CYSK 03 George Müller

https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1801-1900/muller-out-on-a-limb-with-god-11630428.html

George Müller (born in Germany Johann Georg Ferdinand Müller) (1805 – 1898), Christian evangelist and Director of the Ashley Down orphanage, Bristol. Well known as one who "lived by faith" (he had no salary but relied on gifts and mad eno direct appeals for funds) he cared for 10,024 orphans in his lifetime, providing them with an education that led to accusations of raising the poor above their natural station in life. He also established 117 schools which offered Christian education to over 120,000 children, many of them being orphans. More here.

CYSK 02 John Bunyan

Thomas Sadler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

John Bunyan (1628 – 1688) was an English Puritan preacher, best known for his book The Pilgim's Progress, written in prison for nonconformity. He wrote many iother excellent books. A member of an Independent church in Bedford, he has been described both as a Baptist and as a Congregationalist, though he himself preferred to be described simply as a Christian. More here.

That make the landscape lonelier

George Henry Durrie, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

"Beyond the orchard lay a field or two, their boundaries lost under drifts; and above the fields, huddled against the white immensities of land and sky, one of those lonely New England farm-houses that make the landscape lonelier." (Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome)

The Christian Warrior

The Christian Warrior is a short work by the Puritan Isaac Ambrose that was first published in 1660. In 1997 an 1837 edition (abridged, methodised and improved by Thomas Jones of Northampton) was reprinted in hardback by SDG and is still available. It is an excellent little book in the usual Puritan style and is reminiscent of The Christian in complete armour, Precious Remedies against Satan's devices and other books from that period. It begins by reminding us that the Christian life is a battle and goes on to deal with various situations where Satan attacks, giving remedies all the way from infancy to the end of life. It could probably do with some slight editing for repetition but on the whole it is useful book full of helpful pastoral advice and biblical instruction.

Some quotations

Any feeble David may wrestle with Goliath, so long as the battle is the Lord's; and the warrior comes to the field in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. p 10

Sin, like a black river of poison, flows from Adam, through one generation after another, to the end of the world. p 21

Holy thoughts are precious things; they are God's messengers; they come from God, and lead to God again. Wherever they are entertained, they bestow exceeding great rewards. Therefore cherish these motions of the Spirit, and know that they come from heaven to benefit thy soul. p 31

The flesh is a worse enemy than the devil himself. p 35

CYSK 01 John Eliot

Roxbury Latin School, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

We will continue with our novelists but I thought we might usefully also have one on Christians you should know (a title stolen from a little book for children by Ruth Johnson Jay that came out in the seventies).

01 John Eliot (c 1604 – 1690) was a Puritan missionary to the American Indians. His efforts earned him the designation “the apostle to the Indians.” He was responsible for the first Bible to be printed in America (in Algonquin). More here.

The man who said he would

The man who said he would is the title of a book by W E Biederwolf from 1935. The book is about four Bible characters

Saul - the man who said he would but wouldn't

Samson - the man who said he would but couldn't

Peter - the man who said he would but didn't

Paul - the man who said he would and did

W E Biederwolf

I came across the name of W Edward Biederwolf recently. I knew him only as the author of a helpful book on the Holy Spirit. Seeing a brief biography by Ray E Garrett online I sent for it. Garrett wrote in 1948 less than 10 years after Biederwolf's death in 1939 and so there is no analysis but the salient  facts are there - Biederwolf's Princeton education, years as an evangelist, two pastorates and involvement in the Winona Lake Conference and School of Theology. Biederwolf was a Presbyterian, a Calvinist, a cessationist, a dispensationalist, very much a temperance man and a fundamentalist. He was clearly a good preacher, a man with a heart for souls and a good organiser. He appears to have travelled to the far east but it is not clear whether he came to England at all. He lived in different times to our own but seems to have been greatly used of God to convert sinners, help the saints, make a stand for righteousness and help the needy, including lepers in Korea. Perhaps he deserves to be better known. He wrote several books, most of which appear no longer to be in print.

