Bring the Books

Note: The following address was given at the dedica­tion ceremony of the B. G. Wilkinson and Walter Ost libraries at Columbia Union College, October 23, 1967.—Ed.

R. ALLAN ANDERSON Former General Conference Ministerial Association Secretary

When thou comest bring . . . the books, but especially the parchments." This was one of the apostle's last requests of Timothy. How we wish we knew just what books they were! Paul was a man of books. He wrote more of the New Testament than all the others put together, and his writings are unique both in scholarship and m scope.

Today we meet to dedicate two libraries of vital books—Dr. B. G. Wilkinson's library, generously donated by his son Dr. Roland Wilkinson, and also another personal library donated by Dr. Walter Ost, alumnus of this college and now in medical practice in Florida. A brief glance at these valuable volumes has led more than one of our ministers to remark, "How could an Adventist minister afford to pur­chase so many?" And that reminds me of Erasmus, the great Dutch scholar and the­ologian, who said: "When I get a little money I buy books and if I have any money left I buy food and clothing." A bit im­practicable you say, but typical of the spirit of sacrifice that laid the foundation for much of our education today. It seems easy to spend money on secondary issues. For example, a minister may spend from eight hundred to a thousand dollars each year on his car but not fifty dollars, perhaps not even twenty-five dollars, on books.

My late friend Dr. Stidger, dean of homi­letics in Boston University, when address­ing a group of ministers on the West Coast, remarked that to keep really prepared for his work a minister should read at least one, or better two, books every week. At the close of the meeting one of the minis­ters stepped up and said:

"Doctor, you really did not mean what you said about reading a book a week, did you? Why, the average minister does not read a book a month!"

"That's why they will always be average. Remember, books bulge your horizons and challenge your thought," replied the pro­fessor.

"Of making many books there is no end," said the preacher of wisdom. Moffatt trans­lates it: "There is no end to the buying of books," * and I am sure you college stu­dents agree with that. But how fortunate you are here by comparison with so many other areas of the world.

Libraray of Ashurbanipal

One of the finest of the ancient libraries was at Nineveh, built by Ashurbanipal, great-grandson of Sargon H. He accumu­lated more than thirty-thousand tablets. He also employed many agents to collect and copy tablets. Moreover, his library was open to all scholars. Large numbers of scribes were employed to revise, compile, and translate. And this library was well ar­ranged, one room for history, another for geography, another for records and royal letters. Other rooms contained all that was known of science. Most important was his section on religion. This library was pre­served largely as the result of a disaster. The Chaldeans destroyed Nineveh in 612 B.c. But the library was not valued by these conquering hordes, and when the soldiers battered down the walls with their great battering rams these priceless stone and clay tablets were buried. They lay there untouched for twenty-five hundred years. Not until archeologists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries dug up those heaps of rubble did the world know much of that ancient civilization.

Carlyle stated a great truth when he said: "All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been is lying as in magic preser­vation in pages of books." Books spark ideas, and it is ideas that distinguish hu­mans from animals. The explosive power of great ideas is tremendous. Christianity itself began as a great idea. An idea con­ceived by the passion of one heart can change the history of nations, leading mil­lions either to destruction or to destiny.

Big Ideas

Right now the world is passing through a period of pain, tears, and death, but should time last, the historian will pay more attention to the ideas that shaped the situation than to the result. The ideas that drive men to war are more important than the war itself. To the ministers of the Advent Movement the Lord's counsel is "preach so that the people can catch hold of big ideas" (Evangelism, p. 169).

But how can we preach big ideas if we do not have any? Ideas are captured and caged in books. That is why we need to read much and read earnestly.

When Adolf Hitler published his book Mein Kampf it was not a masterpiece of writing but it was a powder keg of ideas. They were wrong ideas. The result? Europe was plunged into war and Germany brought to ruin.

When Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov, known to the world today as Lenin, left Switzer­land for Russia in 1917 he had to travel through Germany. That country knew something of the ideas of this man, so they sealed the train that carried him and he was virtually smuggled into the great country of the north. Once there, he with others created revolution. Since then those ideas have seized the minds of more than one third of the entire world.

Mao Tse-tung recently said: "Our weap­ons are not machine guns but the ideas of Marxism-Leninism." And where did Marx get his ideas? From a book written seventy years earlier by a man named Weishaupt. Books are not ornaments but teachers. They wait patiently on shelves until they are needed. Then without any fanfare they speak forth their message. Books are also warehouses of knowledge. Some say the greatest invention of all time was the wheel. No, the greatest invention of all time was the alphabet. Just who first pro­duced the alphabet has been discussed in many quarters, but it is significant that this literary tool emerged from the Sinai Desert at the very time Moses was writing the books of Job and Genesis and, inci­dentally, keeping his father-in-law's sheep.

When picture writing was replaced by twenty or twenty-four letters it was a big step forward and gave great impetus in the making of books.

Building Libraries

The Babylonians and the Persians left the records of their deeds, but it was the Helenistic culture of Greece that really developed libraries. Aristotle, one of the teachers of Alexander the Great, did much to popularize libraries. It was he who urged Ptolemy II to build the renowned Alexandrian library.

When the Romans came to world power the wealthy began to vie with one an­other in building up private libraries, while the public library became the center of attraction in a city. It has been well said that "the heart of any institution of learning is the library." World-renowned universities such as Sorbonne, Heidelberg, Oxford, Harvard, Yale, would be the first to admit that they owe their popularity not only to their outstanding professors but in a special sense to their libraries.

The two outstanding libraries of the world are the British Museum Library in London and the Congressional Library in Washington, D.C. Another very fine library is in Leningrad. Although not so large as the Moscow library, yet it is considered by many as more valuable.

One of the finest libraries in our Amer­ican universities is the Widner Library at Harvard. It has set a pattern for supplying the faculty and students with up-to-date information. It is claimed that eight hun­dred new books are placed on the shelves there every day. However, 250 each day are withdrawn as obsolete.

In colleges like Columbia Union or even Andrews University we do not aim to keep pace with either quantity or va­riety of up-to-date books, for our purpose is to train workers for the Advent cause. And the times demand the best-trained leaders and personnel possible. Time was when we could take a man from the plow or a woman from the kitchen and send them out to preach or to teach, but those days are gone.

Do not misunderstand me, there will al­ways be a place for an Elisha, but before he is called it will be clearly evident that the cloak of fitness has been thrown around him. Just as good doctors and good nurses are needed for our medical work, so good teachers and good preachers are needed for our evangelistic and educa­tional work. And good books play a vital role in the development of the future workers and leaders of the Advent Move­ment.

As a college you are to be congratulated for your strong department of religion. And now with the addition of these two valuable libraries your facilities have greatly increased. Never forget, however, that it is not the number of books or the quality of books on the shelves that count, but the ideas and knowledge you have in your head. So to you all I would say, "Give attention to reading," remembering that "the heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge."

* The Bible: A New Translation by James Moffatt. Copyright by Tames Moffatt 1954. Used by permission of Harper & Row. Publishers, Incorporated.


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R. ALLAN ANDERSON Former General Conference Ministerial Association Secretary

May 1968

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