With The Testimony now in its fifty-fifth year of publication there is inevitably only a dwindling number of readers who have subscribed faithfully since issue number 1. But those who still remain, and those other readers who have been fortunate enough, like the author of this review, to be able to obtain a complete set of the issues of the magazine back to January 1931, will know that the production of Special Issues of one kind or another has been a feature of The Testimony for most of its life.
This has, of course, been a matter of policy on the part of those into whose hands the direction of the magazine has been successively committed. For, whilst the structure of the magazine, with its various distinct sections, each with its own associate editor, has been designed from the very beginning to provide a balanced diet of material on a wide variety of topics and interests, the need to offer in-depth, specialised coverage of single subjects has also been recognised, and has been met by devoting to such subjects, from time to time, part, or whole, or even enlarged issues of the magazine.
The present Promoting Committee of the magazine is aware of the value attached by most readers to this feature of The Testimony. The practice of taking a longer look at topics of current importance or requiring more lengthy consideration has led, over the years, to the publication of many substantial contributions to the literature of the Truth, a number of which have had continuing circulation and use. The magazine is currently committed to producing two Special Issues per year; and in order to be able to plan future Specials the Promoting Committee recently asked the present writer to produce a list of the many topics which had already been dealt with in the past. It is now just fifty years since the first Special Issue appeared, and it was thought that Testimony readers might also find it of interest at this jubilee stage to know something of the range of material that has been published in this way in the last half-century. Hence the list overleaf and this review.
The First Special Number (1935)
The “Jerusalem Number” of The Testimony, as the magazine’s first ever Special Issue was called when it was published in March 1935, was very much a collaborative effort between editors and readers. The October 1934 issue carried an announcement about a forthcoming number on Jerusalem, inviting “the co-operation of our supporters in this venture, particularly with hitherto unpublished photographs and ideas as to matter to be included”. The January 1935 issue reported that a conference had been arranged for the 24th of the month in London at which Section Editors and intending contributors would “deal with the completion of our special March number”. The notice also promised that ” as soon as the issue has gone to press, all photographs and pictures that have been kindly loaned will be returned carefully to the senders”.
The response of readers was clearly so extensive, and so many suggestions and offers of help were received, that the original plan, to produce “a very informative issue of 48 pages”, had to be hastily revised. In the event, the March 1935 issue appeared with no less than 80 pages of material (at a time when the normal monthly size was 36 pages), and the Special Issue could be justifiably described as “a vademecum for the student and a source of interesting and valuable reference material to all who love ‘The Land’ and ‘The City’.
There were over twenty full-length articles, by many well-known brethren such as F. E. Mitchell, I. Collyer, R. A. Overton, W. H. Boulton, R. Lovelock and W. J. Young. In addition there was a mass of short, documentary pieces, maps, plans, photographs and sketches, contributed by a large number of brethren (including what must have been a very youthful Brother D. A. B. Owen, who is still serving on the Committee!).
The whole issue was presented with an illustrated cover (The Testimony’s first) showing an artist’s impression of the Damascus Gate with the volume and issue number emblazoned on the door of the city itself, along with the legend: “Price Six-pence”! This was, in fact, the normal price of an ‘ordinary’ issue of the magazine at that time, and it indicates the fact that, from the first, the Promoting Committee has regarded the Special Issues as sufficiently important in the magazine’s service to the Truth to be published at a greatly subsidised price. This policy, which continues to this day—though now, thanks to modern printing methods, with fewer attendant financial ‘risks’—has of course presumed on the availability of capital to finance any losses incurred. In a magazine which has always been run on something of a shoestring, Special Issue subsidising has required especially careful management and has occasionally led to public appeals for funds which, in the providence of God, have always led to an adequate and generous response.
The first thirty years (1935-65)
The success of the first Special Number (4,500 copies were sold and many new subscribers gained) encouraged the editors of the magazine to repeat the formula again in the spring of each successive year. Writing in October 1935 to invite similar co-operation from readers for the March 1936 Special Issue, the editorial secretary, Brother G. E. Dancer, gave a small glimpse of the time-consuming labours involved in the preparation of a ‘Special’: “It will be appreciated that such a venture involves a great deal of work on the part of a small staff of amateurs”. The response from readers to this plea for help was again a ready one, and so the “Bible Number” came to be published, and, in the following years, a Special Issue on the Apostle Paul (March 1937), one on Moses (March 1938) and one on the Lord Jesus as Messiah (April 1939).
The “Messiah Number” (the 100th issue since the magazine had begun) was a particularly remarkable production. Not only was it the largest published up to that time (88 pages), but so much relevant material was received for publication that it also overflowed into the first sixteen pages of the next ordinary monthly issue, with articles So popular did this feature of the magazine become that in 1938 the first four Special Numbers were re-issued as a single bound volume, called The Testimony Studies.
