Book Reviews
Wiring Simplified
ISBN 0-9603294-6-3 38th edition (182 pages), published by Park Publishing, Inc.
This is a practical handbook on electrical wiring. Let me quote from the back cover: “Learn how to install wiring in your home so it is both safe and practical. This is the 38th edition of one of the first do-it-yourself manuals, and it is based on the latest 1996 National Electrical Code with all the most recent safety provisions.”
I found this book very useful as I have had some recent home wiring projects (see the article to the young men, “I Write unto You” in this issue). The book can be read and studied through, as a means of getting familiar with the whole subject of electrical matters about the home or farm, or individual chapters serve as very useful reference material. In my project, I found sections on wire sizes and types, circuit breakers and circuits very valuable, including the many illustrations (there are over 200 in the book). Rather than attempt an in-depth review, let me list the chapter titles:
- Standards, Codes and Safety
- Make a “Good Buy” in Your Electrical Installation
- Measurement of Electricity
- Wire Sizes and Types
- Fuses, Circuit Breakers and Circuits
- Circuit Basics
- Importance of Grounding
- The Service Entrance
- Three Wiring Systems
- Nonmetallic Sheathed Cable
- Armored Cable
- Conduit
- Miscellaneous Wiring
- Wiring of Heavy Appliances
- Finishing an Installation
- Old Work: Modernizing
- Farm Wiring
- Electric Motors
- Troubleshooting
I found the book at a local hardware store for $6.95. I recommend it for anyone needing a handbook to help them get started with doing electrical work around their homes.
The Neck of the Giraffe: Where Darwin Went Wrong
Francis Hitching
Published by Ticknor and Fields, 1982
The mystery of how life began, and then proliferated into the myriad forms on Earth today, is one that crosses the barriers of science, religion, and philosophy. For many years now, as we shall see, it has been taken for granted that Darwin had solved the question once and for all. But had he? When I began to look beyond the orthodox textbook explanations, I found many scientists with private doubts; rather fewer who had come out with them in public; and a handful who went so far as to say that Darwinian evolutionary theory had turned out not to be scientific theory at all.
[pp. 7-8]
The touchstone of neo-Darwinian theory is that evolution results from the natural selection of small, accidental, cumulative changes. Logically, then, the fossil record ought to show this stately progression. If we find fossils at all, and if Darwin’s theory was right, we can predict what the rocks should contain: finely graduated fossils leading from one group of creatures to another group of creatures at a higher level of complexity. The minor “improvements” in successive generations should be as readily preserved as the species themselves. But this isn’t so. In the fact the opposite is the case, as Darwin himself complained.
[pp. 17]
But the curious thing is that there is a consistency about the fossil gaps: the fossils are missing in all the important places.
[pp. 19]
This exceedingly interesting book takes a long, hard look at the theory of natural selection, the theory propagated by Charles Darwin that all life evolved from one focal point into all the species that have existed and do exist. The author is not a Creationist, and even believes that evolution between species has occurred. The value of his writing is in the valid questions that are raised about the whole idea. I found it tedious in places and disagreed with the author in many of his conclusions. But I found the points of question that he discussed most fascinating.
“Darwin also has a beguiling way of making you think he has faced up to all the objections to his theory, and overcome them” (pg. 251). Yes, I agree that the theory is beguiling and convenient to people who wish to believe the same. The Bible is written in such a way that its great treasure of wisdom and instruction is hid from the wise and prudent and revealed to babes. The record of truth that is written in creation was established by One who “taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” (1 Corinthians 3:19) This book, The Neck of the Giraffe, offers more evidence of that fact.
Helps to Holy Living
C. E. Orr
This booklet, full of bite-sized nuggets of truth, will encourage and challenge young and mature Christians alike. As the title suggests, Bro. Orr’s burden is to stir his brethren to deeper, holier living—i.e., to be not just hearers of the Word, but doers also. He says in his introduction:
You need to pray more, meditate more, lift up your soul to God more, have more reverence and holy awe upon your soul, live more in godly fear, have more of the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon you, and more peace and power and glory in your soul. You can have it. It will cost you something, but you can have it if you will. We love you fervently. We want to help you. We promise you and God that by His grace we will live just what we preach to you. Our hearts are burdened. Too many of God’s saints are living beneath their privilege.
[Charles E. Orr; Helps to Holy Living, “Part I”]
Are you living beneath your privilege? Are you finding peace and joy and satisfaction within? If you are stirred to seek a closer walk with God, this book is sure to be an encouragement and help to you.