Man Behind the Messiah

When I was at the Handel House Museum recently I picked up a little biography of Balliol educated Charles Jennens by Ruth Smith, published by the museum. Illustrated throughout and on glossy paper it draws attention to the man who is most famous as the librettist for Handel's Messiah [1741-2, also Saul (1735-9), L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (1740-1), Belshazzar (1744-5) and, possibly, Israel in Egypt (1738-9)] He was also something of a Shakespeare buff and worked hard on his ancestral pile, Gopsal Hall in Leicestershire.  He was a Non-juror and a high Anglican. Smith's thesis appears to be that he saw Handel as  good vehicle  for getting biblical material out to an unlikely crowd. Interesting intro. It would be nice to see a full theological analysis.

Luther on Temptation and Scripture

"I have suffered many great passions and , and the same also very vehement. But so soon as I laid hold of any place in Scripture, and stayed myself upon it as upon my chief anchor-hold, straightways my temptations did vanish away - which without the Word it had been impossible for me to endure, much less to overcome them."

Luther on Galatians

Good advice on your clothes

I often see this on my clothes and think what a good warning for every Christian



Arrowsmith Mottos

In his Armilla Catechetica: a Chain of Principles John Arrowsmith (1602-1659) wrote

Wherefore bethink thyself at length, O deluded world, and write

• over all thy school doors, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom;
• over all thy court gates, Let not the mighty man glory in his might;
• over all thy exchanges and banks, Let not the rich man glory in his riches.
• Write upon thy looking-glasses that of Bathsheba, favour is deceitful and beauty is vain;
• upon thy mews and artillery-yards that of the Psalmist, God delighteth not in the strength of a horse, he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man;
• upon thy taverns, inns, and ale-houses, that of Solomon, wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not Wise;
• upon thy magazines and wardrobes, that of our Saviour, lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.
• Write upon thy counting houses that of Habakkuk, wo to him that increaseth that which is not his, how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay.
• Thy play-houses that of Paul, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. 
• Thy banqueting houses, that of the same holy apostle, Meats for the belly and the belly for meat, but God will destroy them both and it
• Yea upon all thine Accommodations that of the Preacher, All is Vanity and Vexation of spirit.

C S Lewis Chronicle

The C S Lewis Chronicles by Lewis expert Colin Duriez is a slightly strange volume in that it is not a straight biography but a chronicle covering the years 1862 (when Lewis's mother was born) to 1998 (when centenary conferneces were held in Lewis's honour). This era is split into eight eras headed 1898-1908, 1909-1916, 1917-1918, 1919-1925, 1926-1938, 1939-1945, 1946-1953, 1954-1963. Each chapter has an introductary summary and the various date headings with information beneath. There are also a series of extra sections covering important people in Lewis's childhood, Narnia and the north of Ireland, important childhood places, Top Ten Books, The Four Loves, etc, etc, etc. Some will find the annual reference to the passing of Lewis's birthday on November 29 tefious but I found it a help. This is not the place to begin to read about Lewis but if you have some ideas about him this is a good way of learning about him and his circle. I borrowed my copy from the Evangelical Library.

Unusual words 17 Pullulating

In Theodore Dalrymple's The wilder shores of Marx on page 39 we find this reference:

 

"Indian or African airports ... with their pullulating chaos of officaldom, passengers, relatives, touts, ..."

 

Pullulating, from a Latin word that also gives us pullet means

1. Putting forth sprouts or buds; germinating. 2. Breeding rapidly or abundantly. 3. Teeming or swarming

 

In his novel Metroland Julian Barnes refers to

 

"the pullulating mass of the working class, who any moment might swarm like termites up the viaduct"

 

It's also in London Fields by Martin Amis

 

"This meant sitting about in a bijou flatlet in Cheapside, trying to keep tabs on the proliferating, the pullulating hydra of Clinch money".

Hyenseo Lee Video

I have been reading about North Korea recently. This video is of a former resident of that evil place - not a Christian as far as I am aware. This 12 minute video was produced in the USA recently.

Gary Dexter

I recently completed Gary Dexter's book Title Deeds which goes through some 50 literary titles (from Dante's Divine Comedy to Coupland's Generation X via Erewhon and The Great American novel) and discusses the works. It is a companion volume to Why not Catch-21 which looks at another 50 (Plato's Republic to Mamet's Oleanna via Moby Dick and 1984, etc). Both books provide an overview of lterature as well as some interesting sidelights on title choosing. Dexter has a mothballed blog here that discusses 181 titles altogether.