Concerning books
I have mentioned that I am reading a book for young people to Mona. It concerns a group of young people who find adventure - and more - in Switzerland. It was published in 1963, with several editions after that. To my surprise the copy from which I am reading has about 15 pages in the middle of the book MISSING. It is the only copy I possess. Since the publishers must have sold the rights to German and Finnish publishers, I have a copy in German and one in Finnish. My knowledge of both these languages is almost nil. I turned to the internet and found booksellers in the U.K, U.S.A and Australia had the book for sale, One second hand bookshop was offering the book for $US50. I tried a bookshop in Australia which was asking $A12 plus postage. Monica ordered it over the phone, and mentioned that her father was the author. She was given a 10% discount!! I never imagined when I wrote the story Monica would be buying a second hand copy many years later.
I wonder what has happened to the thousands of copies that were scattered world-wide. Was any young reader helped by what I had written? Did any one throw it aside as so much bunkum? Mercifully, these things are hidden from us.
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ON A MORE SERIOUS NOTE
I have been reading a lengthy tome on the Israel-Palestinian situation. The author gave his work the title, Sowing the wind. it is a quotation from the Book of Hosea, which continues .... And Reaping the whirlwind.' It covers the last fifty years. It is a recital of the many attempts by various parties to secure peace for that troubled part of the Middle East. There are so many conferences, and roundtable discussions, and so called 'maps to peace'. Every American president during that half century has made vain attempts at settling the question. The United Nations has intervened time and again. The attempts have floundered on the refusal of either side to offer workable compromises. We were in that part of the world in 1965 -all was quiet and peaceful. We spent some days on a kibbutz not far from the Syrian border. The people there were constructing underground air-raid shelters. The peace was soon shattered by the six day war. The whole situation makes one despair, except we believe in the return of the Messiah- The Prince of Peace. Those who do not share our convictions can well be represented by the historian A. N. Wilson. He has this passage in his book The Victorians...
'Ever since the 'Holy Land' was invented as a pilgrimage-centre by the Empress Helena in the fourth century, it has been the scene of acrimony and violence among the rival religious groups. Indeed a visitor from another culture, or planet, who did not know what the function of the 'Holy Land' was, could be forgiven for supposing that it had been devised specifically as a battleground. where worshippers of the supposed all-loving deity came to denounce, abuse, and murder one another.’
Wilson has forgotten that the rival groups he speaks of were far more political than religious. It easy to allow one's prejudices to shape the kind of history one writes.
By the way Helena was the wife of the Christian Emperor Constantine, who erected churches at some of the traditional sites where our Lord had spent some time.
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What are we doing to Shakespeare?
April 22 is my birthday, and reminds me of the telegram Mark Twain sent to the Washington Post on an incorrect announcement of his death "The report of my death is greatly exaggerated'. He died on April 21 1910. I admit that I have only read two of his books The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Hucklebury Finn. I wonder to what extent his books are read now? Be that as it may, I am tempted to comment on the way Shakespeare is being handled in some schools. April 23 was his birthday, therefore, a comment seems appropriate. Postmodernism is at it again! The trend is not to read and enjoy Shakespeare but to deconstruct his plays. When I was introduced to Shakespeare it was to marvel at the bard's command of English; to be amazed at his appreciation of historical events, and to see the tragedies unfold and their final outcome.. ....et tu brute. That Shylock was Jew never interfered with the drama unfolding in The Merchant of Venice. But as Bob Dylan said the times they are 'a changing. Now Mr Howard has entered the debate calling much of the way Shakespeare is being introduced as 'rubbish'. The focus was on the way Shakespeare is being taught to Year 11 students at the Sydney Church of England Girls" Grammar School They are being taught to deconstruct Othello from a Marxist, a feminist, and a racial perspective - a sterile exercise in political correctness.
I noted the verdict of Piers Akerman in this week's The Sunday Telegraph. He says "It's London to a brick that William Shakespeare didn't sit quill in hand, thinking hard on the the Marxist, feminist. or even racial perspectives when he sat down and dashed off those lines for Othello. But the postmodernists who have dominated the teaching of English and the Arts in Australia have distorted the curricula across the country to such an extent for the past three decades that students have to regurgitate such nonsense when they sit for exams. It is not too difficult to see a political agenda in all this. Most teachers' unions would be in full agreement with what is taking place.
