Peace Unto You... a review of a book

PEACE UNTO YOU... A Review

CHARLES FRANKLIN PARKER of the Congrega tional Church in Prescott, who compiled this book, calls it “a book for personal devotions.” Yet it isn't a prayer book in any sense of the word.

It isn't a book of photography, although between its covers are some of the finest Arizona photographs ever taken, by some of Arizona's most successful photographers. Such names as R. M. Fronske, Norman Rhoads Garrett, Barry Goldwater, Forman Hanna, Esther Henderson, Tom Imler, Jr., Max Kegley, A. Frank Purcell, Cliff Segerbloom, and W. M. Tillery, whose work appears in this book, “PEACE UNTO YOU,” are known to the readers of ARIZONA HIGHWAYS. Other able photographers contribute to its pages.

Nor is it a book of poetry, although many of the Southwest's loveliest verses appear within. Lou Ella Archer, Berdena Baxter, Bruce Brockett, Badger Clark, Sharlot M. Hall, Mar Margaret Wheeler Ross, Frances L. Sharpe, Gail I. Gardner, Ira L. Wood, Peggy James, Harrison Conrad, Ernest McGaffey and Ida Flood Dodge, contribute to the music of the pages.

Four pages, selected at random from the book and reproduced herein, might give you a better idea of Mr. Parker's book. When you turn its hundred pages and see with what exquisite care the book has been gathered; how carefully and expertly printed; when you linger over each picture; caress each jewel-like poem; pause over the meditation and prayers written with each picture by Mr. Parker-you say, this is a book of beauty.

Mr. Parker in his "Purpose" explains the book better than anyone else could, and in it he tells what Arizona has meant to him and to many others.

"When I came to Arizona some eight years ago from a strike-torn, depression-ill, and frantically melancholic urban locale in the Middle West, I little knew the release and newness of life which was in waiting for me here. In the vast spaces of mystery and grandeur where men had not yet destroyed the virgin beauty of God's marvelous creative handiwork, I found, as others have found, surcease from the pangs of gnawing, mortal strife and struggle, and stepped through the portals opening unto me vistas of eternity, infinity, contentment, majesty, courage, peace and hope.

"Men and women who have come to these places have found not only health of body but

Possession By Enjoyment A FANTASIA OF THE ARIZONA DESERT

And now the desert stretches mile on mile Brilliant in color, offering a smile Of welcome unto those whose hearts are sore, Whose bodies throb with pain; who, evermore, Long for that blessed silence, so profound, It shouts rare secrets unto those who've found The joy of self-communion; and whose eye Can catch the flaming colors from the sky; Whose souls respond to beauty, and who know The thrill and glory of the sunset's glow.

THE desert is a place of life. In the springtime it is a place of rare beauty. Vast stretches of flowers make variegated carpets for the landscapes. The palo verde trees become huge clusters of yellow flowers. The spear-like ocotillo branches turn scarlet. The cacti add their varying color schemes; the giant saguaro don their little caps of white. Then the desert is not an arid waste but a place of rapturous beauty. At such a time and place one beholds a miracle the desert does rejoice and blossom.

This miracle has a testimony for the soul of man. God has so created the world that there is some beauty to be found everywhere. God has given to man not only the power to create beauty but to appreciate the beautiful and to be moved to aspiration by it. The desert strives and toils to produce beauty. God is beauty. He creates beauty. In man he has shared the potentiality of himself-man too can create and possess beauty of life, spirit, and character.

Dear God, even though our lives seem to lack beauty, we appreciate the beauty which thou hast created. Teach us to take the arid areas of our own lives and from them produce the beauties of spirit and of joy.

peace of mind, a rehabilitation of life and purpose, a new faith in God, and confidence in themselves. To share this joy and peace with others and to provide a means of translation of feeling into word and picture for those who have known and loved these scenes and who have been inspired by them is the purpose of this book." An evening with his book shows you how admirably he has succeeded.

The book is divided into the following parts: Vistas of the Ages, Vistas of Infinity, Vistas of Contentment, Vistas of Majesty, Vistas Forgotten, Vistas of Today, and a Vista for To-morrow. The interpretation of each Vista is made by means of selected photographic-pictorial studies, by verse, Scriptural readings and the meditations. Each interpretation harmonizes and blends into the whole so that the word and the picture are one.

"PEACE UNTO You" is a reverential approach to the beauty and greatness and distances that are Arizona. Surely this land with all its magnificent scenery, with its marks of the centuries, was made for something else besides travel folders. And just as surely as you approach our land with a travel folder in one hand and a travel schedule in the other, you miss the essential poetry and religion, the rest and peace, that the land should have for you. Don't come out here because it might be a fashionable thing to do, or that you can say you've seen the Grand Canyon or the desert. Come out here to see something that is good for your soul.

"PEACE UNTO You" is altogether a proper approach to Arizona, and it is one of the most beautiful books ever inspired by our land.

Mr. Parker labored diligently to find the right pictures, the right verses, the right lines of the Scriptures to match the feeling and the inspiration that the land has left in him. He succeeded very well.

Such a book will bear reading and rereading, a friendly companion to have around and to spend a few minutes with after a day of hurry-ing and bustle. It's a restful book, easy to read, its pictures easy to look at. Every page is an invitation, every verse brings the warmth of a welcome like that extended by an old friend. This is a book that will never grow old or dull, or that you can just glance at and lay aside without feeling that you'll come back to it time and again. And its the kind of book you'll enjoy sharing with other members of your family or with close friends.

In every way the book succeeds in doing what the compiler of its pages tried to do. You may call it a book of photography, or a book of verse or meditation, if you like. But you'll agree its pages are full of beauty, however you label the book.

The book was printed by the Republic and Gazette Printery, Phoenix, Arizona, whose craftsmen put the type, ink and paper together in masterful fashion. The book is on sale at various book stores in Arizona and sells for Three Dollars... R. C.

Tranquility

"For all of the beasts of the forests are mine, The cattle upon a thousand hills."

PSALM 50:10

FENCED TRAILS

The trails are fenced that we used to use In the days when I was young. The chuck wagon's gone where the longhorns went, And the cowboy's song is sung.

The round-up grounds, where the dust clouds rolled From the stamp of a million feet, Are plowed and watered, and every year Raise crops of whiskered wheat.

The world will go on the same as before And Progress her motto will be; But I wonder if ghosts won't haunt those ol' trails Like the memories are hauntin' me.

I wonder if herds won't swing along When mists are hangin' low, Pointed by cowboys from the Great Beyond Who were here so long ago.

BRUCE BROCKETT As cattle graze placidly, or gather at water holes, or rest beneath the shady trees, there is created for those permitted to view such scenes a mood of rest and tranquility that engenders contentment of body and mind. While the life of the cattle country is one of hard work, unending drudgery, and lightning-like action, it is all set in a greater landscape of peace and quiet. All is a part of a larger panorama of God's ceaseless vistas of reality. So real is this way of living that superficialities are scorned and change is not readily accepted. Continuity-generation upon generation-a love for hills and valleys unchanged and unfenced, and a deep venerationfor pioneers all these are manifest. Tranquility, satisfaction, and the consciousness of continuity unite to build an abode of contentment.

Amidst the excitement of our days, we would find moments of tranquility. In days of great change, we would be mindful of the continuity of life and we would ponder the values of older things and ways. O God, help us to gain for ourselves the tranquil life of joy and satisfaction.

AMEN.

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