[EDITORIAL NOTE.—Your editors have requested Mrs. Bertha Fearing to prepare this article for THE MINISTRY. It follows up the article by her husband, Andrew Fearing, which appeared on page 12 of the June issue. Our ministers' wives will profit by these practical suggestions on how a ministerial couple can work together in collecting material for sermons, articles, et cetera.—B. c.]
Does your minister-husband have all the time he would like for reading? Foolish question, of course! Have you thought of helping by reading and marking certain articles for his attention? Perhaps your husband would appreciate your acting as a filing secretary for him. Or if your husband would rather do all his own reading and filing, it might be of help for you to have a file of your own—and who knows, he might like to borrow some of your material on some future day! My husband and I started subject files even before we were married, so the files in our house have always been "our" files, and we are equally familiar with their contents.
One of the first requirements for a read-mark- clip program is to know your filing subjects. An index of the files should always be at hand for reference, to aid in cataloging an article. The tools needed are simple: a marking pencil, a stapler (a small hand stapler is most convenient, because it does not have to rest on a desk), and scissors. It is well to subscribe to two copies of all denominational periodicals, so they may be clipped easily.
Besides saving articles, poems, and gems for the files, you will find it also well to keep sermon material in mind. After hearing your minister- husband preach for a period of time, you begin to know his style, the type of material he uses, and you are also familiar with sermons he has already preached. In your reading you may find material that will add wonderfully to that sermon he delivered recently. Jot the name of the sermon, with his name, at the top of the page, and lay it on his desk. You will have a real feeling of helpfulness should you hear it added to his sermon when he delivers it again.
In our experience we have found it better not to cut our current magazines during the year except for some special item. We mark them, however, as we read, keeping them on file for reference until the close of the year, and then clip them for the files.
Vacations are spent in numerous ways by different families. We usually take two or three cartons of magazines with us on vacations, and it is with a feeling of satisfaction that were turn home with the articles ready for the files. And, oh, what still greater satisfaction it is when you or your minister-husband needs something on a certain subject, and finds just the very thing in a folder in your files!
