Appendix 12
Weekly exhortations
If you want to access exhortations on a regular basis, perhaps to use Sunday by Sunday, books apart, the best source of supply is the Christadelphian Isolation League, who can supply that material on an on-going basis. Contact their Exhortation Secretary, Brother Paul Rushforth or their Librarian, if you want taped exhortations to borrow or buy (there’s a catalogue available). Contact details are on the CIL website or in the CALS Diary.
In order to view this material you need to request access (click on the link on the left of the site). The access request form will allow you to set up your own user name and password to access the site with. The form requires the entry of a registration code (available from the Isolation League). The site contains five years’ worth of exhortations, as well as Bible Studies and Bible Talks, so it’s well worth accessing and browsing.
If you prefer something in book format, other than those already mentioned, the Dawn Fellowship has published a series of books of exhortations for every month of the year, titled (not surprisingly) January Exhortations and so on.
Exhortational material
If you are preparing an exhortation, you don’t necessarily want an exhortation to read but might prefer something that will help you to focus upon a theme that would be upbuilding and encouraging, and suitable for a breaking of bread. Brother John Roberts has written a booklet, Thoughts at the Breaking of Bread, in which he meditates upon the actual occasion in the Upper Room and its significance. That helpfully sets the scene.
We have many published works which can get your mind thinking along the right lines, most of them still in print. Brother Dennis Gillett’s two books of exhortations were a sequel to his earlier writings. His Genius of Discipleship is a gem and can be read over and over again with benefit. They are short studies on particular aspects of our life in Christ, but they are thoughtfully structured and beautifully written. Brother Dennis’ love of words was demonstrated in a series of short articles in The Christadelphian over several years, which were later published as Words and Weights. He has short chapters on “But” and “And” and “Unless”, and much more. His other book of exhortational material is He Healeth all Thy Diseases in which Brother Dennis considers the spiritual health of the disciple and some of the problems we need to avoid if we are to remain fit and able in the Master’s service.
Another writer who expressed himself almost poetically at times was Brother L. G. Sargent and his various writings deserve more attention than they sometimes get. If you are new to his writing, his book A Sound Mind contains a mixture of articles, and editorials, all of an exhortational nature and designed to build up soundness of mind. Here’s a short extract from his piece on “The Implanted Word”:
“If the word does not transform life, then it has not been born in us – or at the least, it has had no chance to grow. Yet, true as that is, one thing may be affirmed with confidence: neither Peter nor James – any more than Paul – thought of the word as effecting only a moral reformation. For all of them faith is the ground of life. If faith without works is dead, works without faith are a delusion, and eternal life by works inconceivable.
“It is because faith is the ground of life that the ‘word of truth’ is vital: and to be the word of truth it must be true, even God’s truth. Beyond all doubt it is the teaching of scripture that the true life is at every point and every stage God’s gift. It is receivable through faith, and faith in the Biblical sense is only possible in that which can be trusted as true. A man may say ‘I believe’ and mean no more than ‘I hold it as an opinion’. In the Scriptural sense ‘I believe’ means ‘I put my whole life in trust in the conviction that this is true’. Biblical faith is not a leap in the dark; it is a coming to the light.”
If you think that we are in need of reformation as a community, and in a way every exhortation is trying to achieve some degree of that change of behaviour, then you shouldn’t miss Brother Harry Whittaker’s Reformation, but be ready to accept some opinions you may not entirely agree with. It will certainly make you think hard about your own attitudes and aspirations. His Letters to George and Jenny contain some hard-hitting advice to younger people too.
Brother John Marshall’s book The New Life, written in 1987, looks at all aspects of the disciple’s conduct, including things like the dangers of the world, preaching, our relationship to the State, courtship, marriage, service in the ecclesia. Full of good advice, it is now a little dated and is out of print. (It is still available occasionally second-hand: keep watching the list of what’s available, which is updated each month.) Advice about serving in the Ecclesia is also available in Brother Harry Tennant’s Servants of the Lord, chapter seven having some advice for exhorting brethren:
“Acceptable matter for exhortation rarely comes out of the blue. Inspiration and genius are not the key. Four things are necessary: God’s exhortations – His living word designed for our very need and revealing itself to the meditative, regular reader; prayer – he who learns to lean upon a sympathetic Mediator in heaven will acquire a similar spirit toward others; self-examination – let the exhorter examine himself, ferret out his every need and ask himself what would a good exhortation perform in him; an awareness of others – fellowship revealing itself in being conscious of the joys and sorrows, trials and triumphs, pitfalls and upward helps of the many kinds of brethren and sisters. The quality of the good wine of exhortation is then sealed by careful preparation.”
