SONS OF ANAK

The minister of The Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City presents here twenty-six sermons, accompanied by prayers offered at the occasion on which they were preached to that congregation. The general thrust of these sermons is suggested in the title, ""Sons of Anak"" -- the giants that frightened the ten spies who were sent to report on the Promised Land. They deal with the fears, difficulties, temptations that confront people in their daily life; they progress, apparently, from the fall season through Christmas and Easter and intervening days in the church year. The style is direct and simple, the thinking solid, and the understanding of the human predicament wise and sharp. The prayers share in value with the sermons themselves. Good reading for both clergy and laity -- if the latter still read sermons.