The really fundamental thing in a man's life in his choice of a religion." A contrast followed between the religion of mammon and the religion of God. In these days when it seems some times that the intricacy of educational requirements and ideals leaves little room for saving faith such a message as this from the president of the great university is refreshing.

Another welcome utterance at commencement time was President Wilson's outlining of the change of policy in Princeton University in the matter of electives. In college work the freedom of choice has gone too far. Small colleges have been handicapped by the richness of the offerings of the university colleges. The fact that the richness of that diet results in indigestion of the mind is never clear to youth. This return to American college ideals is welcome. The many colleges in East and West which have refused to swing away from the solid courses are pleased with this tribute to their wisdom.

OUT FROM THE BONDAGE OF EGYPT.*

This romance of the days when the Lord redeemed the Children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt is fully worthy of the wide welcome it has received. Our interest is not held by mere force to the story of Kenkenes and Rachael. In spite of the strange setting and the uncouth names of leading characters there is a natural movement to it all which impresses us as we read with a sense of reality. As a novel, the writing and conception are above the average, and as a study of the times and of the never changing but always varying human heart, the treatment throughout is satisfactory. Seldom is the reading tedious, though there are a few pages which could have been omitted. From a Scriptural point of view some of the interpretations are new but none are necessarily untrue. The result is that we have a very consistent and appealing picture of the times preceding the excdus. Very wisely the details of the plagues are avoided without lessening the dread which they scattered through the land. George Ebers himself has not made Egypt of long ago more real.

THE PRESBYTERIAN PULPIT.†

We are loath to review the final volume of this series. Ten volumes sounds well, but the set is surely incomplete. We feel that this is one of the most important publications of the Presbyterian Board. This reflection of Presbyterian pulpit thought should have wide effect. Our one criticism is that it fails to be representative. It is a regret that it was impossible to carry out the original plans in their amplitude. Two of the theological seminaries speak through Dr. Warfield and Dr. Herrick Johnson. With Dr. Beecher and Dr. Hoyt at Auburn to speak only of the East Princeton and McCormick should not stand alone. Dr. Stryker is the only college president, while we could mention Dr. Moffatt at least as in the first rank. And we of the West are disappointed. Nothing beyond Chicago. We could at least ask for Dr. Coyle to represent Denver, and the great beyond could find one or two. We repeat that we are sorry The Presbyterian Pulpit was forced into such narrow limits. Every volume is of value, but some could well have been spared to give room to certain others worthier to be included.

*THE YOKE-By Elizabeth Miller. 619 pages. $1.50. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company.

+SEEING DARKLY-By J. Sparhawk Jones. 188 pages. 75 cents net Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication.

THE WAY WITH THE CHILD.‡

In these latter days we are flooded with many books on child study and training. Some of them are the veriest trash. A few are doing more harm than good. We are referring to those written by people of reputation. Among the many, one of recent publication, is as sane and sweet as could be asked. It is a beautiful title, The Mother-Artist, and the author proves herself both a mother and an artist. Sometimes old-fashioned ways were rough, and even cruel, when parents wore out the rod upon the child. Parents have always differed, and children also. But there were old-fashioned mothers and fathers who were all that could be asked, and the same old-fashioned mothers and fathers of today are better than the new-fangled mothers and fathers. Not only mothers and fathers, but all who have within them the heart which would make it possible for them to be real fathers and mothers should read this book.

THE INNER CIRCLE SERIES.°

Dr. Jenkins is well known to many readers of this magazine through his pastorate in Kansas City before he went to The Interior. Both of these booklets are helpful, the one especially to the children and the other to the older ones, the first to be read aloud and the other to be read slowly and thought over. The series is growing to a size that makes it of value aside from the individual merits of separate volumes. The authors are all representative leaders in various lines of religious work, and write earnestly and pleasantly.

A CHILD OF THE WORLD.*

Seldom do we find a new character of as marked originality as this boy. Perhaps his very boyishness is largely the basis of his charm. Also his unique natural genius and mixture of ordinary and peculiar qualities add attractiveness. The story is loosely woven together but does not lack finish on that account. The wierd account of the father's finding his boy has been unequaled for freshness in many a day. The development of the waif into the inventive boyish character is better than much professional child study. The rest of the story, with its pleasant ending for all concerned, maintains the interest and adds to the charm of the book as a whole. Above all excellence of style or story the creation of a character of such individuality is the best feature, and the development of that character promises it life.

THE MOTHER-ARTIST-By Jane Dearborn Mills.
The Palmer Company.

148 pages. Boston:

41 pages. THE

CHRIST'S BOYS AND GIRLS--By H. D. Jenkins. BROOK IN THE PASTURE-By John H. Elliott. 34 pages. Each, 25 cents net. Chicago: Winona Publishing Company.

*THE ADMIRABLE TINKER-By Edgar Jepson. York City: McClure, Phillips & Company.

300 pages. $1.50. New