The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the Banner of Truth
May 2, 2011
Today I call on the readers of Reformation 21 to flex their online muscles.
I am asking the Banner of Truth for two things; not that they republish ''Among the Soviet Evangelicals'', nor that they bring back the Scottish tourist board covers, not even that they invite Carl Trueman to speak at their conference but firstly that they put the back copies of their magazine onto a CD Rom and that they publish JC Ryle's ''Expository thoughts on the Gospels'' in hardback.
Let me give you my personal reasons for these requests.
My father recently gave me his collection of Banner magazines; 3 huge boxes full. Apart from one year they are all there from 1955. I am very grateful to my dad, but it has wiped out all available shelf space in my little wooden office down the bottom of the garden (known affectionately as the Francis Schaeffer Memorial Hall). I don't want to appear ungrateful to my father but there is literally no room for any more books. He's also given me the Finder compiled by Michael Keen which is excellent in allowing one to reference material but it's still hard work trying to find things. I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. I can't throw them out as they are a present from my father but there's no room for them. I am pleading with the Banner to produce a CD-Rom of their back issues. I know it's a mountain of work for them but I'd pay £50 for it for certain, even £75. Carl, Liam and Derek would obviously be able to pay far, far more and I would urge the Banner to exploit the Brits in America!! I reckon there's a market for a CD-Rom of the back issues of their magazine. The Briefing have done it, the Westminster journal have done it, why not the Banner? If this ruse is successful I can then send my fathers magazines to Africa, thus pleasing him and allowing a whole generation of Africans to learn to speak and dress like Banner men.
Secondly I am a huge fan of JC Ryle's expository thoughts on the gospels. I'm on my third copy of Mark and Matthew and second of the other volumes. The reason is the binding on the banner paper back edition is terrible to say the least. If you bend it back it cracks and then it's loose pages all the way. I'm aware that there are hard back editions out there second hand, and some American publishers have produced them recently, but they are not a Banner cloth bound hard back. My point is that nobody does a hard back like the Banner, as the esteemed editor has also testified here.
Please support me in these requests. I would have a petition but I've never signed a petition in a Christian context that has made the slightest bit of diffference, so my plea is: bombard the Banner of Truth office, email, write, ring, turn up, stage a sit in. Make a pledge that you'd buy the CD-Rom and Ryle hard backs.
I am asking the Banner of Truth for two things; not that they republish ''Among the Soviet Evangelicals'', nor that they bring back the Scottish tourist board covers, not even that they invite Carl Trueman to speak at their conference but firstly that they put the back copies of their magazine onto a CD Rom and that they publish JC Ryle's ''Expository thoughts on the Gospels'' in hardback.
Let me give you my personal reasons for these requests.
My father recently gave me his collection of Banner magazines; 3 huge boxes full. Apart from one year they are all there from 1955. I am very grateful to my dad, but it has wiped out all available shelf space in my little wooden office down the bottom of the garden (known affectionately as the Francis Schaeffer Memorial Hall). I don't want to appear ungrateful to my father but there is literally no room for any more books. He's also given me the Finder compiled by Michael Keen which is excellent in allowing one to reference material but it's still hard work trying to find things. I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. I can't throw them out as they are a present from my father but there's no room for them. I am pleading with the Banner to produce a CD-Rom of their back issues. I know it's a mountain of work for them but I'd pay £50 for it for certain, even £75. Carl, Liam and Derek would obviously be able to pay far, far more and I would urge the Banner to exploit the Brits in America!! I reckon there's a market for a CD-Rom of the back issues of their magazine. The Briefing have done it, the Westminster journal have done it, why not the Banner? If this ruse is successful I can then send my fathers magazines to Africa, thus pleasing him and allowing a whole generation of Africans to learn to speak and dress like Banner men.
Secondly I am a huge fan of JC Ryle's expository thoughts on the gospels. I'm on my third copy of Mark and Matthew and second of the other volumes. The reason is the binding on the banner paper back edition is terrible to say the least. If you bend it back it cracks and then it's loose pages all the way. I'm aware that there are hard back editions out there second hand, and some American publishers have produced them recently, but they are not a Banner cloth bound hard back. My point is that nobody does a hard back like the Banner, as the esteemed editor has also testified here.
Please support me in these requests. I would have a petition but I've never signed a petition in a Christian context that has made the slightest bit of diffference, so my plea is: bombard the Banner of Truth office, email, write, ring, turn up, stage a sit in. Make a pledge that you'd buy the CD-Rom and Ryle hard backs.
