How things began In the nineteen fifties it was customary for young undergraduates to share rooms, go on hiking holidays together and plan their future careers together. I am thinking of my own experience at college. No one challenged this social cooperation and display of friendship in any way. It was healthy and good in itself. Nowadays, owing to what is now called ‘queer-bashing’ fingers of suspicion are pointed to any two men or two women who share digs or plan holidays together. Just as MacCarthy feared there were Reds under all beds, we now are to suspect homosexuals or lesbians taking their imaginary place. During the sixties, the tabloids began to write of sexual confusion amongst people as if it were the norm. Usual… Full Article
Posts Tagged William Cowper
Lessons in Humanity from the Life and Work of Jan Amos Comenius: A Study in Anthropological Pansophy Jan Hábl A Review Article Preface: The Father of Modern Education by Thomas Johnson Johnson, who appears to be Hábl’s mentor, writes on p. 9 of principles in nature and in human nature that we can recognize and that we should follow in order to reach our earthly and spiritual destinies. He thus wishes to separate the best parts of human nature from those in human nature which stand in conflict to them. This is an artificial dissecting of the human in man which has often been used for totalitarian purposes in order to promote a less-than human society. True Pansophy is not limited to the anthropological and… Full Article
A lone campaigner for educational reform Public School expert Edward C. Mack said the poet William Cowper was a lone voice in campaigning for reform in eighteenth century English schools. This may surprise poetry lovers who have not yet discovered Cowper’s writings on education. Cowper’s most neglected long poem Tirocinium or a Review of Schools, for instance, deals in detail with educational reform. Parents thinking of home-schooling their children as a legal alternative might care to consult Cowper who denounced the school system of his day as barbaric and developed ideas of education most acceptable to Christian parents. First a few words about Cowper’s own education. Christian parents, the Bible and Pilgrim’s… Full Article
Iain Murray’s Controversy
Dec 15
Letter to the Banner of Truth Dear Christian Friends, Though The Banner of Truth Magazine is entitled to consider any matter as ‘an important controversy’ (Issue 378, p. 22), as in all controversies it is important to keep a cool head and avoid unwarranted statements. I must therefore point out that the argument that I denigrate 18th century evangelical contemporaries of William Huntington in all denominations is entirely unwarranted. Anyone who has read my recent articles and books on 18th century evangelicals of all denominations such as Cotton Mather, John Gill, James Hervey, William Romaine, William Cowper, Risdon Darracot and Philip Doddridge will know how utterly untrue your statement is. I would like to see this error… Full Article
Irresistible Grace
Sep 21
A lecture given at the Protestant Reformation Society, August 27th, 2009, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, England Irresistible grace represents the traditional ‘I’ in the acronym ‘TULIP’. So now I shall tease you a little. The name ‘Tulip’ comes from the same Turkish root as ‘turban’ and the flower of that name was introduced by the Turks to Europe as a symbol of the spreading Ottoman Empire, or the TULIP ERA as the Islamising of Europe was called. The popular strains Tulipa turkestanica and Tulipa kurdica point to this. Why the Turkestan turban-shaped talismanic Tulip and Turkoman black merchants robes were chosen as Christian symbols of faith and ministry by post-Reformation parties, must be the subject of… Full Article
New Cowper Book
Aug 21
Sir, It was good to read of Countryman’s appreciation of William Cowper who has also not been forgotten by others in this bicentenary year. After publishing, several essays and two rather lengthy works on Cowper in recent years, I forwarded a bicentenary appreciation this January to a Canadian publisher. It is entitled William Cowper: The Man With God’s Deep Stamp Upon Him and was scheduled to be printed by the late summer. Now I hear it will be out before Christmas. The unusual title is taken from several of the poet’s works which contain these words and show Cowper’s sufferings in the light of his deep faith. The small, inexpensive book, richly illustrated, is not so much a ‘Life’ as an attempt to trace all the… Full Article
One of William Cowper’s earliest letters from Olney shows how the various denominations in the town could live peacefully together sharing a great oneness in Christ. Cowper, writing to Mrs Madan, says: We have had a Holiday Week at Olney. The Association of Baptist Ministers met here on Wednesday. We had three Sermons from them that day, and One on Thursday, besides Mr. Newton’s (Anglican minister) in the Evening. One of the Preachers was Mr. Booth, (Abraham Booth (1734-1806) was to become the pastor of a Calvinistic Baptist Church at Little Prescot Street, Goodman’s Fields some seven months later.) who has lately published an excellent Work called the Reign of Grace. He was bred a Weaver, and has been forced to work with his Hands… Full Article
Cowper Bicentenary
Aug 17
Essay Based on My Work Paradise and Poetry: An In-Depth Study of William Cowper’s Poetic Mind. Although William Cowper has always been regarded as a fitting subject for comment and research ever since his death 200 years ago, work done on the poet has been mainly biographical. Even this biographical work has tended to be very limited as its main subject has most often been the nervous breakdowns which occurred at roughly ten-year intervals during the adult life of the poet. Biographers have tended to view Cowper’s work as been primarily done under the influence of these times of acute depression and even insanity. The general picture left with any student who seeks to understand Cowper through the eyes of these… Full Article
“This is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Jeremiah 23:6 “…… to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” II Peter 1:1 Present day evangelicals tend to believe that the fierce Calvinist-Arminian controversy of the eighteenth century was merely a question of whether God chose the elect or the elect chose God. This is an oversimplification. Then the point of discussion was not so much the broad question “Who are the elect?” as the more basic question “Whom does God consider righteous?” Our brethren in those days were more interested in the means of salvation rather than the outcome. How the… Full Article
To Honour God
Aug 17
To Honour God: The Spirituality of Oliver Cromwell (134 pages) Classics of Reformed Spirituality Series Edited and introduced by Michael A. G. Haykin. The pimples and warts of the Protector The editor opens up this fine little book by explaining that Cromwell (1599-1658) liked to have his portrait painted with all his “roughness, pimples, warts and everything.” History has taken Cromwell at his word. The verbal pictures handed down to us by historians and theologians alike have contained far more warts than those revealed in Samuel Cooper’s famous portrait of England’s Lord Protector. Mrs Macaulay, they say, proved in her History of England, that the idol, which seemed to be of gold, was a wooden one. William… Full Article
