Book Talk

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     One of the most interesting and helpful books I have read recently is Farming and Gardening in the Bible by Alastair I. Mackay. The author lives at Maple Bay, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, forty-five miles from the nearest reference library. He is an ex-soldier. His book contains 300 pages and gives insights that are tremendous. Some of the chapters deal with a description of the Promised Land, and others with gardens, herbs, fruit and nut trees, the vine, flowers, vegetable, field crops, perfumes and spices, reeds and rushes, weeds, plant disease, etc. I confess that I learned a lot that I never knew before and in interesting fashion. It deals with customs, foreign influences and many other matters vital to Biblical knowledge. It is 95c.

     Charles Davis was one of the most influential teachers and theologians in the Catholic Church in Great Britain. He is a tremendous writer. When I learned that he was leaving the Roman fold in the early part of 1967 I could hardly wait for the book of explanation which he promised to write. When it was brought out I sent $6.95 and purchased one immediately. I was not disappointed. Such chapters as The Origin of my Doubts, The Church and Truth, The Early Church, The Development of the Papacy and The Question of Visible Unity could shake you as they did the Catholics for whom Davis wrote. I think that every preacher and student ought to read this book. I appreciate the fact that Harper and Row brought it out in the United States. We have a few at $1.50. The book is aptly titled A Question of Conscience. We recommend it.

     I have just finished reading for the second time Thomas Campbell; Man of the Book, by Lester G. McAllister, and my appreciation for the genial little Presbyterian preacher who wrote "The Declaration and Address" has heightened immeasurably. This is a book that all of you should read. I like most of all the description of Campbell's later years until he died at the age of 91, on January 43 1854. This is a thrilling story of how we came to be a historical movement, and of the sacrifices which went into making it possible. Although the book has 300 pages and is bound in cloth it is only $3.00.

     One of our purposes is to inform our readers of those volumes which will en-courage their thought beyond the superficial, and in this connection we mention that we have secured a limited number of Morality and Beyond, by Paul Tillich, which are clothbound, and which we can mail for $1.50 each, about half price. This book on ethics appealed to us more than anything else we ever read from Tillich's pen. You will appreciate his distinctions between the "love words" -- eros, philia and agape, and his distinctions between law and grace. We do not recommend the book to casual readers, it is for students.

     Another I have read recently with profit is Christianity: The Witness of History, by J. N. D. Anderson. The author is Professor of Oriental Laws and Director of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in the University of London, and he presents a case for Christianity that is something else. You will read this brief for the faith with appreciation and it is only $1.95.