It is, therefore, reasonable to conjecture that this regular sequence would have continued but for the outbreak of hostilities between Britain and Germany. The magazine itself was able to carry on in spite of the war, but only under considerable difficulties. Postal problems, pressure of personal circumstances affecting those who wrote as well as those who edited and proofread, the problems of evacuation and, eventually, of restrictions on the use of paper—all these factors contributed to a hand-to-mouth existence for the magazine. It is not surprising, therefore, that the ‘luxury’ of Special Numbers was forgone, not just for the duration of the war, but also during the times of shortage and rationing which continued for so long once the war itself was over.
As many readers will know, the magazine was obliged to adopt a much smaller, pocket-sized format (from January 1942 onwards), and was obliged, in order to maintain the same approximate volume of contents, to change to a very much smaller typeface (roughly the size of our present footnote type!).
It was no doubt with considerable satisfaction, therefore, that Brother Arthur Williamson, the General Secretary of the Magazine from its inception, published the following “Important Message to all our Readers” in the November 1949 issue:
“If you received The Testimony before 1939 you will pleasurably recall its outstanding qualities, and also have fragrant memories of the several ‘Special Numbers’.
You will therefore be interested to learn that The Testimony Committee have agreed, subject to the Lord’s will, as and from January 1950, to change the size of the present Magazine to that which was published in 1939. To mark the change-over, they are also arranging to issue a further’ Special Number’, ‘The Disciples Number’, details of which will soon be made known”.
The “Disciples Number” was eventually published in April 1950, and proved to be one of the largest, and possibly the most enterprising, of all the Special Issues ever produced. By then the cost of a single copy of the magazine had risen, in line with post-war inflation, to ninepence; but the “Disciples Number”, with its 108 pages, full-colour illustrations, and folding charts, must have seemed excellent value. Its list of contributors reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of Christadelphians, with the inclusion of articles by H. A. Twelves, P. Watkins, H. Tennant, W. H. Hill, W. H. Boulton, M. Purkis, W. L. Bedwell and Islip Collyer, to name but a few. And though the style of the illustrations might not appeal to present-day tastes, many of the articles represent outstanding contributions to our understanding of the life in Christ. Brother Collyer’s piece, for example (“Christian discipleship”), is one of the many gems, and has been deservedly reprinted on many occasions, both as an article and, separately, as a pamphlet in its own right.
It is all the more surprising, therefore, in view of the continued success of the Special Issues, to discover in retrospect that from this “Disciples Number”, in April 1950, until the Special Issue on “The Bible and Modem Thinking” in September 1965, there was only one further Special Number, the so-called “Coronation Number” of May 1953. And even that was only a part issue, a pale reflection of the six previous ‘blockbusters’. What it did mark, however, was a new development which many later Special Issues have followed— an attempt to be topical, by responding with a Special Issue to matters of current interest or concern, whether in the Brotherhood or the world generally. This was presumably the impulse which almost gave birth to a Special Issue in 1958 on “The Signs of the Times”. Almost, but not quite! The matter was discussed, but was shelved, apparently because of fmancial difficulties. There may, of course, have been other considerations that entered in, not least the large amount of extra work involved for editors who were already very busy men in the service of the Truth; but whatever the reasons, the fact remains that for twelve years, from 1953 to 1965, The Testimony produced no Special Issues of any kind, and it took a serious problem in the Brotherhood to bring about the publication of another which was worthy of its predecessors.
A decade of topicality (1965-75)
The three Special Issues which appeared between September 1965 and January 1975 were all highly topical numbers. As those who lived through the period will know, the middle 1960s were fraught with ecclesial problems, many of them emanating from the Endeavour movement and from the writings of Brother R T. Lovelock, especialy in respect of the alleged non-literality of the Serpent of the Genesis record. “The Bible and modern thinking—assent or dissent?” (September 1965) was The Testimony’s head-on response to this formidable array of current problems. Devised and produced by a small sub-committee headed by Brother E. Whittaker, and published under the vigorous editorship of Brother H. W. Craddock, this Special Issue was virile and forthright in a way which the magazine had hardly ever been before.
The perilous times required this approach, however, and the Issue was widely acclaimed in the Brotherhood, almost 7,000 copies being printed and sold within a few months, with a considerable increase in regular subscribers accruing to the magazine as a result Articles by Brother John Watts on “The Theory of Evolution”, by Brother Peter Watkins on “The literality of the Serpent in Eden”, by Brother James Carter on “A Balance between Doctrine and ‘Good Works’, by Brother Edward Whittaker on “Bible Prophecy: Speculation or Revelation?”, and by Brother Elwyn Humphries on “Genesis or Geology”, are just a few of the many highlights of a magazine which reads as well today as it did twenty years ago when it first appeared. The whole Issue, written essentially to meet the pressing problems of the times, has stood the test of time as “a challenge to accept the Scriptures, on the spiritual, doctrinal, moral and historical contents of their Divine Revelation to man”.
Three years later, the next Special Issue was a double-size number, marking the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. Known familiarly as the ‘Blue Book on Israel’, and published in May 1968, “The Land—the People—the Book: all about Israel” is still regarded by many as a valuable textbook on a subject which is so close to the heart of Christadelphians generally. With articles on the past, present and future aspects of Israel, and with topics ranging from history and geography to anti-Semitism and latter-day prophecy, and with a wide variety of authors, including Brethren James Carter, Graham Pearce, Fred Mitchell, Melva Purkis, Francis Morgan, Edward Whittaker and the Editor, Hubert Craddock, the Special Issue was a powerful and authoritative compilation. It could not fail to capture the imagination of a community which, less than twelve months earlier, had been agog at the events and the aftermath of Israel’s June 1967 victory over the Arabs—the so-called ‘Six Day War’.
