The Dairyman’s Daughter, and Other Annals of the Poor, by Leigh Richmond, published by Gospel Standard Trust Publications, paperback, 163 pages, £6.50, obtainable from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
Leigh Richmond (1772-1827) was for some time a Church of England minister in the Isle of Wight. These accounts of his contacts with poor people there had a huge circulation within just a few years. The present publishers have had this book on their list for many years but, for this edition, the type has been reset. It is altogether more attractive and has some pictures of places where the people lived whose experiences Richmond describes.
Most prominent is Elizabeth, the daughter of a dairyman. Richmond records her experience under a sermon on: “Be ye clothed with humility”. He quotes her words: “I felt a powerful discovery of the nakedness of my own soul, I saw that I had neither the humility mentioned in the text nor any one part of the true Christian character. . . . [The minister] opened the riches of divine grace in God’s method of saving the sinner. . . . He represented Christ as ‘Wisdom’; I felt my ignorance. He held Him forth as ‘Righteousness’; I was convinced of my own guilt. He proved Him to be ‘Sanctification’; I saw my corruption. He proclaimed Him as ‘Redemption’; I felt my slavery to sin.” Afterwards she exclaimed: “What a Saviour I have found! He is more than I could ask or desire. In His fullness I have found all that my poverty could need; in His bosom I have found a resting place from all sin and sorrow.”
The second account is of Jane, a member of a class Richmond conducted for local children on Saturday afternoons. Her spiritual experience also is detailed until the time came when, still young, she went “from a bed of straw to the bosom of Abraham”.
Next we have the story of an African, a former slave, then the servant of a naval officer, who was introduced to Richmond because he had “a great desire to be baptized”. In response to Richmond’s question: “What is your faith?” he answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and though me be the chief of sinners, yet Jesus will save me”.
The book provides profitable, interesting reading. It has much to teach us about the power of God to impress spiritual realities deeply on the hearts of sinners. Young people, in particular, might find it highly useful.
Notes and Comments
Councils and Prayer
Again and again we hear of atheists attempting to use the law to prevent religious observance in various contexts. Most recently an atheist councillor took Bideford Town Council, in Devon, to court in an effort to prevent prayer being offered at the beginning of Council meetings, a practice which is understood to date back to the time of Queen Elizabeth I. Incredibly, the Judge ruled that prayers were not lawful because the Local Government Act of 1972 made no provision for them; probably at that time everyone would have assumed that it was entirely legitimate for prayer to be offered at any meeting of a public body.
Thankfully the Judge ruled that human-rights arguments were not relevant to the case and accepted that there could be prayer, provided it was not part of the formal meeting. But it should have been obvious to him that no council needs statutory authority to seek God’s blessing and direction in prayer. God’s authority is altogether higher than that of Parliament. But chilly, secular winds have been blowing ever more strongly through our national life. Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury has remarked that the Christian faith is facing “gradual marginalisation”. And even a BBC religious affairs correspondent, Robert Pigott, has commented: “By and large, judges have been unsympathetic to the Christian case . . . The tide has been flowing pretty firmly against Christianity in public.”
He further notes: “There is a lot of concern that this is not just about pure religion but this is about some of the values that underpin the British way of life”. But such people want to have the outward benefits of a Christian heritage without the spiritual realities which underpin that heritage. It is rather ironic that at the meeting of Bideford Town Council on the evening before the court ruling, prayer was replaced by “two minutes of reflective silence” conducted by a Quaker – something utterly meaningless; it ignores the fact that the Most High is a prayer-hearing God.
In fact, the atheist’s Court victory looks rather hollow. Eric Pickles, Communities Secretary in the UK Government, has stated that his “Localism Act now gives councils a general power of competence – which allows them to undertake any general action that an individual could do unless it is specifically prohibited by law. Logically, this includes prayers before meetings.” He hopes to have the specific authority for prayer at council meetings in place within a week of the Court ruling. But whatever developments the future may bring, “the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters” (Ps 93:4).
