I believe I mentioned on a previous post that I have a few book reviews to catch up on, smaller books that Lynda and I read aloud in the evenings, books that look interesting but that, once read, are not keepers. This book falls in that category.

Love Slaves by Samuel Logan Brengle was first published in 1923. Our copy is a mass market paperback from 1982. Brengle was with the Salvation Army, a man of considerable rank in that organization that took its titles from the military. The back cover copy describes that book this way.

Here is an encouraging message—calculated to incite us to seek the highest. Side by side there goes the force and light of love…words to clear the thought as well as to strengthen the Will and guide the Heart.

Alas, the book fell a little short of this intended goal. At least for me it did. The description indicates this is a discipling book, aimed at making Christians more aligned with the message and work of Jesus Christ. It does attend to that goal, but for me there were two main problems with it.

1. The language was archaic. Thought written in the early 1920s, the English use—especially sentence structure—was from a period a century earlier. Now, I’ve read a lot of works from the early 19th Century, so I’m no stranger to difficult English and have learned to pull the message from it with no problem. This book was more difficult to do that. I bogged down often with the long sentences and the strange way of saying things.
2. Since this is a Salvation Army book, which we probably picked up at a yard sale or thrift store, it includes terminology and practices unique to them. Thus, the book didn’t really seek to make the reader a better Christian but to make the reader a better Salvationist, as they call themselves.

I don’t want to mislead anyone. It’s not a bad book, just not as good as I was hoping for. If you want to read a discipling book and improve your Christian walk and service, I think you have a choice of a thousand books more modern than this that will help you more.

Thus, my original expectation was met. Not a bad book, but definitely not a keeper. Off to the garage it goes for sale or donation.