[62] Immediately prior to his crucifixion, Jesus comforted his disciples by telling them that “I am going [to my Father’s house] to prepare a place for you ... You know the way to the place where I am going.” (John 14:1-4). Quick as a flash, Thomas gave a no-nonsense reply: “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” (John 14:5). To this, Jesus responded in turn that “I am the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6).
[63] The apostle John, at least, does not seem to have held back. He speaks of “That which ... we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched” (1 John 1:1). Presumably he took advantage of Jesus’ invitation when the risen Lord said: “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” (Luke 24:38-39).
[64] See chapter 61.
[65] He was no paragon. In his Historical Essays, Macaulay pronounced him: “A savage old Nabob, with an immense fortune, a tawny complexion, a bad liver and a worse heart.”
[66] These were afterwards known as the ‘Minden Regiments.’
[67] The likelihood is that Wolfe was suffering from rheumatic fever. Without proper treatment, this would have produced a heart condition that would have proved fatal in a matter of months.
[68] His French opposite number, Marquis Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, a wily and able foe, also suffered a mortal wound and died the day after the battle.
[69] Hoshea means ‘salvation.’ Joshua means ‘the Lord saves.’
[70] Sun Tzu is commonly thought to have lived around 500 BC, though both the date and even the fact of his existence are open to doubt.
[71] Observing the transit of Venus across the sun was significant because, by triangulating measurements taken from different points across the globe, it enabled the distance to the planets to be measured accurately. Transits occurred in 1761 and 1769. The next transit was in 1882, with none in the twentieth century and two in the first decade of the twenty-first century. It was thus of prime importance that Cook was in position on time to observe the transit. Dithering by the Royal Society meant that he left England with few hours to spare.
[72] Legitimate testing and examination of the kind described in these verses is not to be confused with a disrespectful attitude towards God and his servants: “Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massah [where the Israelites grumbled against Moses and doubted God’s promises]” (Deuteronomy 6:16).
[73] Before the Flood it rained for forty days and forty nights (Genesis 7:12). Moses was forty years old when he killed the Egyptian and fled to Midian (Acts 7:23-24), and a further forty years passed before God called him to return and free his people from bondage (Acts 7:30). Joshua was forty when Moses sent him to spy out the land of Canaan (Joshua 14:7). The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years (Exodus 16:35). Jesus fasted for forty days and nights in the wilderness (Matthew 4:2). Jesus ascended to heaven forty days after his resurrection. There are many other examples.
[74] Kealakekua means ‘path of the gods.’
[75] The Old Testament makes it clear that people were not to be enslaved for generation upon generation: “Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways [described above, the slave] and his children are to be released in the Year of Jubilee, for the Israelites belong to me as servants.” (Leviticus 25:54). Each fiftieth year was to be a Jubilee (see Leviticus 25:11), when debts were to be forgiven, land left untilled, certain alienated property restored and slaves freed.
[76] Between 1662 and 1807 some three and a half million Africans were shipped westwards in British ships. Almost two million more were transported to the New World by other Europeans after the British ban. Figures for those trafficked by Muslim slave traders are much harder to come by, though it is commonly reckoned that some two million African slaves were transported to Arab states between 1800 and 1870 alone. There was also a significant trade in European slaves, particularly from Russia and the Balkans.
[77] In biblical times, salt was so valuable that Roman legionaries were even paid in it: this was their ‘salarium’ and hence the word ‘salary’.
[78] Rennie and Telford were Scots, Brunel the son of a Frenchman.
[79] A working model has since been made using Babbage’s plans.
[80] See note 60. The Second Law of Thermodynamics was formulated by German physicist Rudolph Clausius in 1850. It states that any physical system becomes less ordered and more random over time. Applied very simply and generally, this means that the entire universe is running down. As the rotation of the heavenly bodies slows and stars burn out, matter grows increasingly disorganised as its energy is dissipated. This is consistent with a universe that is neither infinite nor eternal: see note 38.
[81] From 1787 Nelson spent more than five years ashore on half pay. He was thirty-five before he had his first real sea fight and was twenty-four years in the service before experiencing his first fleet action.
[82] Not until Jutland in 1916 did Nelson’s heirs again fight a general engagement, this time against the Imperial German Navy.
[83] Moses slew the Egyptian who was beating an Israelite slave (Exodus 2:12), David had Uriah the Hittite placed in the front rank of battle so that he would be killed (2 Samuel 11:15) and Saul watched with approval whilst Stephen was stoned to death (Acts 8:1).
[84] Since they carried blankets or coats, they are known as the Blanketeers.
[85] Ephraim and Judah are especially favoured since from these tribes came Joshua and Caleb, the only spies who reported faithfully following their exploration of Canaan: see Numbers 13:6 and 8.
[86] In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1902) theorised that capitalism developed from Protestantism (in particular, Calvinism). He cited the disproportionate numbers of Nonconformists amongst leading British businessmen, including families such as the Clarks (shoes), Rowntrees (chocolate), Frys (cocoa), Gurneys (banking), Barclays (banking) and Levers (soap).
