Old Pews, Clapham Church

St James’ Church at Clapham, North Yorkshire, is no stranger to this blog, with its squat tower and lofty nave. I was there the other day and noticed a new feature, or, more accurately, an old one. Although the tower is late medieval, the nave is late Georgian and the porch and internal fittings very late Victorian. Yet I noted that seventeenth century woodwork has been used as panelling around the nave. Replaced by more stylish ones in the 1890s, the older woodwork was not thrown away or burnt, but used to provide wainscoting. The old was not merely discarded and despised, but reused and recycled. Perhaps these bits of old wood once echoed to the sounds of Isaac Ambrose’s sermons…in which case, it has been better blessed than many human ears.

God may use our labours and acts of service many years and centuries after we ourselves are summoned to eternity. Let us therefore be diligent in our work, for the Lord may bestow upon it a greater longevity than to our bodies.

Let us labour for the Master
from the dawn till setting sun;
let us talk of all His wondrous love and care.
Then when all of life is over,
and our work on earth is done,
and the roll is called up yonder,
I’ll be there.

-James Black, 1893

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