 |
| At Bunyan's grave |
A blog featuring whatever I fancy, often on the Christian faith but not exclusively
Bunhill Fields 02
One grave I'd never noticed before in Bunhill is that of William Shrubsole (1760-1806). Not to be confused with the hymn writer fo the same name this one was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral for seven years. He became organist at Bangor Cathedral around 1780, but his sympathies for the “dissenters” were not well received there, as evidenced by these records:
October 1783. Mr. William Shrubsole, the organist of the Church, having given great offence to the Dean and Chapter, by his close connexion with one Abbot, late of this place, as by his frequenting conventicles, that Mr. Dean be impowered to discharge the said William Shrubsole from his place of organist, if the said Abbot (who is supposed to have gone to reside in Dublin), shall at any time hereafter return in order to abide in the town of Bangor, or the neighbourhood thereof, or if the said William Shrubsole shall be found to frequent any conventicle or religious assembly, where anything is taught which is contrary to the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church of England.
December 1783. That William Shrubsole be employed to play on the organ of our Cathedral Church till Lady-day next and no longer; that in case it should not be convenient for him to continue in that employment till Lady-day next, he shall be at liberty to leave it before that time, and shall be paid the full allowance to Lady-day next notwithstanding. (Lightwood, pp. 167, 168)
After departing Bangor, Shrubsole became organist at Spafields Chapel, London, in 1784, and remained there until his death. As the gravestone notes he was the composer of Miles' Lane (which I associate with "All hail the power").
Bunhill Fields 01
 |
| Grave Joseph Hart (Edwardx, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-sa/3.0> via Wikimedia Commons) |
I made a trip to Bunhill Fields with my son and daughter in law yesterday. It was a beautiful day and we got to see and remember (or learn about) several worthies. This granite obelisk was raised in 1875. On it you may read these words
East side:
Erected by lovers of Hart's hymns, published in 1759, and still highly prized by the Church of God. The author's remains were interred on this spot, as the original stone yet remains to show.
JOSEPH HART, minister of the Gospel, died May 24th,1768, aged 56.
South side:
JOSEPH HART was by the free and sovereign Grace and Spirit of God raised from the depths of sin, and delivered from the bonds of mere profession and self-righteousness and led to rest entirely for salvation in the finished atonement and perfect obedience of Christ.
"Mercy is welcome news indeed
To those who guilty stand;
Wretches who feel what help they need
Will bless the helping hand."
North side:
"Though I am a stranger to others and a wonder to myself, yet I know Him (Christ), or rather am known of Him. Where sin abounded Grace did much more abound."
"O! bring no price!
God's grace is free
To Paul, to Magdalene and me."
"None but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good."
Feltham Bible Focus
It was a great privilege to be the speaker at Feltham Bible Focus last Saturday on Keep yourselves from idols (the message will appear on the Feltham website eventually). I had a lovely meal beforehand with the pastor of Feltham Evangelical Church Phil Venables and his family (like us it's all boys, home schooled but also learning Chinese, part of their maternal heritage). About 40 gathered mostly from the Feltham church but also from other churches nearby. There was a good age spread and a happy atmosphere. Refreshments were served after. What a good evening.
The Frozen Thames
I happened on this the other week. By the Candain author, Helen Humphries, it really is a great book. It is a brilliant idea (taking each year the Thames froze over from 1142 to 1895 and weaving a short story or something similar from known facts of that year) brilliantly executed (the prose is brief, evocative, beautiful and tells story both local and universal in feel). The hardback presentation (10 cm X 10.5 cm) including the lovely prints adds to the pleasure. Hunt it down.
New Akkerman Album
I've been trying to find time to listen to the new Akkerman CD and am slowly getting to know it. The first thing that strikes you about the album is the quality of the guitar sound. The high standard of the equipment, the way it is recorded and above all the skill of the guitarist himself combine to make it quite a striking thing. It is also good to have a real band playing real instruments. Akkerman has produced a lot of unreleased tracks using his computer to back him, there is something slighlty unsatisfying about it. No such danger here. Joy and The Arrogant Frogs feature smokey trumpeter Eric Vloeimanns.
I did see one review complaining about the way the guitar is recorded. I don't think this is a mistake but something deliberate. This is Jan Akkerman and Band not two or even four musicians collaborating. Much as we may long for the Focus days, they are pretty much gone (certainly as far as Akkerman is concerned).
Because it is an instrumental album and chiefly blues and jazz on a first listen I thought the tracks sounded quite similar to each other in some ways and nothing really moved me. I have learned, however, with Akkerman not to go on first impressions. Part of the problem, I'm sure, is that I listen to so much pop music that I'm quite lazy. A little more effort had me drawn first to the closing track Mena Muria and then Kharmah Chantallah, both possessing the sort of lyrical quality I like best in Akkerman. Next it was As Long as you're near and then the subtle Love Train, a simply amazing track that really does grow on you. I'm currently getting into Searching for Angela. The opener Free Wheeling does what it says on the tin and is excellent as is Minor Details. Joy threw me at first as I expected something different but that one is a grower too.
