The Power Of The Written Word

Prof. A. Barkley. Trowel & Sword. March 1958

Preamble: WARNING! Do not read the first line of this article, assume that it is about television and stop reading. It’s not! And it’s not a warning about Soviet Russia and Communists. It is rather a call to arms, both in 1958 and to us in 2026. It’s an article which looked into the future and asked, “Why did you stop producing Trowel & Sword in 2010? Why are so few of you writing articles, booklets, tracts, letters to newspapers and the like and flooding the country with them? Why do so many of you only write sermons to preach to the converted inside the safety of your own churches? Why? In the not so distant past clever bumper stickers were in vogue but even they seem to have disappeared. Today they could well be deemed “hate speech”. Offensive. Are we as Christians to be intimidated into silence?

The Power Of The Written Word

The advent of television has introduced a new factor that must wield an increasing influence in the community. More and more people are being brought into contact with programmes presented on the screen, and less time is given to reading and meditation. The games that children play are largely reflections of the scenes they have watched on television. Despite all this influence, however, we must not lose sight of the power of the written word and we must not excuse ourselves on the ground that other forces are at work.

The ‘battle of the books’ is still being waged, and in a more sinister sense than ever the pen is proving mightier than the sword. Soviet Russia has been leading recently in certain aspects of scientific development, but for a number of years Russia has been leading in another sphere of which little is heard. It was once our boast that the Bible was the world’s most widely translated writings, but, according to Peter Edson in the “Washington Notebook” column, that no longer holds. During the period 1948 to 1955 Lenin’s works were translated into 968 languages, while in the same period the Bible was translated into 887 tongues. The writings of Stalin, Tolstoy and Gorky took third, fourth and fifth places respectively in total translations.

Communists have not failed to appreciate the power of the printed page. The leaders in Red China boast that they have accomplished more in ten years than the Christian missionaries did in one hundred years. It has been the lamentation of the Church that millions of Chinese never heard the name of Christ. After ten years of propaganda the Communists claim that the name of Stalin is known to all the people of China. This claim may be exaggerated but it cannot be dismissed.

The Editor of the magazine, “The Flame”, quotes Nelson E. Hinman as stating, “The missionaries in China preached, built hospitals, orphanages and Bible schools, but paid little attention to the potential of the printed page as a medium for spreading their message. The Communists, meanwhile, majored in printed propaganda. Today, they occupy these hospitals and use the orphanages and Bible school buildings for their own purposes. The missionary has been driven out. The battle was won with books.”

In India a similar programme is in the process of development. A highly educated young Indian has stated, “The missionaries taught my people how to read, but they have let the Communists give my people what they read”..

When printing was first discovered it was extensively used by the Church for the propagation of her massage. As a matter of fact the invention of the printing press is one of the causes of the widespread influence of the Reformation movement. Books and pamphlets were written and placed in the hands of those who read them and accepted the truth thus presented. Today there is need for a similar movement by the Reformed Churches throughout the world.

We are grateful to God for the splendid volumes that are published in the interests of the Reformed Faith. These, however, are costly and are therefore restricted in circulation. In some cases there is such a display of learning that the average reader is unable to grasp the meaning. If the Church could flood the country with publications at a reasonable price and written in language that the common people understand, we venture to predict good results. When our Lord taught, the common people heard him gladly. Yet in His teaching there was an authority that transcended all the obscure and weighty utterances of the Scribes and Pharisees. We need more people who are willing to use the pen and state the truth in simple words. In this way a greater appeal could be made to those who never get beyond the Intermediate standard in English.

Augustine was a great believer in the power of the written word. His style of writing is open to criticism for such weaknesses as repetition of the same word and verbosity, but he says, “I would rather be censured by the grammarians than not understood by the people”.

This is a reading age and God will hold us responsible for not taking advantage of the opportunity presented.

Blackstone, a celebrated lawyer in the reign of George III had the curiosity to go from church to church and hear every clergyman of note in London. He says that he did not hear a single discourse which had more Christianity in it than the writings of Cicero, and that it would have been impossible for him to discover from what he heard, whether the preacher was a disciple of Confucius, Mahomet or Christ. The picture is not so dark in Australia and New Zealand but there is widespread ignorance of the truth and God has not given us the light to be hidden under a bushel. It would give a great impetus to the spread of the truth in these lands if more ministers and laymen in Reformed circles could be encouraged to write tracts, articles and perhaps even books. There are many who cannot preach but they are willing to put good wholesome literature into the hands of those willing to read.

In the book “Reformed Evangelism”, Miss Gertrude Holkeboer provides a very interesting chapter on “Tract Distribution”, in which some facts are presented to show the importance of the written word in the ministry of the Church. She refers to the days of John Wesley when it was said, “The gospelers of these days do fill the realm with so many of their noisome little books that they be like the swarms of locusts which did infest the land of Egypt”. The movement started by Wesley had a wholesome influence in Britain in a time of crisis. They had not the facilities we have and yet vast multitudes were aroused.

The enemy is Quick to take advantage of the most recent inventions for the spread of false teaching. We shall become awake when it is too late.

It is not for us to fix a date as far as God’s plans are concerned, but it may be possible that the sand is running low in the hour glass as far as the end of this age is concerned. Are we satisfied that we are doing all we can to spread the Gospel of Christ’s kingdom in these lands where we are privileged to serve the Lord?

A. BARKLEY.

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