Schooldays, witchcraft - and George Fox

Twenty-five miles from here as the crow flies is a hill that can be seen for miles around, when it isn't raining. (A local saying has it that if you can see Pendle it's about to rain, and if you can't see it, it's raining already. A scurrilous statement, that.) I went to school within a mile or two of the hill's Big End, and on Saturdays I climbed its slopes and tramped its length.

It's probably best known for its connection with the Pendle Witches (or the Lancashire Witches, as author Harrison Ainsworth called them). Four hundred years ago, Pendle was considered a wild and lawless region, "fabled for its theft, violence and sexual laxity, where the church was honoured without much understanding of its doctrines by the common people."

Roger Nowell of Read Hall, JP for Pendle, was investigating people failing to attend  the Church of England when he received a complaint that John Law, a pedlar, had been injured by witchcraft. Law appears to have suffered a stroke shortly after an argument with one Alizon Device. Alizon Device, being investigated, made claims about a rival family.

The magistrate's inquiries led to some 11 people being sent to Lancaster Assizes and one to York Assizes in 1612 to answer charges of causing harm by witchcraft, Ten were sentenced to death by hanging. They were apparently poor uneducated people who earned a living by begging, home cures, threats and extortion. Except for one, Alice Nutter, the widow of a prosperous farmer, who is believed to have been a Catholic and it is said may have declined to give evidence in her defence for fear of incriminating other Catholics.

The trial became the best known of all British witchcraft trials, largely because of an account of the trial, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, published by the clerk of the court, Thomas Potts.

Fortunately the hill has some more godly associations. George Fox. founder of the Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, realised that it took more than going to Oxford or Cambridge to make a minister, and he had scant respect for "steeple-houses," for the church, he said, was the people, and their head was Christ. Born the son of a godly Leicestershire weaver, he was constantly on the move, exhorting people to repentance and "turning people from darkness to light." 

He arrived in Pendle around 1651, when he was about 26 years old. He had already served two periods in prison because of his outspokenness. He writes in his Journal:

"As we travelled we came near a very great hill, called Pendle Hill, and I was moved of the Lord to go up to the top of it; which I did with difficulty, it was so very steep and high. When I was come to the top, I saw the sea bordering on Lancashire. From the top of this hill the Lord let me see in what places he had a great people to be gathered. As I went down, I found a spring of water in the side of the hill, with which I refreshed myself, having eaten or drunk but little for several days before."

Jesus said "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15).

George Fox was a good example, would you think?
  

Will Christians please take some notice?

"Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, and those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body also. . ." (Heb 13:3).

For long enough, churches have been bombed and burned to the ground in Nigeria. Thousands of homes have been torched, and thousands of Christians shot down. For many, it seemed like the world didn't care. Finally, the kidnapping of more than 200 young girls has captured the West's imagination.

For many years, persecution of Christians in Sudan has been brutal. A countless number have been bombed and butchered. Christians have been found literally crucified. Finally, Meriam Ibrahim, a 27-year-old Christian woman with two very young children, sentenced to death after a family dispute and shackled to a prison wall, has captured the world's attention.

For three years, Syria has been blown apart in one of the fiercest battles in memory. Thousands have lost their homes and their possessions and fled the country. Islamic fighters, with military jihad as their motivation and acknowledging allegiance only to Allah, have now spread into Iraq, taking the cities of Mosul and Tikrit and reportedly surrounding the country's largest oil refinery.

 They belong to a group named ISIS, said to be more ruthless than al Qaeda. Their beheadings and crucifixions are well known. They have assassinated adults and  children, their bodies left lying in their homes and in the streets by the hundred. Thousands, including children, have fled for their lives, and are without food and water. Kurds are blocking refugees from entering Kurdistan. Some refugees find themselves in towns now surrounded, and are facing death.

What the ,mainstream media perhaps does not make clear is that Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, is the site of ancient Nineveh, and has been one of the last resorts for Christians in Iraq. It has been a Christian centre for the past 2,000 years. Most of the Christians there are probably now among the 150,000 escapees, fleeing they don't know where, but afraid for their lives.

"Please help us" are the cries coming out of Iraq at the moment. May they be heard.

"As we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith" (Gal 6:10).
    

Christian woman under death sentence for apostasy

South Sudan became Africa's newest nation when it gained independence from Sudan in 2011. It followed years of civil war, in which something like two million lost their lives and more than four million were displaced. Sudan is predominantly Muslim; many in South Sudan are Christians.

The young state fell into crisis in December, 2013 in a power struggle between the president and his former deputy. The conflict has killed thousands and caused more than 800,000 to flee.

Fighting has hindered agriculture and oil production; UN officials say four million will be faced with starvation by the end of the year. Almost two billion American dollars were needed in aid.

Meriam Yahya Ibrahim, a 27-year-old Christian woman, has been sentenced to death in Sudan for apostasy. She was brought up a Christian by her Ethiopian Orthodox mother - but her father, who left when she was a child, was a Muslim, so the court considered her a Muslim too.

