The Cowper and Newton Museum in Olney, England

     As the bus wound its way through the fields, hedgerows and roundabouts, our first sight of Olney was the magnificent spire of the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. Five minutes later we stepped off into the village square and there, only 100 yards away was “Orchard Side”, the home of William Cowper from 1768-1786.

   We paid admission and passed through the house into the garden behind. As we sat quietly on a bench and admired the stonework of the garden walls and the tiled roofs in front of us, we could almost believe that it was 1780 and the gardener working nearby was Cowper himself.

     Later we passed through a door in the garden wall and found ourselves facing a little shed—Cowper’s summer house and “verse manufactory.” In his letters, he described it as being just big enough for a table and two chairs. It looks much the same now as it did 230 years ago— but the walls and ceiling are covered with the signatures of hundreds of visitors over the centuries.

     We then entered the house through a door (duck if you’re over 5’6”!) leading into the kitchen. Cooking seemed to be done over an open fire, using hooks and handles to get the cooking pots into place. Our next stops were the parlour and the hall, then up a tapering stair to Cowper’s bedroom. Not much of the original furniture remains— we did see an “architect’s desk” where he did some of his writing; his shoe buckles; his pocket watch and its stand; his washstand and shaving mirror; a stuffed hare (he had three as pets); his genealogy; and a replica of the strange hat he wore.

     We took lots of pictures, because there was too much to remember. As we left, one last view from the street looked through an arched, gated passageway to the garden and beyond, once again, to the church spire.

     Around the corner, through the car park, and down the pathway through the common brought us past the “Old Vicarage”, home of John Newton and, in about a quarter mile, to the church where he was curate. Built in the 14^th century, it is awe-inspiring. We have nothing in Canada to compare. We peeked into the church since it wasn’t locked, and walked around outside, past hundreds of gravestones.   A little printed sign on a stake directed us “to John Newton’s tomb” and we found the monument. His remains were moved here from London in 1893— one side reads, “JOHN NEWTON DIED 21^ST  DEC^R 1807…” and the opposite side reads, “JOHN NEWTON, CLERK, ONCE AN INFIDEL AND LIBERTINE, A SERVANT OF SLAVES IN AFRICA, WAS, BY THE RICH MERCY OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST PRESERVED, RESTORED, PARDONED AND APPOINTED TO PREACH THE FAITH HE HAD LONG LABOURED TO DESTROY. NEAR 16 YEARS AS CURATE OF THIS PARISH AND 28 YEARS AS RECTOR OF ST. MARY WOOLNOTH.” 

     We sat for a few minutes on the warm grass by the tomb, looked up at the marvellous spire and the blue sky, then moved on, as the bells in the tower chimed three.

     Tea, scones with jam and clotted cream, and delicious French-pressed coffee at a shop in the square rounded out our time in Olney, and we caught the 1608 bus back to our rooms.

     Looking back over two centuries, we have to say that God brought together two men with great spiritual and literary gift, but vastly different backgrounds, to bless many generations of believers. Scripture says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” (Prov.27:17.) Newton wrote “Amazing Grace” at Olney and Cowper, in one of his “Olney Hymns” says,

“Such Jesus is, and such His grace;

       Oh, may He shine on you!
And tell Him, when you see His face,
       I long to see Him too.”
 
XXXIV—Seeking the Beloved   Ì

“Jesus is greater than Moses”

     Back in May, we looked at a few of the ways that Jesus is like Moses: they were “almost” killed in infancy; they both interceded for their people; and they both showed the glory of God in their faces. Now we want to go one step further—we want to note how Jesus is still “like” Moses, but greater. Three examples should make the point:

     They both produced water from a rock. The children of Israel camped at Rephidim but there was no water so they started to grumble and quarrel. They were ready to stone Moses, so God intervened: “I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” Ex.17:6.  —A physical solution to a physical problem. But when did Jesus ever do such a thing? Was it at Cana, when He turned water into wine? I don’t think so. Now we move into the spiritual realm. The apostle Paul tells us that “they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” 1 Cor.10:4. Christ Himself is the Rock and he gave the Samaritan woman “living water” (John 4:10) —water that would cause her to “never thirst again!”

