Originally published in the November 1964 issue of The Christadelphian magazine
Delight in God's Law
TO lose by death the services of any active member of an ecclesia is felt in varying degrees by all. A speaker whose wisdom and knowledge have served the community for many years leaves a gap hard to fill, the more so if, as often happens, there is little or no written record of his work. Many speakers—perhaps giants of their day—have passed from the scene leaving little to perpetuate their labours. The spoken word can be powerful and effective, as was Peter’s at Pentecost, but it rarely touches those who did not hear it, and the hearers retain—how much and for how long? The question invites a depressing answer. The oral medium is short term. The flashing eye, the impassioned appeal, the thunderous declamation, where are they now? Gone with the snows of yesteryear. But the speaker who is also a writer uses a medium that is more enduring and, of course, more exacting, for what is written is subject to the cool eye of scrutiny and criticism. The rhetoric of the platform rarely survives the change to the written word.
The late John Carter was both speaker and writer, and happily much of his best work is available to us both in published volumes of his scriptural expositions, and in articles contributed to The Christadelphian over many years.
The new volume, Delight in God’s Law, is a collection of short articles—some 40 in all occupying about 300 pages—chosen as a fitting memorial of his work and “as the testament of a man of faith”. The subject matter is varied, much of it expository and hortatory, all of it reflecting the writer’s love of the Scriptures. There is the strength, too, of a mind nourished by God’s word, disciplined by its principles and deeply informed by its message and purpose.
Outstanding is bro. John Carter’s power of analytical exposition. To many of us the great themes of justification, law and grace, sacrifice and redemption, are so involved and interwoven that the doctrinal shape of each theme becomes almost hopelessly blurred and vague, and the rich language of these mighty subjects a wilderness of words in which we are lost. Not so with bro. Carter. To use Arnold’s phrase, he saw a thing steadily and saw it whole. For him there was no wilderness; truth illumined for him a clear path, and step by step he cleared the way before him until he reached his goal. It was a progress made plain to all, and as we read these articles, we marvel again at their clarity and apparent simplicity.
This is a volume to be read. It not only informs, but stimulates further thought and study, and many of the themes and subjects chosen could be used as introductory to Bible Class studies.
Readers will not find here any wild flights of fancy, nor extravagance of thought or imagination, but the expression in disciplined prose of a sane and informed mind, nurtured in the Word. Herein lies the great value of bro. Carter’s work. As he truly wrote: “Wide reading can be interesting yet only produce a discursive knowledge—a little about many things. But intensive knowledge of God’s word can transcend in value such diffuse reading. Minds that from some standards are limited in range, can thus really be wonderfully furnished; and men thus equipped can be spiritual giants and of great strength of faith” (page 249).
Here is a guide to further Bible study, informing and stimulating, from the pen of one whose way of life, whose work and thought, whose speech and words, made plain to all his “delight in God’s Law”.
