Inheritance Publications - No Greater Joy

Will you come along on a journey selling books in 2016? It may not seem popular, yet it is fascinating. After some great political campaigns in 2015

(with God’s blessing my friend and brother in the faith, Arnold Viersen, was elected as our local Member of Parliament — as you can see on Youtube, he is following in the steps of Daniel, William of Orange {both the first and the third}, Groen van Prinsterer, and Abraham Kuyper in defending God’s right at the highest places of the land. May the LORD bless him and keep him faithful. I also had an exciting campaign for the Christian Heritage Party — for which I ran in our neighbour-riding of Fort McMurray-Cold Lake)

I was allowed to return to the selling of books. Since both the publishing and selling of books had been neglected for several months I first planned to finish the next volume of The Dort Study Bible. Yet I realized that we first had to get our finances under control. So I returned to the work I had done in the 1980s as a door to door salesman of books. That was rewarding.

Please come along on the journey. Have you ever heard of the Scottish and the Dutch? I have read the same saying about both of them:

Though the first two parts are beautiful, the last one is in reality very sad, and dishonoring to God.

I also heard once that somewhere in Wisconsin the Dutch on the one side of the river became part of a Scottish "denomination" and the Scotts on the other side joined a Dutch one. Now in Southern Alberta there is some evidence of the first group. Yet, no matter if they belong to a Canadian Reformed Church, Christian Reformed Church, Free Reformed Church, Netherlands Reformed Congregation, Reformed Congregation in North America, or United Reformed Church, in all of them there are many people who love our books.

(This past March and April I visited members of six churches in the Norwich, Ontario area Free Reformed Churches, Heritage Reformed Congregations, Netherlands Reformed Congregations, Old Reformed Church, Reformed Congregations in North America, Reformed Church in Canada, while in Carman, Manitoba there are only two Reformed churches, both Canadian Reformed {East & West}, who have members of virtually all the other Reformed backgrounds as well.)

Thus in November, 2015, I went to Picture Butte, Alberta. An average visit went as follows:

RAJ: Good Morning, Mrs. Slingerland. I am Roelof Janssen of Inheritance Publications from Neerlandia. I am selling Christian books for young and old, and also music on Psalms and hymns, and am wondering if I may show you some.

RAJ: You know that the best gift for children and grandchildren is a good book. They last and will be found back in generations to come.

Mrs. S.: Yes, but our church and school sell many books. We like to support them.

RAJ: That is good, and we sell lots of books to them. But they only have about 30% of our books while, when you see the others, you will probably like an other 40% of them.

RAJ: Have you seen this book before? (My Favorite Story Book by Van de Hulst, a passport for most people — Journey Through the Night also works well.)

RAJ: What about this one? (One of the 21 Stories Children Love by Van de Hulst.)

Mrs. S.: Oh, yes. My sister bought the whole set. Our school had them on sale last year.

RAJ: Yes, that was in the Summer of 2014 when we reprinted them. Between Norwich and them they pre-sold about 450 sets, most of them before they were reprinted. I had decided that if we would sell 600 sets or more, we would print them in bulk (not as print on demand, which is far more costly per copy), and offered them to our retailers (stores and schools) at regular wholesale prices based on the special pre-publication prices. If we would have had to print them on demand, we would not have made any profit on the wholesale orders. Yet since we pre-sold about 720 sets, we printed 5000 sets, and made a fair profit on all the sales. This is also a very good book (Bobby’s Friends) for young children. It is about a Dutch family moving to Pakistan. The father was an engineer to build dykes, but it is not really about him. It is about Bobby, who befriends both a rich Muslem and a poor Christian boy. He realizes that he has to be faithful to both. It was one of my favourite books (in Dutch) when I was in grade four. My daughter translated it.

(if you are like a Grandmother Slingerland you may later follow a possible other visit on an other web page to be made yet)

RAJ: This is the best series of Piet Prins (Struggle for Freedom, showing vol. 4, For the Heart of Holland). At homeschool conferences my favourite quote is: The only criticism on Piet Prins I get is that mothers complain that fathers do not know when to stop reading to the children.

Mrs. S.: It is true. My husband keeps on going too. But I haven’t seen that book before.