     They both provided a source of healing on a “tree”. As the Israelites travelled up the Red Sea road to bypass Edom, they started to grumble again: “There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” Num.21:4-5. Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. When they repented, Moses prayed for the people and the Lord said, “Make a snake and put it on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” Num.21:8.—A unique instance of physical healing, but what is the greater parallel with Jesus? Again we move into the spiritual realm: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” John 3:14-15

     They both went up through clouds and promised to return. In the days of the exodus, “Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai.” Ex.24:14-18. His parting words were, “Wait here for us until we come back to you.” Moses stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights and he came back to a real mess and a total loss of faith by the people—“this fellow Moses…we don’t know what has happened to him.” Ex.32:1,27. What a parallel we have in Jesus—He too went up into a cloud (Acts 1:9) and two men dressed in white promised, “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11. He, Himself, promised, “I will come back and take you to be with me.” John 14:3. And what will be the attitude of people when the Lord returns?—“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” Lk 18:8. We know from Rev.2,3 that He will, but it may be very weak and hidden. In any case, “we will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” 1 Thess.4:17, 18.

     I hope that these great comparisons will encourage us. Three more suggestions worth looking at (out of many) are (i) the Spirit on them passed to others. [Moses in Num.11:1,17 and the Lord in Acts 2:1-18—God, of course “gives the Spirit without limit.” John 3:3.] (ii) they both participated in an “exodus”. [Moses, in Ex.12:31, and the Lord, when He died on the cross and ascended to heaven, and will lead many others there as well. Lk.9:31] and (iii) they both provided bread from heaven. [Moses, for physical life, John 6:31-32, Ex.16:12, and Jesus for our eternal life. He is the Bread from Heaven. John 6:32-51]

     Once again we have to say, “Jesus has been found worthy of greater honour than Moses.” Heb.3:3.  Ì

“Jesus is like Moses”

Who was the first preacher of the good news after it became fact,

that is, after the crucifixion and the resurrection? Of course, it was Jesus Himself. On the road to Emmaus, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Luke 24:27. Later, Peter, in the temple, quoted Moses: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you.” Acts 3:22 (quoting Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15).

Later still, Stephen, in his speech to the Sanhedrin, recounted Israel’s history then said about Moses, “This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself.” “This is that Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.’ ” Acts 7:35,37.

This verse is the key—“a prophet like me!” There are dozens of prophecies and clear parallels with Moses, but Scripture goes much deeper than simply spelling out the details for readers to itemize and check off their lists. The story of Jesus is built right into the fabric of Scripture and the very life of Moses is a prophecy of Christ, not necessarily in the details but in the parallels and contrasts.

To get us started, here are a few parallels:

They both came under the sentence of death in infancy. You remember the children of Israel in Egypt. God blessed their families and the population grew until they became a threat to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives, “if it is a boy, kill him.” Ex.1:16. He got even more specific: “Every boy that is born, you must throw into the Nile.” Ex.1:22. And what is the most famous story of Jesus, right after His birth? Probably Herod’s order to kill! “Kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old or under.” Mt.2:16.

They both interceded for their people. The Israelites in the wilderness had tempted God once too often so He decided to wipe them out: “I may destroy them…and I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.” Deut.9:14. Moses turned down God’s offer! “Please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.” Ex.32:32. Now we turn to our Lord, in John 17, especially verse 24. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am.” He prayed for all His people: He wouldn’t give up any of us and He eventually “became obedient unto death— even death on a cross!” Phil.2:8.

