781
Cuthbert’s friend comes asking for a priest to attend his dying wife — so long as it isn’t Cuthbert.
St Cuthbert’s miracles not only brought healing or deliverance from danger, but left others wiser and kinder for having lived through them. In this example, his friend Hildemer learnt that illness, and specifically mental illness, is nothing for a Christian to be ashamed of.
Posted December 10 2018
782
Soon after Athelstan became England’s first king, he played a trick on the King of Norway which demanded a reply.
According to the Norse chronicler Snorro Sturluson, King Harald Fairhair of Norway struck up a curious friendship with King Athelstan of England, Alfred’s grandson. It all began when Athelstan played a trick on the ageing Harald, which involved a magnificent jewelled sword.
Posted November 30 2018
783
Samuel Smiles warns us against pursuing popularity for its own sake, saying that it is a kind of cowardice.
Samuel Smiles was uncharacteristically severe on those statesmen who court popularity by deceitful talk or by whipping up hatreds. By implication, however, he was equally severe on those who allow such rogues to do so simply because they will not, or dare not, think for themselves.
Posted November 29 2018
784
William Cobbett recalls his first taste of classic literature, for which he had to go without his supper.
At eleven, William Cobbett’s (1763-1835) ambition was to be a gardener at Kew. It would be a step up from clipping hedges and weeding flower beds for the Bishop of Winchester back home in Farnham, but it meant walking all the way to Richmond, a distance of nearly thirty miles as the crow flies, and with threepence all his wealth.
Posted November 28 2018
785
An irate coal merchant squares up to the oh-so-righteous gentleman who didn’t like the way he was treating his horse.
Following the death of William Wilberforce, the great anti-slavery campaigner, on July 29th, 1833, an impressive list of statesmen requested a fitting funeral in Westminster Abbey. Ordinary people grieved in their many thousands too, and a generation later Travers Buxton recalled that this affection was of long standing.
Posted November 27 2018
786
John Wesley wrote to a young William Wilberforce to encourage him in his campaign against the slave trade.
A few days before he died on on March 2nd, 1791, at the age of 87, John Wesley wrote to a young MP, fellow ‘methodist’ William Wilberforce. While these were not Wesley’s last recorded words (which were ‘The best of all is, God is with us’) his letter has the air of a departing Elijah wishing upon Elisha a double share of his spirit.
Posted November 27 2018