Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 117:466 (Apr 1960)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: James F. Rand

BSac 117:466 (Apr 60) p. 189

Periodical Reviews

James F. Rand

Alloway, Norma A., “The Night before Sunday,” Moody Monthly, January, 1960.

This is one of several intensely practical articles which have appeared in various periodicals during the past quarter. Wife of a Toronto business man, Mrs. Alloway found that her Sundays were far from being a “day of rest and gladness” until she discovered the simple truth that Sunday begins on Saturday. Readers will enjoy this interesting look into the life of a family which has found that advance preparation is one way of insuring that Sunday will be a day of blessing.

Appearing in the same issue of Moody Monthly is “The Pastor’s Wife” by Dorothy J. Pentecost, wife of a Dallas Seminary faculty member. “Twenty years of experience as a minister’s wife has taught me two very important lessons,” she writes. “First, the pastor’s wife should be as definitely called to that position just as the missionary’s wife is called to be a minister. This call is seldom a mysterious and earth-shaking experience. It is more often a slow unfolding of God’s will by an inner urge coupled with circumstances.” She decries a growing tendency for the minister’s wife to feel she has no responsibility in the life of the church her husband serves. “Second, the church takes the pastor and wife as a team. Many times we feel that this is unfair, since we face the fact that everything we do and say affects our husband’s usefulness to the Lord and to the church in some way.” Having set forth her basic principles, Mrs. Pentecost gives three emphases which should characterize the life of the pastor’s wife. “Let’s put the emphasis on love instead of leadership…. Let’s put the emphasis on prayer instead of planning….Let’s put the emphasis on the Word instead of working.” The whole article is filled with practical hints for the pastor’s wife which makes it well worth reading.

Still a third article in this issue is Stan Best’s unusual story, “The Shovel.” The author uses this intriguing way to point out some practical lessons for the pastor who finds the burden of the work too great because of the overload of committee meetings, and the various other preoccupations of the contemporary pastor. It makes good reading and will be helpful to all, including the church member who often has been guilty of loading down his pastor with trivia which might well be handled by the laity of the church.

Barnhouse, Donald Grey, “A Survey of Missions in Spanish America,” Eternity, February, 1960.

Those who would know more about conditions in the lands to the south of us would do well to read this penetrating survey of the work of missionar...