Frances Ridley Havergal, a poet and hymnwriter (“Take My Life and Let It Be”), published this book of devotions in 1879, shortly before her death. I do not know what edition I have, but it looks and feels like an early one.
A note written on an inside page reads, “With pleasant memories of Bible School, Summer of 1945, G. S. Montgomery.”
Published in 1928, this is a book of devotionals that the pastor (George W. Phillips) shared during the Tenth Avenue Baptist Church’s daily radio broadcasts, which began in 1926 out of Oakland, California. Besides the call letters standing for the church’s name, its on-air backronym was “Knowledge, Truth, and Beauty.”
Published by The American Tract Society, this copy is 150 years old and was probably used by Sunday School teachers. The handwritten note inside says “Hickory Grove, SSL No 179, 1871.” Grace Abbott or The Sunday Tea-Party is the story of young Grace trying to keep Sunday special and devoted to God. It’s hard to do, though, with the tea parties and the mean girls tempting Grace to put aside what she learned about the Sabbath. In the end, Grace does prevail!
The Holy Life: A Book for Christians Seeking the Rest of Faith was written in 1875 by the Rev. Evan H. Hopkins. My copy is embossed with a stamp that reads “Sea Pines School for Girls, Massachusetts, Incorporated 1911.”
Reading Mr. Jones, Meet the Master, a book of sermons and prayers, triggered a significant change to my life. A friend encouraged me to buy a paperback we saw at a yard sale, I read it, and, through Peter Marshall’s words, I met a Jesus that no one had been telling me about. In these sermons, Jesus seemed so personal — someone I could really know — and I wondered why he was not being presented to me in that way.
God also used Marshall’s sermons to show my lack of Bible doctrine, even though I had been attending a church regularly for almost two years. I questioned and eventually left that church, and God led me to one that did not stray from the Gospel and the Bible’s truths.
Years later, during one of our church library giveaways, I found this 1953 hardcover edition to add to my collection of treasures.
This is a sweet story of two adopted children who lost their way home, and how “… a kindly Providence sent them to comfort us in our loss.” My copy of Roy and Rosyrocks was published in 1902, and the handwritten note on the book‘s front page reads “To Kathryn, From Birdie, 1915.”
My first-edition copy (1964) of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. My fourth grade teacher read this story aloud to us. Hearing it for the first time, I distinctly remember thinking “This family is poorer than us!” One of my favorite stories from childhood, I think it made me the chocoholic that I am today.
Did you know that the author’s original intention was for Charlie to be “a little black boy”? Read the interview with his widow on BBC.
Darla McDavid 