RAJ: (Taking My Favourite Story Book from the table, opens it at the last page, and shows a picture and blurb of When the Morning Came, etc.) You have probably seen the first two before. They have been out for over 20 years. The last two have come out in the last 10 years.

RAJ: I think they do. But they can’t show every book all the time. And thus some very good ones get lost.

Mrs. S.: I would like to have that one. (Then she looks at the back of My Favorite Story Book again and asks:) Are these the same stories as those little books?

RAJ: No. These are 32 shorter stories, actually for a little older children, age 6 and up. The little books are very nice to read to 4-year-olds. And by the time the children are 6 or 7 they read them on their own, and when they are 9 or 10 they will read them to their siblings. There was a mother of a three-year-old boy who got one from her grandmother for her son. Yet, she thought there were not enough illustrations to captivate him. But when she began reading to him he did not want her to stop. She finished the book in one sitting. (Most children want to listen to the SAME book again and again. That is why it so good to have all 21 of them!!!)

SET OF 21 SCL-VDHULST(US$145.95) - VAN DE HULST, W.G. - SET OF 21 SCL - US$116.75

Mrs. S.: Mom read them to us in Dutch. But we got them in English. Yet, we liked the Dutch ones better.

RAJ: It is interesting that someone told me she liked of our new Englisg edition much better, for she found the Dutch language too old-fashioned. My daughter used both the Woudstra edition of 1965, which were very literally translated, and the Paideia edition of 1978, which was so free as to include North American slang. Paulina, together with my wife and Katriena, compared them carefully to the Dutch. They also made them unique, so that not a single name is repeated in the whole series. In the Dutch there were so many Jantjes and Jannekes. I have not really heard any negative reactions. A Dutch bookseller, who himself published other books, told me that the Van de Hulst books were unsurpassed. Except for a few (I will tell Grandmother Slingerland about those) I think he is quite right. We are also very careful not to use words as "kids" for children or "weekend" for the Lord’s day. These are popular books too (showing vol. 5 of the Louis Wessels Commando). It is the last one on the Boer War in South Africa. It is interesting to know that Piet Prins as a boy prayed the Lord if he could become an author like Penning.

Mrs. S.: I remember these books. My father read those to us. Do you have all of them?

RAJ: Only the complete series on the Boer War. I would like to get most of the others done as well. My daughter read them all when she was about 11 and became so fascinated with South Africa. She also read about fifty books like these (Carpenter of Zerbst) which caused her to know her history at that time already better than the average college professor. I would like to get most of them published sometime too yet.

RAJ: Yes, but we need to be able to sell them too. I would like to get more people all over the world to sell our books from their homes. That way they could easily get their own books for free (though we abhor covetousness as motivation for doing a good thing. Yet if a reader is interested in selling good books, please contact us. A simple way to start is to buy 6 copies of one title and get 15% discount, or 20 copies and get 20% discount). We do not sell via Amazon etc. because they cause publishers to double the retail price of books and then sell them at half price. That practice has put most small-town Christian book stores out of business. Now people cannot even buy a Bible locally anymore.

Mrs. S.: I suppose we are all guilty of that. Is this book not by the same author as Augustine?

RAJ: Yes it is. Augustine is still our all time best-seller. It was always competing with The Escape for the first place. This is one of the last books in that series (The Baron of Salgas). It is actually the last one printed in bulk. We have quite a few more titles to publish, but for the time being only as print on demand books, though I hope we can afford to print them in bulk next year.

Mrs. S.: The last one we have is this one (she got up and came back with Done and Dared in Old France).

