Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
The Utopian dream of Total Education - 1870
The question of popular education affects not only the intellectual but the moral training of a vast proportion of the population, and therefore we must not forgot that in trying to do great good it is possible to do harm.
Now, while alluding to voluntary zeal, I must be allowed to state that I think no one could occupy my office without being fully aware of what the country owes to the managers of the schools at present in receipt of Government grants. Both before and during my tenure of that office I have had many opportunities of seeing those gentlemen at work, particularly ministers of religion of all denominations, though perhaps it has been my lot to see more of the clergy of the Church of England than of others. I have seen them at their work, and tried to help them occasionally; I know the sacrifices they have made, and not for a moment do I believe it possible that anyone who considers this question will disregard what they have already done, or will wish to do without their aid in the future. I sometimes hear it objected that they gain great influence by their efforts in promoting education. I believe they have not worked in order to attain that object, though far distant be the time when, in England, self-denying exertions, such as many of these gentlemen have made, will not give them influence!
though we have done well in assisting the benevolent gentlemen who have established schools, yet the result of the State leaving the initiative to volunteers, is, that where State help has been most wanted, State help has been least given, and that where it was desirable that State power should be most felt it was not felt at all. In helping those only who help themselves, or who can get others to help them, we have left un-helped those who most need help. Therefore, notwithstanding the large sums of money we have voted, we find a vast number of children badly taught, or utterly untaught, because there are too few schools and too many bad schools, and because there are large numbers of parents in this country who cannot, or will not, send their children to school. Hence comes a demand from all parts of the country for a complete system of national education,
I believe that the country demands from us that we should at least try to do two things, and that it shall be no fault of ours if we do not succeed in doing them—namely, cover the country with good schools, and get the parents to send their children to those schools. I am aware, indeed, that to hope to arrive at these two results may be thought Utopian; but our only hope of getting over the difficulties before us, is to keep a high ideal before our minds, and to realize to ourselves what it is we are expected to try to do.
The first problem, then, is, "How can we cover the country with good schools?" Now, in trying to solve that problem there are certain conditions which I think hon. Members on both sides of the House will acknowledge we must abide by. First of all, we must not forget the duty of the parents. Then we must not forget our duty to our constituencies, our duty to the taxpayers. Though our constituencies almost, I believe, to a man would spend money, and large sums of money, rather than not do the work, still we must remember that it is upon them that the burden will fall. And thirdly, we must take care not to destroy in building up—not to destroy the existing system in introducing a new one. In solving this problem there must be, consistently with the attainment of our object, the least possible expenditure of public money, the utmost endeavour not to injure existing and efficient schools, and the most careful absence of all encouragement to parents to neglect their children.
Now, I will at once proceed to the main principles that run through all our clauses for securing efficient school provision. They are two in number. Legal enactment, that there shall be efficient schools everywhere throughout the kingdom. Compulsory provision of such schools if and where needed, but not unless proved to be needed.
(I found this all here)
The same sun that softens butter hardens clay
The nature of God's Word is that whosoever read it or hear it reasoned and disputed before him, it will begin immediately to make him every day better and better, till he be grown into a perfect man in the knowledge of Christ and love of the law of God; or else make him worse and worse, till he be hardened that he openly resist the Spirit of God, and then blaspheme after the example of Pharoah, Korah, Abiram, Balaam, Judas, Simon Magnus and such other.
(Documents of the English Reformation, ed. Gerald Bray, Tyndale's Preface to the New Testament, p21)
..he that hath a good heart toward the Word of God and a set purpose to fashion his deeds thereafter and to garnish it with godly living and to testify it to other(s), the same shall increase more and more daily in the grace of Christ. But he that loveth not, to live thereafter and to edify other(s), the same shall lose the grace of true knowledge and be blinded again and every day wax worse and worse and blinder and blinder, till he be an utter enemy of the Word of God and his heart hardened, that it shall be impossible to convert him.
(Documents of the English Reformation, ed. Gerald Bray, Tyndale's Preface to the New Testament, p21-22)
Monday, 8 February 2010
William Tyndale
The Time: 1536
The Place: Outside of Brussels
The Martyr: William Tyndale
(Evangel)
I refuse to look to John Huss whose goose was cooked
Lord, I wanna put your truth in books
Now concerning my faith no turning away
I know eternity awaits even if I’m burned at the stake
Like avoiding their attacks of me would profit me
Great Whore that could be properly the papacy and prophecy
They say the Pope’s the holiest
Only if these people could see its phoniness and Scripturally erroneous
The Pope of men fail to respect- they wanna seek death
of William Tyndale so then I inhale a deep breath
Two doors- my hands push
As I stride inside I was grabbed by men hiding- it’s an ambush!
I was sabotaged- he was disguised and camouflaged
As a friend of me- I didn’t know he was the enemy
Now through discerning, I see this group is yearning
With ill will to kill bill like Uma Thurman
It’s a chaotic frenzy as they plot against me
Hey if God defends me or ends me- He’ll soon determine
Now I plead for these people (forgive ‘em!) they grieve Your cathedral
I don’t wanna repay evil for evil
When I’m weak I’m made strong- got my brave face on
We’re sheep for the slaughter being killed all the day long
I’ll never be a man-pleaser
No matter how tight the grip of the hand squeezer
I can’t breathe- I’ll stand with Jesus
Even if plans are grievous as they try to put me to sleep like anesthesia
Now I’m gagging and gasping- I’m sold out for You
No doubt this noose won’t choke out the truth
And leave a lasting legacy- cats who would never read
your Word after the death of me cats can cleverly
get pass the heresy and grab for this weaponry
Your sword- now Lord I pass to the heavenlies
Sunday, 7 February 2010
The tool for the job
Though a man had a precious jewel and a rich, yet if he wist not the value thereof nor wherefore it served, he were neither the better nor richer by a straw.
