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"ABIDE WITH ME."

Abide in me, and in you. fruit of itself, except it abide in the ye abide in me.-John 15: 4.

As the branch cannot bear bine; no more can ye, except

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HAT can be more fitting for the Christmastide than so beautiful an edition as is presented this year of that beautiful hymn, known almost as widely as the English tongue, Abide with Me"? For several years, Lee & Shepard have issued as their holiday books a series of the best known hymns and religious poems, illustrated in the most charming fashion, and thus made a souvenir of Christmas that suggests the religious associations of the day, as well as its less significant festivities. The first of these was the poem made famous by its associations with the name and reverence of Abraham Lincoln, William Knox's poem of "Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" Last year it was that hymn which most of all voices the aspiration of the Christian world-the song adopted, indeed, by the Christian world as one of its great modern hymns-Sarah F. Adams' "Nearer, my God, to Thee." As the third of these very lovely books, comes this year, in a dainty volume, at $2, that hymn of peace and rest, Abide with Me," written, like many of these great hymns, by one now remembered chiefly for this one flower of his life, Henry Francis Lyte. The text is beautifully worked in with designs of varied character and interest by Miss L. B. Humphrey, whose pencil lends itself alike to figure, to landscape, and to floral design. The ruined cloister, the quiet of "God's acre," the darkening sea, the abode of suffering and of sorrow, the widow and the orphan, the Master Himself in his manifestations of love and sympathy, furnish subjects for her sympathetic art. Each page in the pretty volume has a character of its own; cach design illustrates very happily the changing pictures presented by the well-known poem, ending with suggestion of the close of the shadowy eve of life and the dawn of the everlasting Christmas Day above

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REAT Painters of Christendom, from Cimabue to Wilkie," is the title and subject of one of the most luxurious books of the season, or of any season, published from the great English house of Cassell, Petter & Galpin. The design of this magnificent work is to present, with every accessory that the engraver and painter can furnish, a worthy memorial of the most glorious works of art, from the days of the old masters down to the painters of the English school of to-day. In carrying out this plan, no pains or expense have been spared on the part of the editor and publishers to make the work worthy of its subject. Mr. J. Forbes- Robertson, the editor, is an English art writer of thirty years' experiIn the preparation of this work, he has consulted all the recognized authorities on art, British and Continental, citing them as far as possible in the text, and has used also the experience of his familiarity with the works of European art to be found in all the leading galleries of Europe. The work is introduced with an essay on the new birth of art in the thirteenth century, under the inspiring influence of the Papacy; and it then treats, in successive departments, of the Italian school, the Flemish, Dutch, and German schools, the Spanish school, the French school, and the English school, prefacing each with an interesting introduction, summarizing its history and characteristics. Under these departments, several pages each are devoted successively to the leading artists of the respective schools. No less than one hundred and twenty are thus sketched, in their history and relctions to art, with interesting critical descriptions of their foremost works. Each of these one hundred and twenty chapters isprefaced by a portrait of the artist in a charming framework design. Their leading works are reproduced in the best work of the foremost wood-engravers; and the bock is also beautiful with initial letters, decorative tail-pieces, etc. It makes, in all, a sumptuous huge quarto of four hundred and thirty-nine pages, at the cost of $20, in brilliant cloth binding. The early part of the book deals especially with Christian art, chiefly because the art of the early days found expression, for the most part, through church subjects. In its later pages, we come, in turn, to the battle-pieces of the great French painters, the landscapes of Turner, the figure-pieces of David Wilkie, and the weird mysticism of William Blake. In thus grouping the great works of the centuries, most interesting comparisons and contrasts are afforded, and the plan of the work presents an illustrative history of modern art in its best schools. No book could be better suited to cultivate an intelligent taste for art, both by the great works which it reproduces and by the most artistic fashion in which they are reproduced. We regret exceedingly that we are not able to present on this page, as we had desired, and according to the plan of the previous pages of this sort, some of the many beautiful smaller wood cuts which are to be found scattered through the book. The fact that the book is printed in England has made it impossible to obtain cuts in time for our edition.

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