RAJ: There are several more. I have all of them in the car (they can also be found on our website on the "Special Package Sets"). Deborah Alcock is my most favourite author. But you have to be a good reader to enjoy them. This is one of the best (showing The Czar) and easiest to get in to. We are working on publishing all her books and have several shorter books available for ages 12 and up on our "What’s New" website. Yet the best historical novel I ever read is this one (I Will Maintain). That book, (I usually show it from the extensive catalogue part in the back of My Favorite Story Book) on William III of Orange has also been of great influence to our present Member of Parliament, Arnold Viersen, who is a member of our church, Canadian Reformed, in Neerlandia (It is sad that he is now in Neerlandia South, since we had to split {because of size} in May 2016). When he was campaigning for the nomination he told me that if he would win and go to Ottawa, he would give Mr. Harper (at that time the Prime Minister of Canada) the whole trilogy. He did win, and took the books to Ottawa, but sadly Mr. Harper is no longer our Prime Minister. These books were written in English by the best historian I know. When she, Marjorie Bowen, was only about 13 years old, at the time of the Boer War, she already knew very well that the British were wrong to fight the Boers. Because at that time she also knew her history. The books were translated into Dutch and that is how I read them. It took me many years before I found original English copies in some libraries in the United States, and photocopied them. That was before I was married. The last one I copied in the Chicago area on the same day I visited a nice girl in Iowa who is now my wife. I have those books with me in the car, but this one (Prince and Heretic) is by the same author about the first William of Orange. It is not quite as good as I Will Maintain, but still a very good book. The sequel is William by the Grace of God. Actually, the one on Cromwell, The Governor of England, is nearly as good as I Will Maintain.

Mrs. S.: My sixteen-year-old has read the three books on William III. He will probably like these too. I am getting quite a pile already. You will probably come again sometime(???).

RAJ: That is not my plan. Except that I hope that some of my children will stop by sometime to drop off a new catalogue and a little booklet that I want to call Oma’s — or Grandma’s — Secret Book (by now I have more or less decided to call it No Greater Joy) in which grandmothers and mothers in cooperation with each other can conveniently keep track of which books each of their children and grandchildren own.

Mrs. S.: Yes, I would like to get that too. My grandmother always let us choose a book for our birthdays. After that she would put our name in it. Also at church the children are often allowed to choose a book.

RAJ (showing Little White Farm House in Iowa): These are nice books, like the Little House books, but about a Dutch family in the same region fifty years after Laura and Mary. The first one goes up to the Second World War, when Katherine grew up. The second one is about the war years from an American perspective, and the third one leads up to the Korean War and her marriage. Katherine died just before the first book was published, and sadly she did not tell the author more about the following years, so it will remain a trilogy.

RAJ: Men like it too. I made a visit to a father of about six young children. He had borrowed the books from his mother and enjoyed them very much. Most men like these two books also (In This Hour & A Theatre in Dachau). This is about WW II and the flood of 1953 in Zeeland. Several people from around here have come from that area. And this one is about a minister who was in a concentration camp. The Germans always liked to play with a semblance of justice. So, when Rev. Knoop had been in Dachau for two years, he had completed his punishment.

Mrs. S.: Yes, my husband would like those. I probably will read them myself too.

RAJ (After showing a few more books, and showing volume 1 of The Dort Study Bible): I have one more set of books, which is the most important of all. This is a translation of the Dutch Staten Bijbel met kanttekeningen (Bible with annotations, authorized by the Dutch Government in 1637). The text itself is very close to the King James Version, but the annotations were all written by the translators at the time of translating Genesis and Exodus from the Hebrew. They are the most valuable notes I have ever come accross. Short and to the point. At Young People’s Society, and now at Men Society, I can usually answer 9 out of 10 questions from these notes and references.

RAJ: No, it is translated from the Dutch. They did it about thirty years after the KJV, and I am quite sure they often compared it to the KJV as well. Yet, when there is a difference (and there are not many substantial ones), when you study it you will find that in 4 of the 5 cases the Dutch is more precise. Take for example the first word of the Psalms. In Dutch it is "Welgelukzalig," which means "Very blessed and safe" (or, having salvation) while in English it is just "Blessed." The annotation says right away that the Hebrew word is compiled from two words, meaning abundant bliss, etc.

Mrs. S.: That sounds interesting. I would like my husband to see that. Oh, I know he will want it. I will take the set.

An English translation of the Annotations to the Dutch Staten Bijbel of 1637 in accordance with a decree of the Synod of Dort 1618-1619

RAJ: In that case I, or one of my children, will have to bring the next volumes later, the Lord willing. I plan to finish two volumes at a time, to save on shipping cost. We now have 5 volumes, from Genesis to Job, and plan to have 5 more for the Old Testament and 4 for the New Testament. You will save 20% per volume. I also would like to show you some music yet. This is a very nice CD with Psalms and hymns (Abide With Me).

