The British Library in London stores up to 200 million tomes and manuscripts and receives a copy of each publication to add to its vast collections. Its premises are suitably large but surprisingly modern, and a peculiar statue representing Sir Isaac Newton leans down from a plinth, puzzling over some enquiry or problem.
Bow Church, in London’s East End, I arranged to visit this month. Online sources said it opened at 10.30, so I arrived at 10 and waited, but at 10.45 I gave up on a bad job. I caught the bus to Poplar, the church of which was fully open, and kindly serving Earl Grey teas to any caring to enter.
I was very impressed with some advertising at Forest Baptist Church in Leytonstone, London. Close to the Welsh Church building in which it meets, is a large billboard from which a gospel message is proclaimed:
Fear Not! Find forgiveness and hope in the life of Jesus
My grandmother had a crockery set made by Denby Pottery. When she died, it went to the relatives who had bought her it, and quite properly. So highly she had esteemed it that no occasion was deemed suitably grand to produce it from the sideboard. Even the annual celebrations of the birth of our Lord had to make do with cheaper cups ("in case any get broken").
St Andrew’s Church at Ewerby, in the county of Lincolnshire, is a very interesting old church dating to the early fourteenth century. It has a number of curious features which make it more unusual than some of its neighbours. So old are some of the pews that they can no longer bear weight, and signs advise visitors and worshippers not to put them to the test.
Time was short when last Wednesday’s Open Air was over. When I asked Peter where he’d been recently, I got lost in the travelogue that followed, and so I asked him if he’d be kind enough to jot down some of the highlights.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring Leo, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 1 Peter 5:8, AV
01282 540 562
pastor @ martintop. org .uk
Salem Chapel, Martin Top
near Rimington, Clitheroe BB7 4EG
Salem Congregational Chapel is a registered charity No. 252401 (England & Wales)
Sunday Worship 10.45am & 6.00pm