Mrs Thatcher's death

There is a very interesting obituary to the late Lady Thatcher here.

CYSK 07 John Newton

After John Russell, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

John Henry Newton (1725 – 1807) was a British sailor who became an Anglican minister after his powerfulconversion while still at sea. He started his career at sea at a young age and was involved with the slave trade for some years. He himself was also enslaved for a period. He is remembered today chiefly as a preacher, writer abolitionist and the author of many hymns, including Amazing Grace. Do check out the John Newton project here.

CYSK 06 John and Betty Stam

https://www.christianfocus.com/en-gb/journal/2014/12/triumph-through-tragedy-the-martyrdom

John Cornelius Stam (1907 – 1934) and Elisabeth Alden Scott Stam, aka, "Betty" (1906 – 1934) were American missionaries to China with CIM (now OMF), during the Chinese civil war. The missionary couple was murdered by Communist Chinese soldiers in 1934. The story of their martyrdom was much publicised and inspired many to become missionaries.

10 Adam and Eve References

1. Adam's apple (man's throat exterior)
2. Adam's ale (water)
3. Adam's arm (shovel)
4. Adam's rib (woman)
5. Didn't know him from Adam
6. Would you Adam and Eve it (Cockney rhyming slang - would you believe it)
7. Adam and Eve [on a raft] (two fried eggs [on toast])
8. Eve's pudding (apple and sponge pudding)
9. Eve with a lid on (apple pie)
10. Daughter of Eve (woman)

CYSK 05 Frances Ridley Havergal

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/a/l/l/h/allhappy.htm

Frances Ridley Havergal (1836 – 1879) was a Worcestershire born poet and hymn writer born in an Anglican rectory. Take My Life and Let it Be is one of her best known hymns. She also wrote hymn melodies, religious tracts and works for children. More here.

Turretin on good works

This is helpful

"Works can be considered in three ways: either with reference to justification or sanctification or glorification.

 

They are related to justification

not antecedently, efficiently and meritoriously, but consequently and declaratively.

 

They are related to sanctification

constitutively because they constitute and promote it.

 

They are related to glorification

antecedently and ordinatively because they are related to it as the means to the end."

(See Turretin, 17.3.14)

Unusual Words 18 Matutinal

In his Road to Wigan Pier George Orwell uses the word matutinal, as in

"The matutinal tub divides the classes more effectually than birth, wealth, or education."

The word relates to or rfers to soemthing occurring in the morning or early in the day. Other examples

He was an imposing and sombre personage, before whom the choir boys in alb and in jacket trembled, as well as the machicots, and the brothers of Saint-Augustine and the matutinal clerks of Notre-Dame, when he passed slowly beneath the lofty arches of the choir, majestic, thoughtful, with arms folded and his head so bent upon his breast that all one saw of his face was his large, bald brow. Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

"Ata," explained So-ta, when I questioned her as to the purpose of this matutinal rite; but that was later.

The Land That Time Forgot by  Edgar Rice Burroughs

Bishop Reynolds on Satan

In his commentary on Hosea 14 Edward Reynolds (1599-1676) says

Satan hath three titles given in the Scripture, setting forth his malignity against the church of God; a dragon, to note his malice; a serpent, to note his subtlety; and a lion, to note his strength. But none of all these can stand before prayer. The greatest malice of Haman sinks under the prayer of Esther; the deepest policy, the counsel of Ahithophel, withers before the prayer of David; the largest army, a host of a thousand Ethiopians, runs away like cowards before the prayer of Asa.

Ethan Frome

I've been reading Edith Wharton's novella Ethan Frome. It is a well told and powerful tale that reveals a story of passion and sadness in 19th century rural New England. Part of the story teller's art is to book end the piece with references to the then present and these give the main story a strength that it would probably otherwise not have. Only around 99 pages it is quite a work and well deserves the praise it has been given as Wharton's best selling work. Early reviewers though it too cruel but given a little distance one can cope with it easier by hoping nothing so dire would ever happen to me or those I love. It is quite a moral tale in its own way. It is crying out to be filmed. I notice that was done in 1993 with Liam Neeson (director John Madden), how successfully I don't know not having seen it.