Even so, though we read the Scripture and babble of it never so much, yet if we know not the use of it and wherefore it was given, and what is therein to be sought, it profiteth us nothing at all.
It is not enough therefore to read and talk of it only, but we must also desire God day and night instantly to open our eyes, and to make us understand and feel wherefore the Scripture was given, that we may apply the medicine of the Scripture, every man to his own sores, unless that we pretend to be idle disputers and brawlers about vain words, ever gnawing upon bitter bark without and never attaining unto the sweet with within, and persecuting one another for defending of lewd imaginations and fantasies of our own invention.
(Tynadale's Preface to the Pentateuch p35-36)
Desperately Seeking
(the Late Middle Ages) far from being a period of decline, was alive with all sorts of spiritual vitalities. It was, as Lucien Febvre described it, an age with 'an immense appetite for the divine.' The braying at Mass in honour of the donkey on which Mary rode, the name of Jesus tattooed over the heart, veneration of bleeding Hosts. More often it followed the beaten paths of mainline piety. But, in either case, it was for many people a deeply unsatisfying spirituality. The nervous moralism and ceaseless attempts to placate a high and angry God served to intensify the primal anxieties of death, guilt, and loss of meaning. (p30)
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Jesus is no fairytale
And the girl called Goldilocks
Who came in from the woods and gobbled
All their porridge up
Or the story about Snow White
And the 7 dwarves she knew
Well one thing about fairy tales
None of them are true (But ...)
Jesus is no fairytale
He's real as real can be
No one made him up
No he's as real as you and me
He's the mighty Son of God
His word will never fail....
So put your trust in Jesus
Cos he's no fairytale
Once upon a time, there is a tale they often tell
'bout Jack and that big beanstalk
And how the giant fell
And then there's Cinderella
And the handsome prince she wed
Well they're just stories somebody
Just cooked up in their head (But...)
Jesus is no fairytale
He's real as real can be
No one made him up
No he's as real as you and me
He's the mighty Son of God
His word will never fail....
So put your trust in Jesus
Cos he's no fairytale
Well there's nothing wrong with stories
Those tales of make-believe
Like mean old Rumplestiltskin
Or the Princess and the pea
Just remember that the Bible's
Not like fairytales you've heard
Cos the Bible's how God speaks to us
the Bible is God's Word (And...)
So put your trust in Jesus
Put all your trust in Jesus
The living, risen Jesus
Cos he's no fairytale!
He's no fairytale!
Song by Colin Buchanan from the album 10, 9, 8....God is Great
Big 'G' or small 'g'?
This looks interesting. I know nothing of what big G, Grudem thinks about government. My own thoughts are work in progress in any case! So this should be the sort of thing I go to:
The tour will be at the follow places (taken from here):
The tour will be at the follow places (taken from here):
Thu 24 June | 5.30pm | London (St Helen’s Bishopsgate) |
Fri 25 June | Evening | Liverpool (TBC) |
Sat 26 June | Daytime | Sheffield (Christ Church Fulwood) |
Mon 28 June | Daytime | Cambridge (Eden Baptist Church) |
Tue 29 June | Evening | Peterborough (KingsGate Community Church) |
Wed 30 June | Evening | Chessington (The King’s Centre) |
I guess Peterborough is the nearest to a West Midlands one?
---
NB I have just found this:
So now I know something of what he thinks.
Not sure I agree with where he ends up, but he says some very sane things that we need to hear!
---
NB I have just found this:
So now I know something of what he thinks.
Not sure I agree with where he ends up, but he says some very sane things that we need to hear!
Friday, 5 February 2010
Two things
ye see that two things are required to begin a Christian man. The first is a steadfast faith and trust in Almighty God, to obtain all the mercy that he hath promised us, through the deserving merits of Christ's blood only, without all respect to our own works. And the other is that we forsake evil and turn to God, to keep his laws and to fight against ourselves and our corrupt nature perpetually, that we may do the will of God every day better and better.
(Tyndale's Preface to the New Testament, p20-21)
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Welcome to the asylum
And don't forget this is 2010 and not 1933.
He highlights how we as UK Citizens are also citizens of a Europe in which this is happening.
Do we understand that, as citizens of the European Union, we now belong to a totalitarian state from which fleeing citizens are being granted political asylum in the United States?And speaking of our own government:
The mentality is that the state – not parents – is the natural controller and shaper of children’s lives and beliefs. When a schoolgirl can be given an abortion without her parents’ knowledge, we know that, while public utilities may have been privatised, children have been nationalised. The Romeikes who fled from Germany objected to their children being forced to follow a curriculum that they believed was anti-Christian. The same would apply in British state schools, where pornographic sex education is increasingly being made compulsory.
Above: The Romeikes
HT Pete JacksonRanke the events in order of importance
History is never the simple recounting of the past as it really was [Leopold von Ranke's aim to reconstruct the past wie es eigentlich gewesen or to those like me who don't speak German 'as it actually happened']. It is inevitably an interpretation of the past, a retrospective vision of the past, which is limited both by the sources themselves and by the historian who selects and interprets them. (p15)
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