Ten Years Of Trowel And Sword

Dr. K. Runia. Trowel & Sword. October 1964

Preamble: When we first saw this article it seemed like a good idea to save it for our own tenth anniversary – a mere eight and a half years down the track. This begged the question, Will the Lord grant us another eight and a half years just so that we could print this article? So here it is. An honest appraisal of what had been achieved so far; a desire for continual improvement, and an assessment of how invaluable T&S was, not only to members in the Reformed Churches but to a growing number of subscribers from outside the denomination. Trowel and Sword continued for another forty-six years. One might say a good innings. And yet it was, and is, also sad that it had to end. What have we lost? We believe, a great deal. We continue to hope that it can yet be resurrected in some form. We fear that if it can not, then it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the day may come that the whole denomination will go the same way. In the meantime, we will continue revisiting articles from the past with the weekly TSR, outlining the hopes, beliefs, aspirations and drive of a past generation of believers and their leaders.

Ten Years Of Trowel And Sword

The present issue is the first of Volume XI. That means that we have completed ten years of ‘Trowel and Sword’. We shall not try to give a survey of the history of our magazine (perhaps there will be an opportunity for this later on), but we would rather express our gratefulness to the Lord for His blessings bestowed upon this labour. In many respects it is surprising that ‘Trowel and Sword’ has continued to exist and even managed to grow, through all vicissitudes. And we can only say with the Psalmist: “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to thy name give glory, for the sake of thy steadfast love and thy faithfulness” (Ps.115:1).

There can be no doubt that a denominational magazine is of great importance for a church. It is one of the ties that bind us together, It provides means of communication which do not exist otherwise. It gives possibilities of instruction which a local paper can never supply. I think I may say that in the course of these ten years ‘ Trowel and Sword’ has obtained a firm and familiar place in our church life.

But the importance of our magazine exceeds the bounds of our own churches. In the first place, there is the slowly growing number of subscribers not belonging to our Reformed Churches. In the second place, there is the factor of exchange subscriptions. Editors of other papers receive our magazine and read it, as appears from quotations from ‘Trowel and Sword’ in their papers. Occasionally one finds news and articles from ‘Trowel and Sword’ reproduced in such papers as ‘Centraal Weekblad’ (The Netherlands),

‘De Wachter’ and ‘ The Banner’ (U.S.A.), Church and Nation (Canada), The Irish Evangelical, and others.

When we mention these things, we do not mean to say that we have already reached our goal. In honest truth, ‘Trowel and Sword’ is still imperfect in many respects. Much can and must be improved. The editorial committee is aware of this and it is constantly trying to find ways and means for these improvements. One of the great obstacles is, of course, lack of finance. At the moment we can just manage, financially, but if we want to do more, we need more subscribers. We would ask all our readers to help us by recommending our paper to others, both inside and outside our churches. Please, do not throw your old copies in the waste paper basket, but pass them on to others, The printed word is still one of the most influential means for propaganda (sic).

In the meantime we hope to go on, doing our utmost to make our paper interesting and relevant. We cannot show our thankfulness for the blessings of the past better than by doing our best in the present and working hard for the future. May the Lord bless our efforts and enable us more and more to make ‘Trowel and Sword’ what it wants to be: A periodical for the EDIFICATION and DEFENCE of the REFORMED, PRESBYTERIAN FAITH AND LIVE in Australia and New Zealand.

K. Runia

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