Mrs Ibrahim is married to a Christian, so the court sentenced her to 100 lashes for adultery on the basis of her sexual relationship with her husband. It is understood sentence will not be carried out - she is eight months pregnant - until the child is born and weaned.

Before sentence was passed, Mrs Ibrahim was given three days to recant. She refused to do so. "I am a Christian, and I will remain a Christian," she said.

Her husband, Daniel Wani, a US citizen, is disabled and uses a wheelchair. He visited his wife in prison and found her shackled to the wall.

"I don't know what to do," he said. "I'm just praying."
   

How Moses didn't live in Bolton

I imagine Bolton to be a place which is tremendously proud of its heritage and a place where Southerners imagine they're still having trouble up at t'mill.

To get to the point. There's a district of Bolton - not far from here - called Moses Gate. I often wondered how it got its name. I asked Boltonians. They didn't know. I asked people who lived in Moses Gate. They didn't know either. So I made a few enquiries.

The first word was originally "moss" or "mosses," a moss being a patch of marshy or peaty land. "Gate" is an old word for road, as in Churchgate (the road to the church) or Deansgate (the road to Deane). A map dated in the early 1800s names the place as "Moss Gate."

Pity it hasn't anything to do with Moses. It would have made a good blog post.
 

Where the flames of revival once burned

Wales is a beautiful country with a remarkable Christian history. For years I have thrilled to exciting stories of bringing Bibles to Bala.

I have marvelled at tales of some of the great preachers. (Thomas Charles heard Daniel Rowland preach on Heb 4:15. "I had such a view of Christ as our High Priest, of His love, compassion, power, and all-sufficiency, as filled my soul with astonishment - with joy unspeakable and full of glory," he said. "My mind was overwhelmed and overpowered with amazement. . . I could not believe for very joy. The glorious scenes that opened to my eyes will abundantly satisfy my soul millions of years hence in the contemplation of them. Often walking in the fields I looked up to heaven with joy and called that my home, at the same time ardently longing for the appearance of the glorious Saviour to take me forever to Himself.")

I have been inspired by tales of the Welsh revival in the early 20th century, when miners sang hymns as they worked, public houses closed for lack of business, young people held meetings every night lasting for hours and something like 150,000 were converted and added to the churches.

I have been blessed by tales of how Rees Howells and his team of 120 prayer warriors prayed for victory detail by detail three times a day through the Second World War, being rewarded with miraculous answers to prayer.

It was all brought back to my mind by a news item. One of the earliest Bibles published in Welsh, translated by Bishop William Morgan in the 1580s, has been purchased, largely by the National Trust, and delivered to the house where he was born, near the village of Penmachno, in Snowdonia.

In 1563 Parliament was prevailed upon to pass a law requiring that the Bible and Prayer Book be translated into Welsh by 1567. The New Testament and the Prayer Book were translated by that time, largely the work of William Salesbury, but the translations were flawed.

William Morgan appears to have taken it upon himself to translate the whole Bible from its original languages around 1578. It took him nine years. His Bible was a superb translation, and was commonly used until the late 20th century. It set the standard for the Welsh language, much as the King James Version did for English.

To my mind, it doesn't seem long since there was a Bible on the Welsh dresser in almost every farmhouse in Wales - but churchgoing has considerably decreased in the principality, particularly among young people.  One commentator dared to suggest that before we've done there might not be more churchgoers in Wales than an average attendance at Chelsea's football stadium at Stamford Bridge.

Is it possible that the flames of revival could burn again right across the nation?

Flying here to say thank you

Ask Christian apologist Frank Turek if Christians should get involved in politics and he'll show you a satellite photograph of the Korean peninsula, taken at night. North Korea is in absolute darkness; South Korea is ablaze with lights. "South Korea is full of freedom, food and productivity. North Korea is a concentration camp." The reason for the difference, he says, is politics.

The difference between the two Koreas, certainly, is remarkable. North Korea is said to be the most dangerous country in the world to be a Christian. South Korea has an estimated 25 per cent of its population who identify with Christianity and has some of the largest Christian churches in the world. Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul had more than 800,000 members in 2007 and has continued to grow.

A thousand South Korean Christians will be visiting the UK this September as part of a nation-wide prayer mission. The National Day of Prayer and Worship is partnering with the Korean Word Prayer School in Seoul to bring the believers to Britain.

They hope to visit around 40 church communities around the UK, sharing in worship, joining in mission activities and issuing a prophetic call to the church in Britain to remain strong, and for Britain to remain faithful to its Christian heritage. Two large prayer gatherings will be held in London to conclude the trip.

Dr Jonathan Oloyede, convenor of the National Day of Prayer and Worship, says he is delighted. "I believe there is a call on the church in the British Isles to warmly respond in welcome as the Christians of South Korea thank these isles for sharing the gospel in times past," he says.