Unusual words Special Ethan Frome

In the edition of Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome I have just read a number of words are footnoted for comment. I mention two

Carcel lamps are oil lamps that made a bubbling noise, named for a French inventor

(In the "best parlour," with its black horse-hair and mahogany weakly illuminated by a gurgling Carcel lamp, I listened every evening ...) 

Huckabuck is an inexpensive absorbent cotton fabric

(I know there's a huckabuck towel missing; and I can't take out what you done with that match-safe 't used to stand behind the stuffed owl in the parlour.)

Novelists 25 Herman Melville

Herman Melville (1819 – 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist and poet. He is best known for his huge novel Moby Dick which I must confess never to having even attempted. His first three books gained much contemporary attention (the first Typee became a bestseller), but after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime. When he died he was almost completely forgotten. Only a "Melville Revival" in the early 20th century restored his reputation. In 1919, the unfinished manuscript for his novella Billy Budd was discovered by his first biographer and this I have read along with his Bartleby the Scrivener. He published a version in 1924, which was quickly acclaimed by notable British critics as another masterpiece of Melville's.

Lord's Day March 31 2013

It was great to have so many people in church yesterday. We were swollen chiefly by former members coming back to see relatives but there were others too and yet still some away as well. I never mentioned the word Easter once but all the hymns and readings and sermons were related to the subject of the resurrection. I preached on John 2:19-21 in the morning where Jesus speaks of them destroying the temple nad he raising it again in three days and in the evening on the Sadducees' question about the resurrection in Mark 12. It was good to be looking at central themes but from less obvious texts.

(I also had one, now removed, for last Lord's Day - "It was unseasonably cold yesterday (I'm dreaming of a white Easter!) and that probably affected attendance. There were a few visitors, however, from Holland and Romania and less far afield. We carried on with 1 Corinthians and preaching the gospel, reaching 2:5 at last, in the morning and in Numbers (28) in the evening. My main points in the evening were about being thankful that we don't need to know the details of that chapter well today and how it teaches us about Christ's sacrifice and our own since that time".)

CYSK 04 David Livingstone

Frederick Havill, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

David Livingstone (1813 – 1873) was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the LMS and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H M Stanley 1871 gave rise to the popular quotation "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" A national hero, his fame soon gained mythic proportions. He was a Protestant missionary martyr, subject of an inspirational working-class "rags to riches" story, a scientific investigator and an explorer, as well as an imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader and advocate of commercial empire. More here.

10 famous apparenty creationist 19th century scientists

1. Humphrey Davy (1778–1829) Thermokinetics; Safety lamp
2. Michael Faraday (1791–1867) Electro magnetics; Field theory, Generator
3. Philip H. Gosse (1810–1888) Ornithologist; Zoology
4. James Simpson (1811–1870) Gynaecology, Anesthesiology
5. James Joule (1818–1889) Thermodynamics
6. Gregor Mendel (1822–1884) Genetics
7. Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) Bacteriology, Biochemistry; Sterilization; Immunisation
8. Joseph Lister (1827–1912) Antiseptic surgery
9. James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) Electrodynamics; Statistical thermodynamics
10. John Ambrose Fleming (1849–1945) Electronics; Electron tube; Thermionic valve

10 famous apparently creationist early scientists

1. Johann Kepler (1571–1630) Scientific astronomy
2. Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) Hydrostatics; Barometer; Mathematics 
3. Robert Boyle (1627–1691) Chemistry; Gas dynamics
4. Isaac Barrow (1630–1677) Professor of Mathematics
5. Isaac Newton (1642–1727) Dynamics; Calculus; Gravitation law; Reflecting telescope; Spectrum
6. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz (1646–1716) Mathematician
7. John Flamsteed (1646–1719) Greenwich Observatory Founder; Astronomy
8. Carolus Linneaus (1707–1778) Taxonomy; Biological classification system
9. William Herschel (1738–1822) Galactic astronomy; Uranus (probably believed in an old-earth)
10. John Dalton (1766–1844) Atomic theory; Gas law