They both showed the glory of God. Moses went up Mount Sinai and talked with God face to face. Deut.34:10. When he came back, his face shone to such a degree that he had to wear a veil to hide the fading of God’s glory in himself. Ex.34:29,35. On the other hand, we get a glimpse of the Lord’s glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. Lk.9:29. “As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.” Then Paul tells us that “God…hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Cor.4:6. Moses’ glory was reflected, but Jesus’ glory is His own and will never fade. In a sense God’s glory is reflected and “bounces off” Moses but it emanates from Jesus because that is His nature.

When we compare Christ’s life to Moses’, we find parallels that no impostor could ever match. The amazing thing is that they aren’t spelled out in advance— we see them only as we look back. In every instance we have to conclude, as the book of Hebrews does, “Jesus has been found worthy of greater honour than Moses.” Heb.3:3.

Next time we will look at a few contrasts. In the meantime, here are two more examples to think about:

• The people wanted to stone them both. Ex. 17:4; Jn.8:59.

• They were both cradled in very different and unusual places. Ex.2:3; Luke 2:12. 

Book Review: What’s So Great About Christianity

D’Souza, Dinesh.

What’s So Great About Christianity.

348 pp

Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 2008

There are at least two important things to note about this book and its author. First, there is no question mark in the title— it is answers, not questions. Second, D’Souza has written seven or eight other books, some of which could almost be described as politically sensationalist, so our first approach is with some caution. Examples of his work: The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11, The Roots of Obama's Rage, and articles like The Self Esteem Hoax, and Two Cheers for Colonialism.

D’Souza was raised in India, as a Catholic, but now describes himself as an evangelical Christian. In 1988 he served as an advisor on domestic policy in Ronald Reagan’s White House. Over the years D’Souza has appeared on CNN, Glenn Beck, ABC’s Nightline, and CBS’s Face the Nation, and has debated such noted atheists as Daniel Dennett, Peter Singer, and Christopher Hitchens.

When we turn to D’Souza’s own words, we are reassured by the apparent sincerity and forthrightness of his message. For instance, this book is dedicated: “For Bruce Schooley, stricken with cancer, who has found in Jesus Christ a cure for death.” And he shows to my satisfaction that, “As space and time are within the universe, the creator is outside space and time, which is to say, eternal.” In fact, “the entire universe with all its laws appears to be a conspiracy to produce, well, us.”

D’Souza has divided his book into eight parts, covering such subjects as “The Future of Christianity”, “Christianity and Science”, “Christianity and Philosophy”, “Christianity and Suffering”, and finally “Christianity and You.” Page three presents the Scriptural challenge to believers, of 1 Peter 3:15, “Always be prepared to give an answer…” D’Souza believes that, “Instead of engaging this secular world, most Christians have taken the easy way out. They have retreated into a Christian subculture…But a group of prominent atheists… has launched a powerful public attack on religion in general and Christianity in particular; they have no interest in being nice. A new set of anti-religious books— The God Delusion, The End of Faith, God Is Not Great, and so on— now shapes public debate.”

This book is immensely wide-ranging— its specific subject-matter is truly “Christianity.” There are statistics on the global Church (in not too many years, China may be the country with the largest Christian population); statistics on missionary effort (Britain has more than 250 churches run by foreigners, typically preachers from developing nations); statistics on the scientific illiteracy of young people; dozens of quotations of the subversive intentions of the prominent atheists mentioned earlier; and on and on.

Part II switches to history and shows how Christianity is “the spiritual basis of limited government.” Christianity is also the basis of “our culture’s powerful emphasis on compassion, on helping the needy, and on alleviating distress.” In contrast, he quotes the Chinese proverb, “the tears of strangers are only water.”

D’Souza looks at “the theological roots of science”, then at what he calls “the invention of invention”, then at “a universe with a beginning” and “man’s special place in creation.” He progresses to “the limits of reason”, “why miracles are possible”, and “the reasonableness of faith.” Many parts of this book are truly a mental feast. Quotations, statistics, arguments pile up so quickly that we often have to re-read and muse.

