Turton Tower

Turton Tower in south Lancashire is one of the county’s most interesting buildings. A fifteenth-century tower house which later generations elected to preserve and add to, rather than demolish and replace, it is mixture of medieval, early modern and Victorian. It had once been home to Humphrey Cheetham -merchant, puritan, philanthropist and High Sheriff, adding even more flavour to Turton’s rich mix.

Old houses such as this are wont to collect old furniture, whether native or from elsewhere. Much of Turton's is seventeenth-century, which usually means excessively dark, and carved with strange faces and torsos.

One of such is a wooden chair with the words

Therefore Ye comfort one another

-a rendering of 1 Thessalonians 4:18. The chair in question looks singularly uncomfortable, so the missing part of the quote-

‘with these words’, becomes conspicuous by its absence. 

This is the comfort, these are the words:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Despite the pains and horrors of earth, we have a heavenly hope and call. Our comfort and strength are not found in fortified houses, chunky furniture or earthly wealth, but the promises of God to all who come to Him in Christ Jesus.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Revelation 21:4