Reading Between the Lines

There is no form of entertainment that has been more enjoyed that that of the radio. I remember the first radios, battery powered, operating just during daylight, mostly a lot of static. I well remember the first car radio, there was a time when there was no radios in cars. Today's young “rubber-burners” would not believe “running boards”, crank handles for windows, no power steering, no anti-freeze, no springs in the seats. My first car, 1941 Plymouth, did not have a radio or a heater, air conditioning is very recent. One of my relatives bought his first Cadillac, air conditioning was very new, and he did not have air conditioning in this car, but they drove around with the windows closed because they wanted everyone to think that they did.

I am completely addicted to radio...living alone, it gives me company. Blind, radios on, gives me direction. Problem is I get nauseated with radio advertising. An estimated $20 billion a year is spent in America on radio advertisements, such as “your baby can learn to read”. The advertisement states that a baby can learn to read as he learns to talk. A child's eyes are not developed until around the age of 5. It is more important to develop the hand-eye coordination of a child through toys and play. No child should be sabotaged with such a neural task as reading until the eyes are developed. Vision is a learned skill, amblyopia exonesopia (partial blindness) results if this neurology involving the nervous system is not carefully developed. The six pairs of muscles attached to the eyeballs must work together, ablyopia, (squint) can result if this carefully balanced neurological learned skill is not carefully controlled.

Nothing in the human experience is more important than reading, and I am convinced, every child of normal intelligence can learn to read. It is hard enough to get along in this world when you can read, what chance has the illiterate...instructions, telephone books, prescriptions, and the thing most important to every illiterate I have ever known, reading the Bible.

I paid for many years of advanced education selling Bibles door-to-door, until then I had no idea how many illiterate people live in this world, how many would say to me, “son, I would give anything to be able to read that book.” Every time I thought of these words, I thought of the many intelligent people who could read anything, who never read the most important book in the world, the very book dictated by God.

My church decided to have a series of services at night, folks in the country would call this a revival meeting, but fancy city baptists call such a “series of meetings”. They decided to have cottage prayer services in each community, wherein members in that community would gather in one person's home to pray for the church in the meeting. I was asked to speak at one of the cottage services in my area, among the people there, living in my area, the richest man in the church, who happened to be the richest man in town and also the husband of my father's first cousin, he was chairman of the board of the state's largest utility. There was the county sheriff, known for his crooked regime, at the service was a doctor of obstetrics, a known abortionist. I was sincere in my remarks, sincere in my beliefs, honest in wanting a revival for that “dead” church, its “dead” pastor, dead choir. Like the church at Sarduz, it was a morgue with a steeple. I spoke of our lives being a living testimony, our lives being an example to the world, I could tell that they were very unconcerned, that they mostly, if they read the bible at all, just read between the lines. Snickering at committed believers. The doctor said to me later, “Tom, you really take religion too seriously.”

Polls have shown that very few people ever buy a book, or go into a book store. Libraries, although taking many tax dollars, are seldom used by the public. I have had young people tell me that they have never read a book. Not even one of the classics, not even a comic book. Books, over a hundred years ago, were very rare and expensive. The history of art mirrors the history of philosophy. The history of philosophy mirrors the history of books, all have gone downward. From beautiful leather bound books, to inexpensive paperbacks.

I started as an antiquarian book collector 50 years ago, have had the privilege of owning and holding some of the world's finest. Old books are owned as much for their drawings (frontispiece), and gold edges (a.e.g. - all edges gilt), marbled edges (a.e.m – all edges marbled), holograph (anything handwritten by the author), autographs (any book is worth more autographed by the author, an autographed Hemingway is worth many thousands of dollars, and it does not have to be an old book, recent famous author's autographed book are worth much), as anything else. Recent history dictates that the cover jacket gives the pricing, the jacket is worth more than the book and is often reconstructed if damaged. For the collector, it is just the joy of owning the first edition. This is a wonderful hobby and business for someone who'd rather be inside than outside. The antiquarian book collector, like the art expert, knows his business. Unless a misspelled word is on a certain page, it is not a first edition, the most expensive first-editions have the gold gilding on the edge of the spine page, put there before the cover. Many antiquarian books, bound in England, contain advertisements inside the covers, collectors are looking for certain things, are not easily fooled, are willing to pay. But I will tell you now that online selling has destroyed the antiquarian book market. Many “old” libraries and “old” bookstores have dumped their “old” books on the market. Most are willing to accept just a few dollars for what would have, many years ago, sold for thousands. But, no one knew they had the book, nor did they know that the book was valuable. Thieves are everywhere, some smart antiquarian book thieves managed to get books out of the vaults of libraries, and they are on the market. Buying and selling antiquarian books is like buying and selling old art, old cars, old prints, old magazines, antiques, you must know what you are doing.

The Bible was not completed until 90AD, previously, they were mostly scrolls, kept in the temple or church. The Hebrews would stand for hours listening to the scrolls read or recited by the prophets. Many of the early temples and churches did not have pews, the people would stand throughout the services.

I remember the first bookmobile in our community, my mother so prized the books we were allowed to read. Many homes did not have reading material, as poor as we were, my parents always subscribed to the newspaper, to two magazines: Look, and The Progressive Farmer. I had in my extensive book collection over 250 catalogs mostly from Sears and Roebuck, there is no better history book, in this ancient catalogs you find horse harnesses, wood stoves, samples of cloth material and wallpaper. At one time, these books were in every rural home, I sold these books for a good price. Often one would be bought to honor the birth date of a mother or friend. What better memorabilia could you have on your coffee table?

Of all the biblical cities, not one is as beautiful and well preserved as Ephesus. I stood there, thinking of Paul in 50 AD as he later wrote the book to the Ephesians. You can abound in all wisdom and prudence (Ephesians 1:8), you can know the geography of the world, the history of the world. Especially today, with the internet, able to read, you can read anything, any disease, any documents. Well informed, you do not have to read between the lines, but can stand up to anyone with knowledge. Learn to bow low to God and stand tall before men through the gift of reading.