Expository Preaching for Today; Doctrinal Preaching for Today; Planning a Year's Pulpit Work; Preaching From Samuel; Leading in Public Prayer. Andrew W. Blackwood, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Canada: G. R. Welch Co., Toronto; South Africa: Word of Life Wholesale, Johannesburg; Australia: S. John Bacon Publishing Company, Mount Waverley; New Zealand: G. W. Moore Ltd., Auckland; Korea: Word of Life Press, Seoul, 1975, 224 pages, $2.95 each; five-volume set, $13.95.

The late Andrew W. Blackwood has probably been of greater help to the present generation of preachers than any other person. He held pastorates for seventeen years and then for many years taught homiletics as chairman of the Practical Department, Princeton Theological Seminary. This library of five volumes is now available in paperback. All of them have appeared before, except that Preaching From Samuel has grown out of the earlier
Preaching From the Bible. The titles are self-explanatory. Ministers especially appreciate the very practical approach of the author's works. The basic principles laid down by this teacher of preachers are still valid. Every pastor will especially benefit from these volumes.

Orley Berg

Acquitted! Message From the Cross, Sakae Kubo, Ph.D., Pacific Press Publishing Association, Mountain View, California, 1975, 60 cents.

Righteousness by faith is the topic of this 63-page paperback.

An issue that Kubo attempts to clarify throughout the book is that good deeds are not to be performed in addition to faith, but as the result of faith. This, he said, is often misunderstood among laymen.

The chapter headings are: "Acquitted," "What Shall I Do to Inherit Eternal Life?" "Faith Without Works Is Dead," "Why, Then, the Law," "What Does the Lord Require of You?" "The Sabbath Was Made for Man," "He Who Believes in Him Is Not Condemned," and "For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free."

Certain brands of theology often tend to tear asunder what God has joined together. Justice is divorced from mercy, justification from sanctification, forgiveness of sin from freedom from sin, faith from obedience, and works from love. While Dr. Kubo gives to each of these elements its own just due, his greatest contribution is to show how they are all intimately related and balanced in the one reality of salvation.

Here is a work by one with a sensitive theological and pastoral mind, coupled with precise and well-honed interpretive skills. The Biblical text comes alive. His book engages the reader from the first with its simple and well-written style, and appropriate and sometimes touching illustrations. This book has much to offer for lay readers, pastors, and students. Opal H. Young

Devotionals for Teachers, Nelle A. Vander Ark, 80 pages, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1975.

This volume, beautifully packaged and hard bound with an extremely attractive cover, can only initially disappoint as the prospective reader or buyer leafs through its 80 pages. The layout is a hodgepodge of large and small italics peppered freely with boldface, with the body of the book set in a
type face that somehow comes across as too strong and uncompromising for the material presented. Running heads appear here and there, exciting a mild curiosity as to how they were planned. The length of the readings apparently was left to the author's discrimination and varies considerably.

Once past the confusing layout, however, the reader is in for a delightful surprise. The material is good! Ms. Vander Ark demonstrates on paper that she is not only a discerning teacher but a lucid writer, and what is more important, an empathetic human being. Verse, both old and new, is used throughout. One of the most priceless is the parody on the twenty-third psalm written by a young Japanese Christian. It begins:

"The Lord is my Pace-Setter.

I shall not rush.

He makes me stop for quiet
intervals; He provides me
with images of stillness,
which restore my serenity. . . ."

Ms. Vander Ark quotes the exquisite dedication that a young student wrote on his first "volume" of poetry:

To my English teacher
Who saw the tiny flecks of gold
in my tons of ore
and helped me pan them.

The dedication was undoubtedly to her. She comes across as that kind of person. This book definitely has something to offer, and would be a
perfect gift for any teacher. If only they'd done a better layout!

Bobbie Jane Van Dolson


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January 1976

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More Articles In This Issue

The Great Deception

The role of deception in end-time events.

The King Is Coming

The New Testament Witness to Christ's Second Coming

Efficiency? Yes—But More!

From One Leader to Another

The Dikes of Biblical Chronology

History tells us most eloquently that a vast expansion of the Biblical time-scale eventually leads to a greatly reduced concept of the Creator's work, and definitely not to "an expanded conception of the Creator."

In Search of the Hittites

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Plea for a Christ-Centered Eschatology

The key to unlocking the hidden, underlying unity of the two Testaments is the Person of Christ.

The Meaning of Genesis 1:1

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On Giving Advice

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High-level Wellness

Reprinted by permission from author's book, Come Alive, Review and Herald Publishing Association 1975.

Messages from your Nerves

The hypochondriac just loves taking pills and injections. His supposed illness has nothing to do with what he is trying to treat.

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