Ackerman hits the nail on the head when he says 'The hard core of unreconstructed adherents to Marxist thought have pushed their deluded notions of education on politicians and bureaucrats alike, knowing few would be brave enough to challenge their dogma. Now, to the almost unanimous applause of parents, John Howard has called the bluff of tenured academics and challenged them to explain the merit of the garbage they have been promoting in the guise of education. Well said, but who is listening especially where these ideas exist for the most part in academic society, and among a handful of fringe groups hiding behind internet addresses?
YET MORE BOOKS
How grateful I am to those who pass books to me
My good friend Don Prout passed one to me titled Brief Lives saying "I think you will enjoy this". He was right.
The book contains biographies of over 150 men and women - from archbishops to artisans, from comedians to composers, from poets to film producers, and many more - a most entertaining collection. I was pleased to see the school Mona and I attended in the late 1920's and early 30's - the Boulevard Grammar School in Hull mentioned as the one to which Amy Johnson, who flew her Gipsy Moth solo from England to Australia in 1930, attended a few years before we joined it. I might add that since I was two years ahead of Mona we never met personally. We did when she was 17 and in the sixth form. and I was 19.
That discovery in the pages of the book may I add was incidental. I have made a habit - particularly when using a hymn book - of noticing the dates the composers lived. Hymn books include such dates, few other books do. But Brief Lives included them. I was intrigued to find six nonagenarians among those whose biographies had been selected - two British prime ministers, Harold Macmillan who lived to be 92, and Winston Churchill who lived to be 91.There was only one of the six who lived to be older than I am
Sir Keith Feiling, the historian, lived twelve days beyond his 93rd birthday. I need another six months to equal his longevity. One can be forgiven if such discoveries cause one to think of mortality - for some immortality. The odd thing is that most of us live as if we will never face it. We know well enough that "this mortal must put on immortality," and well into the 90's that becomes closer: one begins to count the days.
What are the facts of the aging process once seldom considered -but which now stand out so prominently? Strength has ebbed away, and the things one did almost instinctively are now possible only with some various degrees of effort - some not at all. With cancer bobbing along my bones I need no reminding of the fact.
The circle of friends and acquaintances narrows perceptibly. Yet there are new friends who appear on the scene to bring their welcome contributions. There are those who call realising that few more opportunities for doing so may exist. One feels more and more that one becomes a burden to some.
But the comforting realisation that our "times are in His hand" is the undergirding source of peace and security. "Grow old along with me," said Browning's Rabbi Ben Ezra, but as the podiatrist said to me as she carved the hard skin off the ball of my foot, "It isn't fun getting old". She was too pessimistic. We are one day marching nearer home. The future is as bright as the promises of God.
Porridge and Passion
This is the autobiography of Jonathan Aitken. He was a member of the Conservative Government under Margaret Thatcher and served in her cabinet. He was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment for perjury - to which he admitted. He became a Christian before the sentence was served, and took with him the resolve to benefit from the days in prison. That he did so is very evident. The experiences now serve him as he works with Prison Fellowship. He is at present writing the biography of Chuck Colson, who found Christ in prison and now heads up Prison Fellowship.
Two facts from the book riveted my attention.
Aitken states that one-third of all Britain's prisoners cannot read or write at all. How they expect to find employment when they cannot even read a public notice is only too evident. Another third have literacy levels below the level of 11-year-old school children. What stares one in the face when confronted by such statistics is the fact that the majority will be re-offenders. Cut off from the opportunity of earning a living - what is the alternative? One also asks to what extent has the education system failed? It is inconceivable that a third of schoolchildren should be sent into society without such basic skills. Have the teachers to carry any responsibility? The debate in Australian education circles at the moment concerning the assessing of children's literacy and numeral skills is not a basis for hope Why do some teachers defy what the parents seem to want - the assessing of their children against their peers in the classroom instead of some vague statewide standard? Would such scrutiny of teaching skills expose the teaching profession to criticism? Has the time come for teachers to be assessed as well as children?
The other fact which Aitken emphasises is that the use of drugs in British prisons is such that in spite of every attempt to eradicate it - it flourishes. One suspects that the same state of things might be said of Australian prisons. All this is finding public awareness through the number of Australians allegedly caught in Indonesia with drugs. This apart from the corruption that appears to thrive in the world of drugs. Even the police have been found wanting.