The climax of the entire work is Chapter 25: “Jesus Among Other Gods: The Uniqueness of Christianity.” For an unbeliever or a seeker, this is where D’Souza finally shows his hand. This is where he reaches the heart of the matter: “The propensity to sin is in man’s nature…The wages of sin is death… It is impossible to atone for one’s past sins…God decided to pay the price himself for human sin…Hell is where God is eternally absent… when every earthly hope of redemption has failed…it is at this point that God’s hand reaches out to us, steady and sure. All we have to do is take it.”

On the very last page, D’Souza presents this thesis, “Ultimately we are called not only to happiness and goodness but also to holiness…Yet holiness is not something we do for God. It is something we do with God. We couldn’t do it without Him.” We want that holiness too; and, even more intensely, we concur with D’Souza’s very last line: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus. We are ready.”

Reviewed by Glenn Wilson 

God Created Time!



Fountain at Castle of Chillon, Switzerland



Stephen Hawking (“widely regarded as the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein”) in his book A Brief History of Time mentions that philosophers like Immanuel Kant made the “unspoken assumption that time continues back forever.” When St. Augustine was asked, “What did God do before He created the universe?” he replied that “time was a property of the universe that God created, and that time did not exist before the beginning of the universe.”

Not to belabour the subject of scientific views of “time”, the September issue of Scientific American had for its cover the words “the end.” And the period at the end was important! Most articles dealt with some aspect of time from its assumed beginning at the “Big Bang”. Then a lead article in this highly scientific and sophisticated (not to say atheistic) magazine posed the question, “Could time end?”

What is this pre-eminent factor that God has created in our lives? It’s almost like a sixth sense, isn’t it? If we lost all sense of touch, hearing, sight, smell and taste, we would still be aware of the passage of time. The world, and we Christian believers too, would often like to slow down or stop the passage of time. C.S.Lewis expresses some of our longings about time:

“This year time’s nature will no more defeat you,

        Nor all the promised moments in their passing cheat you.

“This time they will not lead you round and back

        To Autumn, one year older, by the well-worn track.

“This year, this year, as all these flowers foretell,

        We shall escape the circle and undo the spell.”

But enough of man’s thoughts. Let’s get down to Scripture. In my daily reading, I’ve just come through John 17, with our Lord’s references to the glory He had with the Father “before the world began” and to the love the Father had for Him “before the creation of the world.” (vv.5,24) Expanding on this, the Apostle Paul refers to the glory God has destined for us since “before time began” 1 Cor.2:7; to the grace “given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time”; and to the hope of eternal life which God promised “before the beginning of time.” 2 Tim.1:9 and Titus 1:2. So we must conclude, with Augustine, that God is outside of time.

Our existence relative to the life of God is probably something we will never get our heads around. C.S.Lewis again has an analogy that helps. He supposes an author writing a story. The time-line of the story is completely independent of the author’s time-line. A character in the story may be preparing a cup of tea when the author’s phone rings. He answers the phone, then goes out to lunch. Two hours later he may sit down at his computer and finish preparing the cup of tea in his story. In fact, he can interject himself anywhere in his story. Perhaps God is like that— He is outside our story, can see all details of our story, past, present, and future, and can put Himself anywhere in our story while knowing all of its future as well.

Deep stuff! Creation is complex. Time is complex. But, “by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” Heb. 11:3 It seems that “time” is part of that creation.

And could time end? For spiritual beings with OUR Lord as Saviour? Never.





Book Review: Could You Ever Love Me Again?

Weeks, Gary, and Bob Cretney.

Could You Ever Love Me Again? The Gary Weeks story of forgiveness.

156 pp +32 pp of colour photos.

Gospel Folio Press, Port Colborne, Ontario, 2010



Some of us boomers remember the 1973 hit song,

Could you ever love me again 
If I let you down, 
Disappointed you? 
Could you ever love me again? 
If I ceased to do little things for you, 
Could you ever love me again?
Somewhere, somehow, somewhen, 
If I let you down, girl, 
Could you ever love me again?

