OFFICE NOTES

 

It has been over ten years since we have had to call upon our readers for financial help, even though there have been some unsolicited donations to our work all along. It is now urgent that we have the assistance of those who are willing to lend a helping hand, for we have fallen some $400.00 behind, and the bills keep coming in. Our subscription price has remained only $1.00 since we began publication back in 1952 with the first issue of Bible Talk. Many receive the paper at the club rate for only 50 cents. Yet we have increased the paper to 20 pages each issue, 200 pages for the year. And we have added the expense of art work each month. No wonder we are going broke! Since our equipment for mailing is old and simple, our workshop is crowded into what should be the dining room of our new home, and we all labor without wages (indeed we pay for the privilege) we have been able to hold our own on the balance sheet. Add to this the profit on books that all goes to the paper, and the donations that both congregations and individuals sometimes make, and you have the story of our income.

Lately this has not been enough. We need your help. If you believe in what we are trying to do, and if you are willing to share with us some of the dollars you return to the Lord’s work, we will promise to get maximum mileage out of every penny. We are stingy (some call it frugality) even with our own money. We are downright impossible with the other fellow’s money. My wife, who cares for the mailing, will not even let me buy name cards for the address plates. She makes me have our printer cut the cards from paper we salvage from wastepaper baskets at the university!

We do not, of course, do our own printing. This is done by the same Dallas printer that has been doing our work since 1952. Even though he has done well in keeping the price down for us, printing is still a very expensive item. And postage, which we could ignore as an expense item back in 1952, has increased so many times that we must now reckon with it.

Well, that’s enough of our woes to get the point across. We will appreciate your help. We especially need sustained support. If only a few would help us with small monthly donations, it would probably be adequate. We will acknowledge all donations.

BOOKS

We have a new supply of a book that is popular with our readers. Others of you might want to order Making Ethical Decisions for only $1.00. A new supply of The Threshold of Christianity by Toombs is also available for $1.50. It tells what happened between the Testaments in an interesting and informative manner.

A new book by Elton Trueblood on The Humour of Christ is available from London in paperback for $1.60. He shows the use Jesus made of humour and irony, and he describes our Lord’s strategy of laughter.

You will appreciate reading Adventures of a Deserter by Jan Overduin, which is about the prophet Jonah. You will find it inspiring and different. Jonah will forever be more human to you, and you will see yourself in his adventure to such a degree as to wonder if you too aren’t sometimes a deserter. It is a hardback and a good-looking volume. Only $3.50.

One of the famous devotional classics is A Serious Call by William Law. Written 200 years ago, it lives on and on, and it is now available in a nice hardback at only $2.95. Elton Trueblood writes the foreword. Law writes on discipline, happiness, devotion, duty, doing God’s will, etc. You will be glad we told you about it. Some readers have asked us of its availability.

We can supply William Barclay’s Many Witnesses, One Lord, which is a very helpful survey of the New Testament. Only $2.50. Barclay’s The Promise of the Spirit is a study of virtually everything the Bible says about the Holy Spirit. Only $2.50.

We are offering Carl Ketcherside’s annual volumes of Mission Messenger on our Credit Plan, along with all other books we mention in this column. This means you can buy now and pay later at the rate of 10% of the balance each month, or $5.00 monthly, whichever is the most. So you could buy all of Ketcherside’s beautiful volumes at one time and pay a little each month. He now has six volumes, starting with Thoughts on Fellowship in 1957-58, and continuing with Covenants of God in 1959-60, The Paths of Peace in 1961-62, The Unity of the Spirit in 1963, The Brotherhood of Faith in 1964, and The Twisted Scriptures in 1965. You can order all of these from us for only $19.50. This is very fine material and will one day be a collector’s item. If you need only part of these, the double volumes (the first three) are $3.50 each; the last three, which are single years, are $3.00.

This is the first issue of Restoration Review for 1966. All ten issues of this volume will be published in permanent book form early in 1967. It will be a 200-page volume with handsome dust jacket. The title will be “Resources of Power”, which is the theme for this year. Reserve your copy now. The price will be moderate. Subscription price for this journal is $1.00 per year, or 50 cents per name in club of six or more. Restoration Review, 1201 Windsor Dr., Denton, Texas 76201.