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What would we do without our books. I guess we can answer that in different ways. Being compelled by age and the usual infirmities that accompany life for one in his 93rd year I have more than the usual time on my hands. I need books. Fortunately I have found the web site of a few local libraries, and with the help of a friend I can borrow more than enough to keep me occupied. I have just finished three hefty tomes. Roy Hattersley who was deputy leader of the Labour Party in the UK in the 1960's, has given us :
"A Brand plucked from the Burning" yet another life of John Wesley. What intrigued me as I followed the life of Wesley, and to a lesser extent George Whitfield ,was the fact that though they held theologically different points of view, they laboured without rancour for the same goal, and never allowed their different opinions to sour their relationship.
"Recollections of Bleeding Heart" is a biography of Paul Keating. Here the atmosphere is different, and the relationships with others - even of the same political persuasion - sometimes sour and bitter. The aspiration to lead and to carve out one's own destiny can demonstrate a ruthlessness that I guess belongs to politics in an extreme form more than in other arenas. The way Hawke was stalked and then removed from the prime ministership showed how calculating ambition can be. Hawke had secured the leadership after overthrowing Bill Hayden. The latter however, did get the second prize. He demanded -and was given- the position of Governor General. He had spent years carving out his career, and brought it to its completion by taking - for that is the word - what he wanted. The biography was written by Don Watson, who for years had been Keating's speech writer, and is compiled from diaries he kept during that period. He demonstrates what most of us knew that politics can be a dirty game fuelled by selfish personal ambition..
"The Kennedy Men" by Laurence Leamer, is a detailed account of the careers of the Kennedy dynasty. Joseph Patrick Kennedy was the American ambassador to Britain prior to, and during, the early years if World War 11. He was convinced that Britain would fall before the Nazi onslaught - a fate he could explain by the inertness of the British people, an attitude he felt that the rousing speeches of Winston Churchill could not correct. He might have scorned Churchill, but history has shown who was right. What Leamer does demonstrate is the ruthless ambition Joe Kennedy had for his sons. It can best be summed up by saying that Joe Kennedy was more a coach than a father - advancing the interests of his sons in every possible way. Selfish, calculating ambition can be a potent force for evil - even though the apparent surface intentions appear to be plausible.
It was Carlyle who said, "The true university of these days is a collection of books". I cannot be more grateful for the fact that I have been able to discover so much from books. It was with some sadness that there have been occasions when I have had to part with some of my books There was a day when finances drove me to sell some. Perhaps I did not realise their value, but when I advertised in a Christian weekly, they were snapped up immediately. I valued them at less than those who eagerly purchased them. Then there came the time when I had to face the prospect of leaving London for Australia. It was almost impossible to take the library, and with the exception of a few I treasures, I accepted the twenty pounds a bookseller offered me for several hundred books. But that merely indicated that had been unwise in buying.
Now I am culling the collection. Having attained the age of 91, the books I have known so well over the years, have be parted with. How many other treasures may be lying on my shelves. Books on Theology, Church History, Biblical commentaries, and the books by F.W. Boreham. I had the privilege of knowing his son Frank. My wife and I travelled with Frank and Betty on one occasion to England. I discovered a great deal about the man of whom it was said, "His books are on all our shelves, and his illustrations in all our sermons". Frank gave me a photocopy of his father's first sermon. He was travelling by ship from London to his first pastorate in New Zealand. In copy plate handwriting is the sermon. "I am determined to know nothing among you but Christ crucified".
I reflect sometimes on the history of some of the books that have come into my possession: many from second hand booksellers. A Hebrew Lexicon belonged to a prisoner of war in Germany. It bears his name and the stamp of Stalag V111. It seems probable that the owner had spent his months or years studying Hebrew. What became of him I have no idea. Some 10 per cent of the young men who went from a church I pastored to the Second World War, never returned. One was captured when Singapore fell, and died a few weeks before the war with Japan concluded. One spent his time in a German prison camp studying. On his release he became a student at Spurgeon's College, and entered the ministry.
I have a copy of Wescott's commentary on John. It is inscribed by Hort, 'Ellen Margaret Hort with love from F.H.Hort. July 7 1902'. Westcott and Hort were great New testament scholars.
August 26 2004
My library has gone. It has served me well, and realising that I would have no space for my books, I parted with them. A young pastor, came to see them. He was of the same theological persuasion as I am, and I was happy to let him have them at a dollar a volume. He was more than pleased, and I have the satisfaction that they may be of help to him as the books have been to me.