"How readest thou?" Nineteen hundred years ago the Master asked this pertinent question, which is both challenging and revealing. What we read is important. How we read is more important.
We have come to a mighty hour. No greater challenge ever faced a group of leaders than the challenge which faces the Adventist ministry in the immediate future. With the tides of a world revolution sweeping about us and a disillusioned generation spiritually destitute seeking a sane solution to the greatest problems of all time, we might well ask ourselves the question, "Are we prepared for the tremendous challenge of the hour?"
If we have eyes to see, the challenge becomes our chance ; opposition our opportunity. Men who can preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, who can proclaim the way of salvation with dignity and penetrating power, were never in greater demand. We need both an informed and a transformed ministry, for there is no power under heaven like the power of a God-inspired pulpit. But an ignorant and ineffective pulpit is both a scandal and a scourge. If we would have growing people in the pews we must have growing minds in the pulpit.
The annual Ministerial Reading Course has been organized to develop growing minds. Each year a group of volumes, prepared especially for this course, is made available to our workers at greatly reduced rates. These books are chosen with particular care, covering a wide range, to give variety, balance, and helpful counsel on specific problems.
Successful ministry is developed by both direct and indirect preparation. It may be difficult to decide which is the more important. If a minister would have his influence grow and expand among all classes, his general knowledge must also be continually growing and expanding, for we influence people not only by what we say but also by what we leave unsaid. The best preaching is the overflow of a ripe mind. A true sermon expresses a growing experience. It is never "worked up" but rather worked out. A man's future does not come out of tomorrow but rather out of yesterday.
Professor Stephen Leacock, . a gardening enthusiast as well as a writer, declares that the only way to garden successfully is to begin the year before last. And a minister is somewhat of a ' horticulturist. He grows sermonic fruits and flowers. Successful horticulture demands good seed and good soil. If we as spiritual horticulturists would produce sermons that save, and make the Sabbaths fragrant with blossoms from the tree of life; if we would bring the comfort of God to our congregations and healing leaves to those crushed by sin, we must enrich the soil of our own minds and hearts. If we would preach with power today we must have begun ten years ago.
Now ask yourself this candid question: "What am I doing today that will help me ten years hence—should time last ?" An Eastern proverb says, "You can take out of a pot only what you put into it." Are we putting enough into the pot? In the deepest sense God makes the sermon, but the man must cultivate the soil. It is to help cultivate the soil that the Reading Course volumes for 1945 have been selected. Now for a look at each of the five required books.
The original Spirit of prophecy Spiritual Gifts, Volumes I and II (combined) have been reproduced in facsimile to meet a long-felt need. For many years this book has been out of print, and comparatively few of our workers have it in their possession. Now it is being made available to every worker—a gem of truth-laden literature, introduced through this medium.
Another volume of particular interest in this centennial year is Francis D. Nichol's portrayal of the Millerite movement, The Midnight Cry. It reads like fascinating news. You will not want to put this book down till you have finished the last sentence.
Another excellent compilation is Christian Edwardson's recently published and newly revised volume, Facts of Faith. No worker can afford to be without this book, which represents nearly half a century of research.
Then there is Dr. Frank L. Marsh's scholarly book on Evolution, Creation, and Science, which discusses the truth of creation in the light of scientific facts and will prove a priceless handbook in the discussion of this inescapable issue.
In addition to these four volumes we are including one from the lucid pen of G. Campbell Morgan —The Triumphs of Faith. This movingly devotional book is a masterpiece in clear, convincing Christian thought—a book for the times. It is Doctor Morgan's latest, and in our judgment his greatest, contribution. It is not a large book, but it is full of the subject, being a study of the great faith characters of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews.
This year we are urging all our evangelists, pastors, and Bible teachers to supplement the reading of the regular five volumes required with the Augmented Reading Course. This is comprised of an additional five volumes chosen from the electives. Surely, ten volumes a year is not a large . program. Many professional men carrying tremendous burdens are members of the Book-of-the-Month Club. Every minister should read at least one book a month. A number of our brethren, among them some of our leaders, read with regularity two or more books every week. They can do this not because they have more time for reading but because they have learned to read with speed and discrimination. And more than that, ;they have organized their time to permit of a real study program. The divine injunction, "Give attention to reading," they have taken personally, recognizing that leadership demands that one keep himself well informed.
Some books of particular inspiration and help to our preachers are here suggested for the Augmented Reading Course—books that are real "musts" in the wide-awake soul winner's library.
Do you possess Jefferson's compelling work The Minister as Prophet?* It is excellent. That is what everyone says who has read it. This has been a required volume in a number of reading courses in various Protestant groups.
The Mystery of Preaching, by Black, makes wholesome reading. This book, like Jefferson's, contains the published lectures on preaching delivered before several theological seminaries. James Black was for many years one of the foremost preachers in Edinburgh, Scotland.
One of the finest among the new books is The Quest for Preaching Power, by Booth. Some chapters are unique and, we feel, will be greatly appreciated by our workers. Among these chapters are "How Sermons Build Congregations," "Effective Sermon-Building Techniques," "Putting Light Into Dark Sermons."
One of the most illuminating small treatises ever published on the Papacy is H. G. Wells' Crux Ansata (an indictment of the Roman Catholic Church)—a veritable mine of information on the present position of the Papacy. It is full of things we need to know.
One of the most inspirational biographies on Bible characters is Basil Miller's recent work on Moses. Not only is this a spiritual inspiration but it throws flashes of light on Egyptian life and makes this outstanding character more unique than ever. Miller has written a number of biographies. This is his best and most recent contribution.
If you have not already read Day's biography of Charles G. Finney, Man of Like Passions, listed as an elective in last year's course, we suggest this additional volume on real soul-winning revival. Mrs. White speaks of the work of this mighty soul winner, who more than a century ago went through the country like a firebrand for God. It is said that he brought five hundred thousand souls to accept Christ, 95 per cent of whom remained true until death.
Such books as these will do much to build up an informed ministry. We face a challenge—the greatest challenge of all time. Are we preparing ourselves to meet it? How readest thou?
* Just before going to press, we learned that this book is out of print, but it can doubtless be found in many libraries and second-hand bookstores.