Mrs. S.: Yes, I have it. I remember them (Harm & Noortje) giving a concert in Coaldale.

RAJ: That was in 2003 (actually could also have been in 1998). My sister is mother-in-law to both of them. We also have a second CD of them. I have it in the car. It is Now Thank We All Our God.

Abide With Me

(Instrumental Hymns)

Noortje Van Middelkoop, Panflute

Harm Hoeve, Organ

Anja Van Der Maten, Oboe;

Edith & Arjan Post, Trumpets;

Hendrie Westra, Xylophone

Compact Disc CMR 106-2 US$21.95

Cassette 106-4 US$14.95

Now Thank We All Our God

(Instrumental Hymns)

Noortje Van Middelkoop, Panflute;

Harm Hoeve, Organ

Anja Van Der Maten, Oboe;

Edith & Arjan Post, Trumpets;

Regina Ederveen, Harp

Compact Disc CMR 107-2 US$21.95

RAJ (showing Sing to the Lord): This also is very nice. It is like the Dutch Psalms, but in English.

RAJ: My wife is the director. We also made a new one, which is also on DVD. Actually, if you buy the DVD you get the CD free of charge with it.

RAJ: I can understand that, and do not blame you for it. One of the best things your churches ever did is not allowing children into your school from families that own a television.

Mrs. S.: Yet today many children can take their cellphones along everywhere. That is probably worse.

RAJ: It can be. Yet, we can use those tools properly. But is dangerous. That is why it is so important to teach your children to walk in the Way of the Lord. And as to DVDs: we have no television either, and when we got the first DVDs, Haydn’s Creation and Bach’s St. John Passion, our children were fascinated by it. Yet, when later we got e.g. the Love Comes Softly DVDs, it took only a little while and our children didn’t really care too much for the good musical ones anymore, and I wonder sometimes, what have we started. It is very important that we remain faithful to God in all things. This DVD is nice and good, but I do not want it to put you on a path to other ones that are not good. This is a very nice Psalm CD as well (Psalmsing tot Gods Eer). It is in Afrikaans, very similar to Dutch. The Psalms are sung without instruments by a quartet in South Africa, one soprano, two altos, one tenor, and one bass. I liked it so much that I asked them to record one in English as well. That is this one (Great is the LORD). It is nice too, but not as good as the Afrikaans one.

Helga Schabort & Philna Badenhorst, altos; Antonie Fourie, tenor; Eric Kayayan, bass.

(The sheet music of this C.D, is published in The Genevan Psalms in Harmony by Claude Goudimel.)

Psalm 65:1 & 6; Psalm 38:1 & 10; Psalm 9:1 & 6; Psalm 28:1 & 5; Psalm 13:1 & 3; Psalm 43:1 & 5; Psalm 45:1 & 6; Psalm 37:1 & 5; Psalm 54:1 & 3; Psalm 32:1 & 5; Psalm 2:1 & 4; Psalm 40:1 & 7; Psalm 46:1 & 5; Psalm 62:1 & 6; Psalm 53:1 & 5; Psalm 17:1 & 5; Psalm 50:1 & 11; Psalm 34:1 & 7; Psalm 11:1 & 2; Psalm 41:1 & 4; Psalm 57:1 & 5; Psalm 59:1 & 8; Psalm 10:1 & 7; Psalm 26:1 & 7; Psalm 33:1 & 6; Psalm 48:1 & 4.

The Children of Asaph sing the Psalms of David on the tunes of John Calvin Noortje Van Middelkoop, Panflute; Lucy Bootsma, Violin; Daniel Bootsma, Cello; Harm Hoeve, Organ; Theresa Janssen, Conductor.

Byron Snapp in The Counsel of Chalcedon: . . . There is a richness and depth in these selections that is too often missing in much contemporary music. . . Once again Church Music & Records has provided the listener with the opportunity to hear enduring Psalms sung and played with meaning and a quiet, sure confidence. Hopefully this recording will be widely purchased and used in the lives of many for the building up of God's people more and more unto His glory.