So even at this stage we can see we have an album well worth hearing, even if it takes a little while to appreciate.
A good few days
It's been pretty busy the last few days.
 |
| Elisha and Hazael |
1. Sunday morning I preached here in Childs Hill on 2 Kings 8:7-15 on God holds the future. This was the eighteenth in a series on Elisha. My two main points were that God holds the future and reveals some things about it and that he holds the future, which is not always rosy. We had a good number present including visitors around for Mothers Day and a new couple from the Philippines.
 |
| Durands |
2. In the afternoon I popped out to nearby Muswell Hill to collect Emmanuel Durand who had been preaching for Chris Bennett so that after tea with us he could preach and speak about the UFM work he is involved in, in Britanny. He enjoyed speaking Welsh with us at tea and a bit of French with members who speak it in church. Thankfully he preached the sermon and gave his report in English. It was great to hear. (Also see here and here)
3. On Monday they had workshops on creation at one of the schools in Childs Hill. I had the opportunity to present the Christian view from Genesis. I began by reading Genesis 1 from the NIrV, getting them to count off Day 1, 2, 3, etc. I then gave a simple powerpoint presentation of the material, touching on Genesis 2, before taking questions. The first group were a little slow getting off the blocks but got going eventually. They wanted to talk about the end of the word as well as the beginning but, while making the point that you can't understand the one without the other, I tried to keep on track. Someone asked me in the afternoon if Adam was a Muslim. Each workshop finished with the kids making posters showing the six days of creation. (I also showed the first group this). There was also a final whole school report back. Most of the workshops had done the Christian view and one the Jewish (pretty much the same). Islam I gather accepts six day creation to some extent but not the biblical account. There were also workshops on some of the more exotic creation stories among Native Americans, etc. (See here). So it was good opportunity and I certainly enjoyed it.
 |
| Asghers |
4. In the evening I was over in Hounslow for a series of meetings about the church planting work in Cranford. That went well. We are now moving into a new phase of the work with support coming through a trust rather than FIEC. Robin Asgher again had news to report of contacts with Asian people and opportunities to speak to Buddhists, Muslims and others. Always encouraging.
 |
| PfS Reading |
5. Then this morning I was standing in at the FIEC's PfS course in Reading giving a seminar on Proverbs 9. Around 30 men and women of different ages were present, most of whom I'd not met before, and I think we had a good time. Chris Bennett followed me on the doctrine of Christ. As a WelshmanI've been through Reading a hundred times or more but I don't recall ever being there before so that was good. The Cooks are a lovely couple and made me feel very welcome.
April Foolery
I decided against an April Fool this time round. The one I'd been thinking about didn't seem quite right, somehow. There were a few about, however, including Youtube's mild mannered trip back to 1911 and Google mail's thing about non-mouse control. I also liked heresy huntin' Martin Downes' revelation about the Lloyd-Jones diaries (that worked because you just wanted it to be true). Best of all was Mohammed Al Fayed's Michael Jackson statue at the Fulham ground. Jackson did watch a game there once (against Wigan) so deserves a statue I guess. Priceless.
... It is ...??
20 Facts about the human body
1. Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete.
2. The average human body contains enough: iron to make a 3 inch nail, sulphur to kill all fleas on an average dog, carbon to make 900 pencils, potassium to fire a toy cannon, fat to make 7 bars of soap, phosphorous to make 2,200 match heads, and water to fill a ten-gallon tank.
3. More people are allergic to cow’s milk than any other food.
5. Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day! Your ribs move about 5 million times a year, every time you breathe!
6. You are born with 300 bones, but by the time you become an adult, you only have 206.
8. One quarter of the bones in your body, are in your feet!
9. It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
10. Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.
11. Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his lifetime.
12. Like fingerprints, everyone’s tongue print is different!
13. Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails!
14. Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin!
15. The present population of 6 billion plus people of the world is predicted to become 15 billion by 2080. The only time the human population declined was in the years following 1347, the start of the epidemic of the plague ‘Black Death’ in Europe.
16. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
17. The human brain is 78% water.
18. An average person uses the bathroom 6 times per day.
19. An individual blood cell takes about 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the body.
20. Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.
I can't verify these. I came across them somewhere on the net looking for fact 2.
Next Saturday
You may be interested to know that next Saturday evening I am speaking at the regular Bible Focus meeting in Feltham. The subject is Keep yourselves from idols. More details of Feltham Bible Focus here.
Posts elsewhere
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)