Such was the success of the 1968 Special Issue on Israel, and the interest generated by it, that the same subject (which by then had become very much a live issue again due to the ‘Yom Kippur War’ of 1973) was chosen for the next Special, in January 1975.
Planned initially by a sub-committee of three, and edited by Brother Edward Whittaker, “Israel: Land of Promise” sought to update earlier articles, to deal with topics not previously covered, and also to include new aspects of the worldwide situation in relation to Israel. Contributions touching on the contemporary international problems—overpopulation, oil-supply, rampant inflation—found a place side by side with material on Zionism, archaeological discoveries in Jerusalem, Israeli defence and economic policy, as well as with articles on prophecy in which it was clearly shown that the end of the present order cannot be far away. With the Middle East “teetering on the brink of war” when this 1975 Special Issue was published, the Testimony’s second Israel number enjoyed an extensive readership in the Brotherhood, and fulfilled its objective of “encouraging those who long for the Hope of Israel to appear”.
‘Quarterly Specials’ on a shoestring (1976-81)
In the mid-1970s rampant inflation began seriously to affect the economic viability of the magazine, and the scope for publishing enlarged Special Issues at a loss all but vanished. The Publishing Editor, Brother Don Owen, frankly explained this to Testimony readers in November 1975:
“We have always made a loss on Special Numbers, but this was covered by the modest profit from normal sales. However, we can no longer afford to subsidise these extra-page issues”.
Yet such was the importance attached by readers to this particular feature of the magazine that the Promoting Committee determined to continue it, albeit in a slightly different form. This was how the ‘Quarterly Specials’ began the regular production of miniature specials, consisting normally of eight- or twelve-page central features, usually on yellow paper to distinguish them, but forming part of the standard forty pages of the magazine, and therefore costing little more than usual to produce. In this way, ironically, a lot more ‘special’ topics could be covered, as a glance at the complete list will show.
To ensure variety and to spread the editorial workload, responsibility for each Quarterly Special’ was delegated to one or two Section Editors at a time, and to them fell the task of suggesting themes and commissioning suitable authors. The new pattern proved workable and turned out to be acceptable to readers, who soon became accustomed to the quarterly ‘yellow pages’. There were also occasional variations, such as a two-part Special’ spreading into successive months (January/February 1977), an issue produced by a committee member rather than an editor (April 1979), a number consisting of reprints of earlier material (January 1981), or a whole issue on a problem topic of current importance (April 1981—by which time the magazine had been forced by rising printing costs to reduce its monthly size to thirty-two pages).
One way or another, those responsible for the magazine were determined that Special Issues would remain a regular feature of The Testimony’s service in the “Study and Defence of the Holy Scripture”, and with God’s providential help this objective was achieved, even in straitened circumstances.
Smoother waters: the revival of whole Special Issues (1982)
The considerable demand for copies of the April 1981 Special Issue about the Holy Spirit and the ‘Evangelical Challenge’ prompted the Testimony Committee to continue with other aspects of the same theme by producing a further whole issue in January 1982, entitled “The Spirit is at work today”.
In the same year, too, the financial difficulties associated with the magazine’s production were considerably eased by the change to a new printer, whose use of the new technology made the more economical, on-demand printing of extra copies of Special Issues a possibility, as well as reducing the regular production costs to a reasonable level. It became possible, therefore, to introduce whole, or even enlarged, Special Issues on a twice-yearly basis, and this has been the pattern ever since. The schedule is, of course, a demanding one for the Section Editors responsible, but the favourable reaction of subscribers and the brisk sale of extra copies has more than justified the extra effort involved. Editors are glad to have the opportunity to develop important themes at length, and the Testimony Committee is confident that many of these productions represent significant contributions to the literature of the Truth. Key doctrines such as Inspiration and The Atonement, and topical issues like the Creation/Evolution debate, have been given the extended treatment they deserve, and it is hoped that similar subjects can be dealt with successfully in the coming years, if God wills and if Christ remains away. Suggestions are, of course, always welcome from readers. It is The Testimony’s aim to assist the Brotherhood in its study and understanding of the Word of God, and it is always helpful to know what readers would like to see as well as what they think of what is published.
In looking back in this way over fifty years of Testimony Special Issues, there is good cause for gratitude for so many things: for the hard work and dedication of a succession of unpaid volunteers who have produced so much valuable material for the spiritual benefit of others; for the loyalty and generosity of so many faithful subscribers; and for the opportunity of giving literary expression to so many dearly-held truths. But above and behind it all there is the awareness for those closely involved that the work, in all its vicissitudes and all its different phases, has been richly blessed from above. For them, the Special Issues have been ‘special’ in a quite extraordinary way.
Review of “The Early Earth” by John Whitcomb (1972)