Whether it is in a large city or a small hamlet, you can always reckon on locating a used bookstore. To visit any of these is an experience in itself. It’s like panning for gold in the streams that flow from the mountaintop, where the mother lode is said to be. Any one of various visits may yield a treasure.
Living on Vancouver Island, B.C. we have a number of gold, silver and coal mines, most of them in what have become ghost towns. The miners have sought for employment elsewhere but they have left their books behind, which now fill the shelves of the second hand bookstores. We were able to purchase a never-been used Strong’s Concordance for three dollars, with greater treasures to come; a tattered 1602 Bible, having once belonged to one family, now discarded by the last heir as of little value. Not knowing its history, we put-it into the hands of a restorer of old manuscripts. Puzzled himself regarding this very old Bible, he called on a couple of University experts. After hours of research, they came to the conclusion it was a Bishop Bible printed in 1602. After many more hours of careful curation, the Bible is now fully restored and we use it in our Bible Exhibitions.
The first edition of the Bishop’s Bible was printed in 1568 as a replacement to the official 1539 Church Bible, also known as the Great Bible. The last printing was in 1603. The Bishop’s Bible, revision of 1572, was made the basis for the King James translation, supposedly authorized by King James 1 of England in 1611, but the translation was to be revised wherever necessary to accord with the latest Hebrew and Greek texts and other earlier translation.
Every old Bible bears a nickname, created from an isolated mistake in its pages, and so the Bishop’s Bible became known as the “Treacle Bible”. The reason being that, as recorded in most translation, we read in Jer 8:22: “Is there no balm in Gilead?” The early translators of Bishop Bible did not know what Hebrew behind “balm” was, so they translated it with “treacle”.
Wonderful trails are to be found looking through the unnumbered shelves of books. “The writing of books there is no end”. Recently in one of our travels from Victoria to Comox we visited an old mining town by the name of Cumberland. In the 1800’s it was a fast-growing coal town, producing the cleanest and best coal available in the west. The wooden shacks and tall buildings witnesses to a prosperous time when miners made a comfortable living with shovels and the oil lamps on their hardhats digging out the black gold.
We are blessed with the Light of the Gospel that prompted us to search out a book or books that would enrich us in this life but more so for the future age of God’s Kingdom.
In another shop, my wife saw, in a section entitled “Collector’s Books” with its royal blue cover, a well-preserved copy of Elpis Israel, by Bro. Thomas. The first thing we did was to see if the name of the previous owner was there, but to no avail. What a wonderful story its pages could tell. Who was its previous owner? Did the message of its pages cause the owner to be baptized? How did it find its way to this small coal town over 6.000 miles from England? The secret to these questions remain locked in this book’s vault. Asking the lady behind the counter how much she wanted for it, her answer was forty dollars. I explained to the lady I would be willing to give her a brand new copy of this book.
For some reason we had to return to that self-same store later on. She recognized us and explained on our departure she had double checked on the computer the list price for this “collector’s book”, and she said, the going price was fifty dollars. Asking questions about the book we were able to enlighten her on its author and contents. “It’s a very special book” she said. How right she was. For many people throughout the past years, especially the early twentieth century it was read often and encouraged many to embrace its teaching and to put on the saving name of Jesus Christ. It’s impossible to put a price on such a book. The disturbing question as we exited the store was “how precious is it in the believer’s lives today?” Most of us have a copy of Elpis Israel in our bookcases but how many have touched it or read its pages? How many times do young speakers, Sunday school teachers use it for a reference book? I know of a brother who would read it once a year.
The wandering into a used book store in Victoria BC gave another brother a surge of excitement when he discovered for a small amount of money, a well-preserved Coverdale Bible.
We are people of the Book, the inspired Word of God. It’s going to be a very sad day when the written words of this precious book is replaced by an electronic gadget. Paul’s advice to the young man Timothy was: “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2Tim 2:15). Go to the used book store in your own home, take down the pioneer works and feast on them, and in that strength, go forth into the world and share their treasures with those who have poor understanding of the “Hope of Israel”.
“Of the writing of books there is no end”, but there is a divine book still in the making. Its author is anxious to write the last chapter. We can help Him to that end by so ordering our lives as God directs. Let us give Him reason to write our names in that book.
“Then they that feared the LORD, spake often one to another: And the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon His name And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him” (Mal 3:16-17).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One