Tribulation Worketh

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For most of us, Christmas will be a Season of joyful giving, receiving, and worshiping. However, there will be some who feel it practically impossible to participate in the Christmas spirit, perhaps on account of personal loss, or trial of various kinds. For such among us, Tribulation Worketh by George Watson may prove a blessing. In it, he talks about the work of suffering in our lives and the blessing it leaves in its wake. In the introduction to this little book, its author has this to say:


“There is a marvelous variety among saints and no book but the Bible is large enough to fit every case. But with most sanctified believers, there is a passage in their lives, sometimes extending over years, which might be called the “Arizona” (a desert state in the United States) of religious life; and as in passing from the rich prairies of the Western states to the evergreen fields of Southern California, the traveler must cross a stretch of dry territory, so between the early and the latter rain there is a period of drought. But be it remembered that this drought is just as essential to the fullness of Christian life as the rain is, and this is what many do not understand. It is the dry spell that tests everything, and puts quality into the harvest which nothing else could. If the soul passes safely through the rainless period and meets the conditions, there will come in due time the latter rain.”

O break my heart; but break it as a field
Is by the plough up-broken for the corn;
O break it as the buds, by green leaf sealed,
Are, to unloose the golden blossom, torn;
Love would I offer unto Love’s great Master,
Set free the odor, break the alabaster.

O break my heart; break it victorious God,
That life’s eternal well may flash abroad;
O let it break as when the captive trees,
Breaking cold bonds, regain their liberties;
And as thought’s sacred grove to life is springing
Be joys, like birds, their hope, Thy victory singing.

Tribulation Worketh is published by Harvey Christian Publishers. Edwin and Lillian Harvey scoured the books of George Watson on the subject of suffering and compiled this little book, trusting it would prove a blessing to Christians undergoing trials of various kinds. The above quotations are taken from the introduction to this book

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Broken Bread

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Harvey Christian Publishers have published the book Broken Bread by John Wright Follette. Mr. Follette was a unique thinker and writer and was willing for God to lead him out of “the box” and into a wide panorama of spiritual truth which he imparted to hungry souls in seminars and conferences while living, and he still speaks through his writing to those of us who long for more of Christ’s inexhaustible supplies of grace. Below are some choice quotes from this book:

“Paul could have felt sorry for himself and so confused over the unkind things the people were saying that he might have developed an ugly spirit toward them. I like these lines of Edwin Markham:

‘He drew a circle that shut me out—
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win,
We drew a circle that took him in.’

“Can you be big enough to say, “I will love you in spite of it; I will make a circle that shuts you in with God and me”? That is being like the Lord. Don’t sit down in Troas and mourn, but sit through your hour of darkness and listen for the Voice, and as sure as you live, God will open the door which He wants you to enter, where you may serve Him far better than you could have done in Bithynia.” (pp. 51-52)

“I am a flame born of celestial fire,
I bear a name, Insatiable Desire.
I wear in heart an image all divine,
Past human art, not traced by mortal line.
I hear God call to taste His heavenly power:
I give my all to burn life’s single hour.
So let me burn through fetters that would bind;
Thus will I learn and freedom will I find.
I shall return to Love’s eternal fire,
There shall I burn—a satisfied desire.”
—John Wright Follette (p. 62)

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Leonard Ravenhill

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Leonard Ravenhill wrote to Edwin & Lillian Harvey while they still resided in Britain back in the 1970′s asking if he could be a representative for the two volumes of “Kneeling We Triumph” here in the US. Most of the time from then on he kept a quantity of price lists on hand to give or send to people and would highlight the books he especially wanted to emphasize. “Kneeling We Triumph” would invariably be among the highlighted titles. It was interesting for me when receiving an order to be quite sure it was a price list that originated from Mr. Ravenhill because there would be ten or so highlighted but not all ordered.
God has from time to time moved some of His servants to tell others of our books. That kind of advertizing is a reinforcement to us of the calling He has placed upon us. May the Lord find us always available to give, “Meat in due season.”

Eric or Little by Little

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It is amazing and at times, discouraging, depending on how you look at it, to realize how slowly true progress is achieved. It is equally true that degeneration in any form often occurs “little by little,” in fact so gradually, that we can be totally ignorant of what is happening to us until some failure or perhaps even catastrophe awakens us to our true state.

The alternative title of the book Eric written by Dean Farrar and published by Harvey Christian Publishers, is in fact, Little by Little. Eric was the son of missionaries who was sent to an English boarding school and slowly, very slowly, descended into sin and participated in vices that, a few years previously, would have evoked his most hearty disapproval and horror.
This book is not so much an indictment on English boarding schools, or indeed of any boarding school, as it is a heart-rending illustration of the fact that if evil is not resisted at its incipiency, it will slowly but surely takeover a life and attempt to hurtle it to ruin. It is true that Eric repents in the end but his life has been shortened and glorious possibilities seemingly thwarted as a result of his acquiescence to the evil around him.
It is said that the author received many letters from all over the globe telling him how reading Eric as a family had brought not only conviction but conversion. We therefore, of Harvey Christian Publishers, highly recommend this book. It is particularly suitable for boys of twelve and upwards although it may be enjoyed by the whole family if read together and discussed openly. The English would be considered pedantic by today’s readers. However, it is ranked as “English Literature” by many and once you can get past the “older style,” the story will grip and even transform you.

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