[87] Bendigo was born into an impoverished family of 21 children. When his father died, he and his mother were sent to the workhouse.
[88] Since prize fighting was considered a breach of the peace, Bendigo was arrested after most of his bouts. During one of his terms in gaol he heard a sermon by the prison chaplain that led him to change his life.
[89] Hananiah (meaning God is my judge) became Shadrach (meaning Command of Aku), Mishael (meaning Who is what God is?) became Meshach (meaning Who is what Aku is?) and Azariah (meaning The Lord helps) became Abednego (meaning Servant of Nabu).
[90] Abram means ‘exalted father,’ Abraham ‘father of many.’ Sarai and Sarah both mean ‘princess.’ Jacob means ‘he grasps the heel,’ Israel ‘he struggles with (or for) God.’
[91] The Great Reform Act (1832) redistributed seats in the House of Commons to include large cities that were previously unrepresented. It also extended the franchise to adult males occupying premises worth at least £10 per year. Further extensions of the male franchise were enacted by the Reform Acts of 1867, 1884 and 1885. Women over thirty gained the vote in 1918 and universal adult suffrage was introduced by the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928.
[92] Naomi means pleasant. Mara means bitter.
[93] The kinsman-redeemer was responsible for protecting needy members of the extended family.
[94] Kazan was taken in 1553, Astrakhan in 1555, Bokhara in 1868, Khiva in 1873 and Khokand in 1875.
[95] Despite such forbearance, Florence Nightingale was not above acerbic comment. On hearing that Dr John Hall, the incompetent British Chief of Medical Staff in the Crimea had been awarded the KCB, she remarked: “Knight of the Crimean Burial Grounds, I suppose?”
[96] Chelmsford’s blushes over Isandhlwana were at least partially spared by the fact that eleven Victoria Crosses were bestowed on those who had fought at Rorke’s Drift, the highest number ever awarded for a
single engagement.
[97] Erskine Childers was Secretary to the Irish delegation in the Treaty negotiations of 1921 that led to creation of the Irish Free State. He was executed by firing squad (by Irishmen, not the British) after siding with extreme Republicans in the Irish Civil War of 1921-23.
[98] The Land Acts enacted fair rents, fixed tenure and freedom of sale.
[99] Gordon was of Scots descent, but born and brought up in England.
[100] The coming of the Mahdi was first preached in the tenth century. Several have since claimed to be the Rightly Guided One. He is still awaited today.
[101] As a result the Grand Old Man (GOM) became known instead as Gordon’s Only Murderer.
[102] The disaster led to the calling of the First International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. This required passenger vessels to have enough lifeboats for all passengers, to conduct lifeboat drills and to keep a 24-hour radio watch. The International Ice Patrol was also established.
[103] For procuring Eliza Armstrong, Stead was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment and Jarrett to two years’ penal servitude.
[104] Amundsen’s conduct was considered by many to be underhand. The erstwhile hero was regarded with shame in Norway when news of what he had done first broke.
[105] Scott’s eventual decision not to use dogs all the way to the Pole did not reflect prejudice or ignorance on his part as to their usefulness, but he had been sickened by the appalling cruelty and suffering that it was necessary to inflict on them. Experience also suggested that dogs were unsuited to certain terrain, particularly heavily crevassed areas of the kind they expected to encounter.
[106] Shackleton was born in Ireland but came to England at the age of ten and served in the Merchant Navy and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve before embarking with Scott’s Antarctic expedition of 1901-04.
[107] Modern scholarship tends to support this view.
[108] Recent satellite images have begun to suggest possible locations.
[109] Of these, about 100,000 were French. The vast majority chose to return home rather than carry on the fight.
[110] National days of prayer also took place on (1) 8 September 1940: exactly one week later came the greatest air battle, with 185 German aeroplanes shot down, whilst barges intended for the invasion of Britain were sunk in a storm (2) 23 March 1941: storms further disrupted German invasion plans, continued resistance by Yugoslavia fatally delayed Operation Barbarossa (the German attack on Russia) and Ethiopia was liberated (3) September 1942: victory at El Alamein the following month is an acknowledged turning point in the war (4) 3 September 1943: the Italian mainland was invaded, leading to Italy’s surrender on 7 September 1943 (5) Spring 1944: Group-Captain Stagg (in charge of weather forecasting for the D-Day invasion) predicted with astonishing accuracy the three-day window of relative good weather that allowed landings to take place on 6 June 1944. Hardly were troops and supplies ashore than severe storms blew up, which would have made invasion impossible until the following year had this opportunity been missed.
[111] See for example Matthew 24:1-35.
[112] Recent research suggests that he may have been a victim of friendly fire.
[113] See Matthew 26:70, 72 and 74; Mark 14:68, 70 and 71; Luke 22:57, 58 and 60; and John 18:17, 25 and 27.