Well, this is the story of the man who sang it—Gary Weeks. The book opens with a review of the singing and comedy team Gary and Dave. Gary Weeks and Dave Beckett met in school in grade seven, they went through high school together, they canoed together in Algonquin Park, they attended the University of Western Ontario in London, they each established themselves as pilots and, in the early ‘70s, while still at university, they started performing in clubs and releasing a few recordings. The run-up to their expected music success takes only three pages of the book. In less than ten pages the bubble has broken and Gary is “broke and broken-hearted.”

Was there blame to be placed? Why did the big New York recording firm drop Gary and Dave back there in 1978? Gary tells us that he returned to Montreal and fell into “months of deep discouragement and serious financial problems.” He says, “How did this happen to me?...I was approaching the pinnacle of success…Now, I’m just a nobody.” Looking back after all these years, what does Gary now think of all these events? “The Lord had finally gotten my attention!”

The rest of the book goes back over his life to fill in details— he was raised by a single mother, he was an NHL-quality hockey player with Leaside Lions, he got a “phony” B.A. degree, he piloted for Air Canada.

But Weeks doesn’t leave us there. He tells how his life turned around and he came into full time service for the Lord, first as a youth leader in Toronto, then as a missionary in Eire (for some years in Newcastle West, County Limerick). He tells us of his own conversion to Christ at Pioneer Camp in Muskoka; he tells of his wife, Claudette’s conversion on the island of Fiji, and his mother’s, and even his grandmother’s.

Gary has spoken at Shoreacres Bible Chapel on numerous occasions. For example, I have personal notes from his visit on April 21, 2010: “The characteristics of all the Lord’s healings in the New Testament and thus the tests for all God’s miraculous healings are (1) Was it immediate? (2) Was it obvious? (3) Was it complete? (4) Was it permanent?”

We enjoyed Gary’s story— we felt some of the exhilaration of his successes, we felt the wrench of his failures. We want Gary to continue to live for Christ; we’ve caught the good infection and want to live for Him too.

Gary presented a riddle early in the book and it’s fitting to end with it here: “How can a person born once die twice, and how can a person born twice die once?” Read his book for the answer.

Reviewed by Glenn Wilson 

"Could you ever love me again" c.1973.

“Meditation in a Toolshed”

This is the exact title of an essay by C.S.Lewis, and I often think of it during the Breaking of Bread. He says, “I was standing today in the dark toolshed. The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust floating in it, was the most striking thing in the place. Everything else was almost pitch-black. I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it.”

“Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture vanished. I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no beam. Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, 90 odd million miles away, the sun. Looking along the beam and looking at the beam are very different experiences.”

So, how does this relate to a worship service at Shoreacres Bible Chapel? As we enter the chapel on a Sunday morning, we’re probably greeting one another, commenting on the weather, noticing the warmth or coolness of the auditorium, the comfort of the pews, even the bread and wine on the table at the front. In a sense, this is looking at the beam.

Then the service begins and we notice who gives out a hymn, reads a scripture or prays. Still looking at the beam. Someone may comment on a hymn or a hymn-writer or even the method of our remembrance. Still looking at the beam. Going deeper, someone may show us typology or prophetic fulfillment or the wonders we can expect to enter someday. Still looking.

But what we really want to see is the Son. Isaiah saw Him: “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord!” Isa.6:1 (also John 12:41). Peter, James and John saw Him on that mountain: “This is My Son, whom I love.” Mark 9:7. Stephen saw Him: He “looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” Acts 7:55. John saw Him again, on Patmos: “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever.” Rev.1:18.

So there is a hope every time we come to a Breaking of Bread or any worship, expressed in a slight paraphrase of what those Greeks said to Philip long ago, “Lord, we would like to see Jesus!” John 12:21.

 



Marazion from Saint Michael's Mount, south coast of England.