Our castaway this time is Bob Campen. A Chelmsfordian, he has attended Chuckfield Baptist Church since moving to Haywards Heath in 1971. An LBC student under Dr. Kevan, contemporaries included Brian Edwards, George Ella, and Stuart Olyott. Married with two grown-up children he is a qualified accountant and treasurer of Grace Publications Trust. (published Spring 1995)

It seems to be a common fallacy that someone stranded on a desert island has nothing to do all day. I should certainly look forward to lots of time to read the Bible, Henry, Calvin, and Bunyan, so helpfully provided; but I should need time to develop and practise new skills in foraging, hunting, and fishing to ensure survival. Reading books on the subject is no substitute for learning by experience, and maybe there is a lesson in that.

I think that I should take The Mercies of a Covenant God, by John Warburton. He will remind me every few pages of the promise, "Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure" (Isaiah 33:16), which my weak faith will surely need. He will reassure me that God raises up "nobodies" to extraordinary usefulness. He will bring to mind places like Bury, Brighton, and Trowbridge, which have rich associations in terms of people from whose fellowship I have profited, and remind me to pray for his remoter descendants now at, or soon to be at, university. And it will challenge me about real communion with God.

Not being very good at remembering history, but recognising how important it is to understand how God has brought us to the present time, I should like to have H. H. Merle D'Aubigne's The Reformation in England -- just volume 1, if only one is allowed. It gives information about pre-Reformation history, insofar as it affected Christianity in Britain, in easily digestible form; and it gives a masterly picture of the work of Tyndale, Latimer, and others, against the backdrop of general history.

William Cowper, Poet of Paradise, by George Ella, would be my next choice. It is a fat book, but the paper is thick, and it is not at all hard to read. Interwoven with an immense amount of biographical detail, there are extracts from Cowper's hymns and poetry, a sympathetic approach to his afflictions, surprising material about John Newton, Martin Maden, and many others. This is also set in the context of the history and politics of the 18th century, and helps one to view the Christian scene away from the more spectacular work of Whitefield and Wesley.

Now it is becoming very hard to choose. I think my fourth choice would be D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Fight of Faith, 1939-1981 -- the second volume of Iain Murray's biography of the Doctor. This record of the work he, along with many others, did to further the work or reformation in the 20th century should be required reading for all in positions of leadership, and who are able to influence the opinions of others (even secular ones, maybe). We are given an overview of evangelicalism, and of many involved in it, in a form which is compelling. It may be counted a weakness that I like reading books that include places I have been to, people I have met, and preaching I have heard. This book has them all, and it should help me keep my spiritual roots, even when my feet are planted in the sand.

Although I do not enjoy sea travel, I hope that I shall be rescued: perhaps by a helicopter. So I should like to be prepared for a possible return to society. Lest I lose touch with modern thought, and the impact of this on human behaviour and history, I should have as my final book the Francis Schaeffer Trilogy. This is a good scheme, because you actually get three books in the one volume -- The God Who is There, Escape from Reason, and He is There, and He is not Silent.

When I am busy, the thought of a long time of solitude to read and study has some appeal. However, I fear that I should soon get mental and spiritual indigestion if I cannot try to impart what I learn to others. I may have to write things with a stick in the sand, if I am not allowed to use the flyleaves or the margins of library books; or perhaps I could keep in practice by talking to the monkeys and parrots.

I have not forgotten an illustration passed on to me by a friend who heard it from Peter James about 40 years ago. The Sea of Galilee has an inlet and an outlet; it has abundant fish and the surrounding area is fertile. The Dead Sea has an inlet, but no outlet. Nothing lives in it, and the surrounding area is arid.