THE GOLDEN BOOK OF PRAYER

Reverend Donald B. Aldrich's Anthology of Prayer a Timely and Important Contribution to the World in Which We Live

Donald B. Aldrich '17, Dodd, Mead & Co.,1941, 275 pp.,$3.00

THIS ANTHOLOGY is one of the most' attractive, usable, and generally satisfactory books of prayer that has ever come to the attention of this reviewer. Its editors state that it is intended primarily for personal use, but it is certain also to be widely and gratefully used by leaders of public worship.

There are approximately 400 prayers and aids to prayer in this collection some as ancient as the dawn of man's spiritual aspiration and others as contemporaneous as day before yesterday's news, some long known and long loved and others from less familiar and sometimes unexpected sources prayers to express every possible human situation, feeling and need. These are arranged in 11 general sections meditation, faith and trust, penitence and pardon, thanksgiving, dedication, etc. Brief introductions to each section and to the book as a whole enable the reader to make the best use of each kind of prayer.

Unlike most books of prayer, this one is of full library size and printed in large, easily read type. A most interesting and helpful feature is the inclusion of occasional short explanatory notes, chiefly biographical, giving the background of certain prayers and identifying the persons who made them. These notes, are so illuminating that one wishes there might have been many more of them.

These are times that try men's souls, as Tom Paine of another day in American history. Here are spiritual, resources which will help to prepare men's souls to meet any test.