When officers of the Friends of the Austin Public Library ask me to help with a used-book sale, I am eager to opt for the sorting of donated books over assisting later in their sale. I get to explore among books that once belonged to others that tell me something about their lives.

While sorting the books for the May sale, I came upon a German language Bible. In 1904, according to the inscription on the fly leaf, it was given to a man, who is therein named. Even more arresting is the loose slip between the fly leaf and front cover. It states it was given to this man by his father on the son's nineteenth birthday. Why a Bible for a son who was now adult? Why a Bible in the German language, even though the inscription was written in clear English?

Much of the answer is detected by the father's exhortation: "Let this be a light unto your feet." The father referred, of course, to Psalms 119:105. In the King James Version, the principal version of the day, it reads: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."

Two aspects about the loose slip intrigue me. First, why did the father write the identifying details and the exhortation on a loose slip inserted into the Bible? Would it not have been more convenient just to continue the inscription on the fly leaf? Perhaps this father was further wise to grant his son privacy and allow him to protect himself from embarrassment. The son could simply remove the slip, and no one would ever need to read the intimacy of the occasion or be aware of

the father's expression of concern.

I don't think it's hard to imagine a scenario of this sort. The second thought, on the other hand, I find to be less transparent. Why was the loose slip still there almost a hundred years later? If we can surmise why the father placed it there, can we understand why the son left it where his father had placed it?

No doubt respect for the father's decision was factored into his consideration, but I doubt it alone was sufficient. I rather suspect the son accepted his father's exhortation to allow the Bible to light the pathway of his life. If he at some point removed the exhortation, it would likely have been at the point he departed from it. If so, its return can reasonably be understood to be a sign of spiritual revival and renewal of the exhortation. A return not only to the Word of God, but the Word of God as communicated and encouraged by a godly father.

Another thing. This is the very verse my father wrote in the Bible he gave me when I followed his example and made my own profession of faith in Christ. I know what that did for me, and it isn't hard to imagine what it did for this man before I was born.

In the days when I worked in the rescue missions of Chicago's skid row, I heard many sincere nostalgic cries for the faithful prayers and humble faith of their mothers. They wept at how far they had drifted from mother's faith. I don't ever recall one of those men telling me about the spiritual guidance given to him by a godly father.

Perhaps the sons of godly fathers didn't end up on skid row. Perhaps they gave Bibles to their sons on birthdays and exhorted them to let it light their paths. However warmly men remember mother's faith, it may be father's that makes the difference. Think about this on Sunday, Fathers Day.

-- Dr. Wallace Alcorn's column appears in the Herald on Mondays