[114] Shortly afterwards, Peter repeated claims about Jesus that the Jewish authorities would have considered blasphemous, saying that he is “the Holy and Righteous One” (Acts 3:14) and “the author of life” (Acts 3:15). The penalty for blasphemy was death.
[115] The British surveyed the route of the railway before the Second World War, but abandoned the project since they thought the cost in human life would be too high.
[116] There is an intimate connection between forgiveness and salvation. At the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples: “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28). Speaking of the infant John the Baptist, his father Zechariah prophesied that he would “give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins” (Luke 1:77).
[117] The name derives from Pur, meaning lot, a reference to the lots that Haman cast to decide on which day he should destroy the Jews: see Esther 3:7.
[118] In 1613 the English East India Company first established itself in the subcontinent with a trading post at Surat on the north-west coast.
[119] Satyagraha is derived from Sat (meaning truth) and Agraha (meaning firmness). It is usually rendered into English as “soul force.” Of Christianity, Gandhi said: “If all Christians acted like Christ, the whole world would be Christian.”
[120] Gandhi had hitherto been a loyal servant of the Crown. During the Boer War he helped recruit and lead an Indian medical corps and was awarded the war medal as a result. He offered his services again during the First World War and encouraged others to do likewise, even taking part in a recruiting campaign in India.
[121] Suttee (abolished in 1829) was the practice of a widow immolating herself on the funeral pyre of her dead husband. Today India has 40 million widows, the largest number of any nation. Thuggee (suppressed 1828-35) was a fraternity of religious assassins. Also suppressed were infanticide and licentious orgies.
[122] The war had been far from universally popular at home. At a demonstration in Trafalgar Square on 4 November 1956, for example, Labour politician Aneurin Bevan (1897-1960) said: “It is not possible to create peace in the Middle East by jeopardising the peace of the world.”
[123] The unchanging nature of God does not mean that he is inactive. On the contrary, he performs “great and awesome deeds” (Deuteronomy 4:34).
[124] In The Expansion of England (1883) historian Sir John Seeley wrote: “We seem, as it were, to have conquered and peopled half the world in a fit of absence of mind.”
[125] It is intriguing that David speaks of “the valleys of the sea.” He could not conceivably have known from personal experience that the sea does indeed have valleys – a fact that until relatively recently some scientists disputed.
[126] God helps us and delivers us “because he delighted in [us]” (2 Samuel 22:20). He is under no compulsion to do so, but acts out of his goodness and mercy since each human being is precious to him.
[127] Drake was a devout Protestant and was punctilious about conducting regular divine services on his ships. Chichester quotes this prayer in Alone against the Atlantic, the story of his 1960 transatlantic race.
[128] Like many before him, Argentine leader General Leopoldo Galtieri fatally underestimated the character and resolve of his opponents when he ordered an invasion of “las Malvinas.” Speaking to U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig during frantic diplomatic efforts to avoid war, he said: “Why are you telling me this? The British won’t fight.”
[129] It lies on a hill about halfway between Jezreel and Samaria, both of which had royal residences.
[130] See also Psalm 94:14 and Hebrews 13:5
[131] See 1 Kings 19:8 and Matthew 4:1-2.
[132] See 1 Kings 17:1, 1 Kings 18:1, 2 Kings 2:8 and Luke 8:22-25.
[133] See 1 Kings 17:12-16 and Luke 9:10-17.
[134] See 1 Kings 17:17-23 and Luke 7:11-17.
[135] Fire fell on the altar that Elijah prepared on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:38) and a whirlwind took him up to heaven (2 Kings 2:11).
[136] 1 Kings 17:7
[137] 1 Kings 18:16-38
[138] In 1891 James Bartley, lost overboard from the Star of the East, is said to have survived even longer inside a whale.
[139] Semiramis is said to have ruled alone after the death of Ninus and then to have founded Babylon.
[140] Jonah 3:3 says that “Nineveh was a very important city – a visit required three days.”
[141] Emptying of the stomach in this way is common amongst dying whales and sharks.
[142] Of the logical positivism espoused by Bertrand Russell, A. J. Ayer, whose book Language, Truth and Logic (1936) did muc
h to promote it, later said: “Nearly all of it was false.” Professor of Philosophy Ronald Nash commented: “Today it is quite difficult to find any philosopher who is willing to claim publicly the label of logical positivism. The movement is dead, and quite properly so.”
[143] Dialectical materialism purports to be based on logical inference from what we see around us, without the need for pre-existing ideas. However, tenets such as the inevitability of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the withering away of law and the reaching of a state of abundance cannot be derived in this way.
[144] The change to citizenship was effected by the British Nationality Act 1981, which came into force on 1 January 1983.
[145] Job is given double his previous possessions but only the same number of sons and daughters. The inference is that the sons and daughters who died are waiting for him in heaven.
Redeeming a Nation (Timeless Teaching) Page 50