Book Reviews
The only safe criteria to use in evaluating a book is to carefully monitor the fruit that comes from the reading.
A godly pair of parents diligently read “good books” to their children. It was difficult to hold the interest of one of their boys. Finally a book was read that seemed to interest him and he asked for it over and over. It was read over and over. But then the father discerned something. He realized that the boy was fascinated by the accounts of sin related in the book. The book condemned those things and illustrated the folly of doing those things. But this boy wasn’t getting that. He was focused on the other and was ignoring the purpose of the narrative.
One individual may get a lot of good out of the same material that works evil to another. It depends on how it is taken.
We have a burden to make others aware of our experiences with different books. If you try some of this reading and do not find it a profitable experience, lay it aside. Perhaps it is not for you at all, or not for you at this time. Ask the Lord to guide you.
Not all of the books reviewed are deeply spiritual. Some are just good, healthy literature, generally suitable for family reading with caution and prayerfulness. Some must be handled with care. Some should not be handled at all, and this review will serve as a warning in such cases.
We do not want to do you any harm and will never knowingly do so, by the help of the Lord. Please write us about your experiences. And pray for us in this matter.
Handy Devices for Farm and Home
It is published under the title, The Progressive Farmer (a periodical for farmers) by Oxmoor House; Birmingham, Alabama, 1978. Edited by Vernon E. Miller.
This book is full of invaluable ideas, illustrated by drawings and pictures, for all kinds of needs around farms, ranches, and homesteads. Example: “Tie-rod ends from junked cars make good gate hinges. They are strong and, with grease fittings, they allow easy operation and will last indefinitely.”
Consisting of about 110 letter-size pages, the publication is divided into eight sections, viz., Gates and Fences, Animal and Crop Handling, Livestock, Machinery and Equipment, The Shop, Construction, Around the Farm, and Around the Home. The emphasis is on practical ways to solve everyday problems by using readily-available new or recycled material. Well worth owning. Recommended.
Odors from Golden Vials
This is a book about prayer for those who actually pray. From the preface:
It may be that some reader of this little book may question and even deny that man may have such a sweet and intimate communion with God as herein described. If so, I would ask him not to deny, but merely to say that he is not acquainted with such a life. There are those who thus walk with God. This little treatise does not lift up an ideal life of prayer too high to be attained, but describes real facts as far as it lies in the ability of the author’s pen to describe them.
I would ask the reader to read slowly and thoughtfully. Especially would I have him meditate upon the quotations on the closing pages.
It was not at all my intention to make this a thorough work on prayer. It is intended to be a book that you may pick up and peruse now and then, when you become dull and do not have as much appetite for prayer as you desire. My hope is that this little volume will prove an encouragement to all its readers and a stimulus to increase their relish for communion with God.
[Charles E. Orr; Odors from Golden Vials, “Preface”]
If you are really interested in walking with God and abiding in Him, you will want to read and own this book.
The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts.
—Holmes