October 17, 2005
I love old books
I love old books. Not that new editions are bad. Often a new edition makes the book better in a few ways—updated content, pictures, prefaces. If someone knew nothing about the context of, say, The Journals of Jim Elliot, an addendum containing the conversion story of the Auca tribe would be extremely valuable.
But I love old books. There is something that I really like about the fact that my “newest” book is about to turn 99. It’s called John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides. He does not have the household name of a Hudson Taylor or David Livingstone, but I think he should.
I first heard about him through one of Pastor Piper’s biographical sermons
that my former youth pastor
had the team listen to before the 2002 Mission trip to Manitoba. I’ve listened to it a number of times since then, and it makes me excited every time. And now I get to read it…or put it off until Christmas break.
But when I do read it, I will read not just a neat, perfectly edited Banner of Truth 1994 edition with color pictures (though I love you, Banner of Truth). It’s the 1907-year-he-died-both-volumes-combined edition.
I like this book too much, I know. It’s nerdy to talk about books like this. But I am really not a serious book person—if I were serious, I would buy the first editions of Volumes I and II for the special price of $140.00.
Even though I have 3 editions of George Herbert’s The Temple, I am not sure I can justify this one. I like collectibles—collectibles under $20.00, that is.
October 08, 2005
Paton on Urbanization
“We amused ourselves that we could discover…the outline of where the foundations once had been! Of ten thousand homes in Scotland, once sweet and beautiful, each a little possible Paradise in its own well-cultivated plot, this is true to-day;
"And where are the healthy, happy peasant boys and girls that such homes bred and reared? They are sweltering and struggling for existence in our towns and cities. I am told that this must be—that it is all the result of economic laws;
"But I confess to a deepening conviction that it need not be, and that the loss to the nation as a whole is vital, if not irreparable.”
John G. Paton, Autobiography