1. Psalm 42:1, 2, & 5 Willem Van Twillert; 2. Psalm 116:1, 2, 3, & 7 Theresa E. Janssen; 3. Psalm 124 Harm Hoeve; 4. Psalm 1 (Organ Solo) Feike Asma; 5. Psalm 49:1 & 2 (solo: Hester Barendregt) Willem Van Twillert; 6. Psalm 98 (solo: Cynthia Van Leeuwen & Karina Van Laar) Trad./Harm Hoeve; 7. Psalm 121 Feike Asma; 8. Psalm 96:1, 2, & 8 Dick Van Luttikhuizen; 9. Psalm 80:1, 2, & 3 (solo: Felicia Amy Barendregt) Roelof A. Janssen; 10. Psalm 68 (Organ & Panflute) Peter Eilander; 11. Psalm 25:1, 2, & 3 Willem Hendrik Zwart; 12. Song of Simeon (Hymn 18) Feike Asma; 13. Psalm 134 Harm Hoeve/Klaas Jan Mulder. For all ages!

Psalms 76:1, 3, & 5; 93:1-4; 85:1 & 2; 114:1-4; 35:1 & 2; 6:1 & 2 (Soprano Solo); 47:1-3; The Song of Mary; Psalms 33 (Organ Solo); 79:1, 3, & 5; 89:1-3; 119:1, 4, 13, & 40; 24:1, 2, & 5; 144:2 (Strings & Baritone); 84:1-3; 55:1, 2, & 9; 71:1 & 8; 138:1-4.

RAJ: There is nothing like it. Some hymns are nice, and Handel’s Messiah, all Bible texts set to music, is beautiful. But the staple is and should remain the Psalms. I am very concerned that in our churches we are singing more and more hymns. While we know that hymns are usually a cause (or result) of apostasy. Besides your opposition to television, I believe that in many ways God is keeping your churches close to His Word, by maintaining to sing only Psalms. I do have concerns about the lack of assurance your people often seem to have, and am afraid that they are taught to doubt. God said to the people at Sinai, "I am the LORD, your God." He did not lie. But the people didn’t enter Canaan, because they did not believe Him. You should believe Him. Yet some of you say, "We can’t believe on our own." Of course, that is true. But you can’t pray on your own either. It is the Spirit who works faith, but also how you should pray. You should not resist Him. And truly, I do not really believe that most of you resist that. I believe that in the end most of us are one in the Faith. Yes, we could have a long discussion about that. In the meantime, I am sometimes jealous of you that you stick to the Psalms!

Mrs. S. (when all transactions are decided upon): I am very glad you came by. Please come again.

RAJ: Thank you. I find that very encouraging. I feel often that I come to your people as a stranger and leave as a friend. And as to our theological differences: If we all would sincerely sit around the table, open our Bibles, and lay them all before God, in obedience to His Word, we will soon have only one faithful church in each town, or, because of size, more sister churches. Yet, let us not leave the place that God has placed us, but work from the inside. And once we have done that we can also be a blessing to the nation. That is what I believe God wants us to be.

(How good would it be if all the people would read Rudolf Van Reest’s book, Schilder’s Struggle for the Unity of the Church, which, beside I Will Maintain, has likely been my greatest inspiration. Yet all of this is based on the even greater truth of The Dort Study Bible)

Klaas Schilder is remembered both for his courageous stand in opposition to Nazism, which led to his imprisonment three months after the Nazis overran The Netherlands in 1940, and for his role in the Church struggle in The Netherlands, which culminated in 1944 with the suspension of scores of office-bearers and the formation of the liberated Reformed Churches.

Thomas Vanden Heuvel in The Outlook: I strongly recommend this book for everyone interested in the preservation of and propagation of the Reformed faith.

Since Mrs. Stam from Oskaloosa (near Pella), who in the past 15 years has mailed out many orders for us in the USA, would like to discontinue storing and mailing books for us, anyone living in the United States, who would consider taking it over, should contact us. At this time that would be a job of about 4 - 10 hours per week.

Send mail to orders@inhpubl.net with questions or comments about this web site.

Last modified: July 1, 2016