God bless them.
 

About Sabden treacle mines

About 25 miles from my home is Pendle Hill, a great expanse of moorland perhaps best known for its association with the Pendle witches, who roamed that area in the 17th century and had their natural lives ended at the end of a rope after a trial at Lancaster Assizes.

A cannon ball fired from the slopes of Pendle Hill by Oliver Cromwell's army is said to have made the great hole you can still see in the wall of the keep of Clitheroe Castle. That's total fantasy: no cannon ball fired from that distance could possibly have made that amount of damage.

Pendle Hill does have happier associations. George Fox, founder of the Quaker movement, had a vision of  "a great people to be gathered" while on Pendle Hill.

In the shadow of the Big End of Pendle lies Downham, once said to be the prettiest village in Lancashire. At the other end, a road goes over the Nick of Pendle to Sabden in the valley on the other side. Beyond Sabden is Black Hill.

Sabden is known for its treacle mines. The treacle mines are probably Sabden's (pop. 1,371) best-known attribute.

One day recently, in a moment of idle curiosity, I typed "Sabden treacle mines" into the Google monster. It came up with a variety of websites, but I still have no authentic information about the mines' origin.

One day perhaps, if I live long enough, I will hear about how they began. When I do, I will squirrel the information away with the rest of the fairly useless information that makes life so interesting.

And the band played on

Colne, a former mill town in Lancashire, is a rum place. As a rum place, it has form. On his several visits there, John Wesley always met opposition, sometimes violent. On one of his visits, one of his helpers was thrown to his death from a bridge.

But Methodism prevailed. At one time the town boasted the best part of a dozen Methodist chapels.

Wallace Hartley, born in 1878, went to the Methodist day school and sang in the choir at Bethel Independent Methodist Chapel, where his father, Albion Hartley, was choirmaster and Sunday school superintendent. Albion is said to have introduced the hymn Nearer My God to Thee to the congregation. Young Wallace learned the violin from a member of the congregation.

When the Titanic sailed from Liverpool on its ill-fated voyage 99 years ago this year, Wallace was leader of the ship's eight-piece orchestra.

When the Titanic was holed shortly before midnight, the orchestra, who would already have finished for the night, made their way to the first-class lounge. A survivor said one of them told her they were "going to give them a tune to cheer things up a bit."

It was commonly believed that the orchestra played until the ship went down, and that their last piece was Nearer My God to Thee.

Wallace Hartley's was one of only three musicians' bodies to be identified, and the only one to be returned home. A crowd of 40,000 - almost twice Colne's population - turned out for his funeral procession.

A recent book, The Band that Played On, by Steve Turner, speculates that it was Hartley's faith - and that of cellist John Wesley Woodward, a fellow Methodist from Hill Top Methodist Chapel in West Bromwich - that encouraged them to play to the last.

"My feeling is that he was a person of great moral authority as well as a born leader," says the author. "One of the most convincing accounts I read, by one of the sailors, was that at the end there was a lone violinist playing Nearer My God to Thee. I suspect that was Wallace Hartley."

A tale of Bury Bob

Stacksteads, near Bacup in Lancashire, England, is not, if it will forgive me for saying so, the most imposing of places. But it once had a revival.

Sam Chadwick, born in 1860, was later principal of Cliff College and president of the Methodist Conference. He was brought up in a tiny, two-roomed house in Back Hammerton Street, Burnley. He was converted to Christ when he was 10 years old. He had little education - he started work when he was eight years old - but felt a call to preach, and studied all the hours he could find.

His biography tells how his first appointment was as lay evangelist at Stacksteads Methodist Church, where he upset all the local brewers with his temperance preaching.[1]

Living in Stacksteads was a man named Robert Hamer, known to everyone in the town as Bury Bob. He was a notorious drunkard. It was said he had committed every crime in the book except murder, and it was only by God's grace he hadn't committed that. He had fought a bulldog with his hands tied behind his back, worried rats with his teeth, eaten glass, swallowed knives, smashed furniture, wrecked public houses, mauled policemen and fought all comers.

One day he walked into a meeting and signed the pledge (a pledge, that is, to abstain from alcohol). The next Sunday he was converted to Christ. The following morning he arrived early at the quarry where he worked and told the men one by one as they arrived what had happened to him.

The men laughed and jeered all week (something they wouldn't have dared to do before), until Friday. On Friday, a huge piece of rock trapped his finger. Before he knew it, he let out a great oath. The men laughed. "Ah," they said, "where's your religion now?" To their surprise, he fell to his knees and with the blood dripping off his elbow, cried out loud to God for forgiveness until peace came. When he got up, every man was standing with his cap in his hand.

The following Sunday the town turned out to see Bury Bob go to church. In the following weeks and months, hundreds were converted to Christ.

[1] Norman G. Dunning. Samuel Chadwick. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1933.