All Saints’ Church, Boltongate

All Saints’ Church at Boltongate in Cumberland was described by the great Professor Pevsner as “one of the architectural sensations of Cumbria”. For a man who spent his life touring each county and remarking on its buildings, sensationalising one particular example is itself remarkable. All Saints' has a surprisingly complex design from without, and internally the nave has a heavy stone barrel-vaulted roof. I have never seen anything like it, and it may suggest that it had been fortified in response to Scottish raids. It is reportedly the only stone barrel-vaulted church in England.

One source says that All Saints’ Church ‘was built to resist fire and assault’. Its opponents today are not kilted invaders but heating bills, unsteady congregations and unstable clerical theology (I offer no comment on this partucular church's incumbent). Nevertheless, all saints the world over are called to resist fire and assault. To the fires of hell, they are immune; the flames are not to lick them for their Saviour’s blood protects them. The fires of persecution and trial more readily singe the hairs of their heads but their Lord gives them the strength they need to endure, and to their troubles He says “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further”. This is more sensationally wonderful than even the old church in Cumberland. Be encouraged!

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!

What more can He say than to you He hath said,

To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

“Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,

For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;

I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,

Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.”

“When through the deep waters I call thee to go,

The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;

For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,

And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.”

“When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,

My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;

The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design

Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.”

“E’en down to old age all My people shall prove

My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;

And then, when grey hairs shall their temples adorn,

Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.”

“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,

I will not, I will not desert to his foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,

I’ll never, no, never, no, never forsake!

-George Keith, 1787

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