Medical Research and Evolution
Huge amounts of money are committed to research on cancer every year. A Government agency in the United States has a budget of $5 billion, while that of Cancer Research UK is £500 million. Yet, “despite this vast investment, the long-awaited breakthrough remains elusive”, according to Paul Davies, director of a research centre in Arizona, writing in The Daily Telegraph.
“The basic story of cancer is very simple,” he states. “Somewhere in the body, cells start to proliferate uncontrollably. If unchecked, they spread to other organs and colonise them. At that stage, the patient’s prospects are grim. Yet nobody has a convincing explanation for why this happens.”
It was in the hope that he could bring a fresh perspective to cancer research that Professor Davies, a physicist, was appointed to head the Arizona centre. Yet his fresh thinking seems to have taken him particularly in the direction of exploring evolutionary theories for new ideas, and a significant proportion of his article is occupied with expounding what is alleged to have happened in the development of living creatures hundreds of millions of years ago. This leads him and an Australian colleague to the conclusion that “cancer may be a reversion to a tried-and-tested ancestral lifestyle in response to a physical stress such as a carcinogen”.
They further conclude that “by connecting the dots of evolutionary development and cancer biology we have come to view cancer not so much as a disease to be cured as a condition to be controlled”. The writer of this note is in no position to deny that this may be a fruitful way of looking at the problem and that future cancer sufferers may be helped as a result. But one thing should be clear: any such benefits will not result from the evolutionary presuppositions. These are false. Life on earth did not evolve; it was created. That is the testimony of the Bible, which is entirely dependable, being the inspired Word of God. Cancer is not an evolutionary left-over; it is one aspect of the dislocation in nature which resulted from the Fall (although cancer is not normally the result of an individual’s sin).
One fears that evolutionary thinking is leading many researchers – not least in medicine – down sidetracks which lead them away from attaining their objectives. The overall result almost certainly is that research effort is being wasted and that treatments are not being developed which otherwise might be. To pay attention to God’s revelation in Scripture would have helpful consequences in more ways than most people realise.
The Dalai Lama in Inverness
The Dalai Lama is due to visit Scotland in June and to speak in Inverness at the Eden Court Theatre on Saturday 23rd. The 1300 tickets for this event
were sold out within a day of the announcement. The Dalai Lama’s visit to Scotland is supported by the National Library of Scotland and by Highland Council. Such a visit, and the enthusiasm surrounding it, confirms the spiritual vacuum in Scotland at present. Men and women will not hear the gospel of Christ, and many are offended at the mere mention of Christ’s name (except in blasphemy), but they fall over themselves to hear a Buddhist monk speaking on “World Peace”. As Christ foretold: “I am come in My Father’s name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive” (Jn 5:43). DWBS
Erosion of Psalmody in the Free Church
The Free Church of Scotland introduced uninspired hymns into its public worship a little over a year ago. One of the anomalies of the decision was that a token psalm must be sung at each diet of public worship. As was pointed out at the time, if uninspired hymns are perfectly lawful – as the Free Church majority claim – then who gave the Free Church Assembly the right to impose the singing of even a single psalm on its congregations? The innovators seem to regard themselves as lords in the matter; and it was clear to all but the most naive that this compulsory psalm was merely a sop to conservatives which would be withdrawn once it had served its purpose.
One congregation which embraced the new legislation was Buccleuch and Greyfriars in Edinburgh. To appease some more conservative members of the congregation, a second evening service was introduced at which only psalms were sung. It has now been found that this second evening service “created difficulties” and gave the appearance of division; so it has been abandoned. Meanwhile the morning service will henceforth follow the pattern of the recent “well-attended Christmas morning service” with hymns, musical instruments and “at least one psalm”. On December 24 there was a “Carols by Candlelight” service. With such rapid changes, one fears that the Christmas tree and the crib will soon be on their way, if they have not arrived already. It is sad to see such declension in the professing Christian Church, particularly among people who were brought up to know better. “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (Jas 4:17). DWBS
Church Information
Jewish and Foreign Missions Fund
By appointment of Synod, the first of the year’s two special collections for the Jewish and Foreign Missions Fund is due to be taken in congregations during March.
W Campbell, General Treasurer