Brother Islip Collyer was mentioned earlier as a contributor to the collected exhortations published in 1921 and 1942. Three books were published of these exhortations or studies, The Guiding Light (1945), Principles and Proverbs (1960) and Conviction and Conduct (1944). They are products of their time, but have continuing value and Brother Islip had a style all his own. Here’s an extract from his piece about “Self-Examination”, which gives you an idea of his approach:
“This work [of self-examination] is necessarily an individual matter, and herein lies the difficulty. A man is his own accuser, his own defender, and his own judge. With the most complete facilities for knowing the full measure of his guilt, he unites a most unjudicial bias in favour of the accused. He perhaps possesses all the knowledge necessary to draw up an unanswerable indictment; but his talent is mainly employed to find extenuating circumstances. He has all the skill of a defending counsel to raise a false issue, but lacks the impartiality of a judge to expose the pretence.”
Collected articles
Many of the books already reviewed began life as articles written in the magazine and were later published as collections which reflect the views of the writer over many years. Witness for Christ, published in 1943, just after he had fallen asleep, was such a collection which brought together some of the writings of Brother C. C. Walker. And Guided by the Star, in 1948, was a reminder of the addresses given by Brother C. A. Ladson over many years.
More recently, some of Brother Len Richardson’s addresses and writings were published in two books, which are now out of print. Balancing the Book (1990) was a study of Biblical paradoxes and Biblical Browsing for Believers (1996) contains nine exhortations and a mixture of different studies, some of which were first written for the Christadelphian Isolation League.
This helpful process of publishing material that first appeared in magazine format owes its origins to the work of Brother Roberts who was keen to preserve the writings of Brother John Thomas in book form. Works like Phanerosis and Anastasis first appeared as separate pamphlets, but have now been collected together and republished. They are available in various editions; most recently The Faith in the Last Days, a selection of Brother Thomas’s writings was published, with an introduction by Brother John Carter (who had also published the earlier works in memory of Brethren Walker and Ladson). A collection of his own writings Delight in God’s Law was recently republished by the CMPA and contains some of his exhortations, and much besides.
Meditations
If you just want something short and snappy with which to start your day, Brother Bob Lloyd’s Minute Meditations take about that long to read (if you’re a quick reader!). They are full of neat ideas and helpful thoughts, presented in Brother Bob’s inimitable way. These are also available online: just put his name and “Minute Meditations” in your search engine and they pop up from everywhere!
The book written by Brother F. W. Turner, entitled Meditations, encourages spiritual reflection in the same way, but in a much less up-to-date style. And if you want something even gentler, which you might read at your bedside just before dropping off, The Bedside Watchman was published by the Year of Witness Committee (in 1976) and can still be obtained second-hand.
Non-Christadelphian writings
What we have been doing as a community, others have done as well. There are collections of addresses and articles available from countless writers and speakers. If you have found a favourite author, it might be worth trying to find out if some of their addresses were subsequently published, perhaps posthumously. These volumes fall into one of two categories: studies or sermons. In the former category would be works by people like F. F. Bruce, some of whose essays were collated in A Mind for What Matters (1990), or J. A. T. Robinson in his Twelve New Testament Studies (1962) and Twelve More New Testament Studies (1984).
Collections of exhortations or sermons are a good deal less useful for our purposes in that these addresses are likely to be much more rhetorical and doctrinal. There are exceptions: H. E. Fosdick wrote some interesting essays, and his books like Twelve Tests of Character can be stimulating, albeit dated. Henry Drummonds’ The Greatest Thing in the World is a little gem, but his other sermons don’t reach the same level of intensity or insight.
Preaching
Whilst it may not be immediately advantageous to be reading or listening to sermons delivered by non-Christadelphians, some help can be obtained by reading about the way they go about their sermon preparation, and the methods of presentation and delivery they have found useful. Bear in mind that sometimes “the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light”.
Mention has been made earlier in this series of Brother Alfred Norris’ Preaching the Word, but it merits another mention for it is full of good ideas for Bible study and presentation. W. E. Sangster wrote two little books, The Craft of Sermon Construction and The Craft of Sermon Illustration which give some helpful insights, the latter of course meaning illustration by anecdote rather than PowerPoint. Speakers who have developed the habit of putting their entire address onto the screen and then merely reading it to the congregation would benefit by going back to basics and asking what purpose illustrations are actually meant to achieve.
The most detailed and helpful analysis of the preacher’s task that I have come across is John Stott’s I Believe in Preaching (1982). It contains a lot of good advice. But I expect you have come across other useful material which can help with the preparation of Exhortational material. If so, please write in and tell us.