View allAll Photos Tagged Scripture
this scripture was in a skylight in the chapel at the eastern state penitentiary
"Be your sins like crimson, they can turn snow-white; Be they red as dyed wool, they can become like fleece"
Frank Schaefer reads from scripture he used in htrial officiating at the same-sex marriage of his son.
Dear friend,
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
Sincerely,
Someone who cares about you
“Many times during the last year or two of [my father's] work at Haydock have I been privileged to accompany him in his visits to the poor of the flock. On several occasions I have walked with him on Sunday afternoon to Pemberton, where he was engaged to preach in the evening. After passing the night there with some friends we have set out soon after breakfast the next morning to walk to Edge Green, where my father would spend the day visiting the cottages where lived old Alice Banks and others who loved him for his Master's sake. The work of reading and expounding the Scriptures to these poor folk he loved, and God blessed it abundantly. We usually arrived at Ann Simm's cottage in Edge Green Lane about tea time, for she looked upon it as her special privilege to have my father's company at that meal... An hour's talk after tea on the best of all subjects, and then it was time to go to the meeting at Ambrose's farm, situated a little further along the lane, where for several years he was much blessed in proclaiming the honours of the Saviour's name. After the service was over we walked home through the fields, part of the way being through Sir Robert Gerard's estate, to Haydock, a distance of four miles.”
[From “Life and Letters of Thomas Bradbury”, M A Doggett, 1911]
Edge Green Colliery (not to be confused with Garswood Hall No.9 Colliery at Edge Green, scene of a fatal explosion in 1932) represented the Evans' first foray into coal mining. In 1829 Richard Evans purchased an eleventh share in the mines there, eventually becoming sole owner. Coal production appears to have ceased in 1928. Today the former colliery site is home to Hanson Aggregates.
“Old Alice Banks” occurs as an Edge Green Lane resident with her farm labourer husband William and their family in the 1841, 1851 and 1861 census returns. “The first time I met with this old pilgrim”, writes Mr Bradbury,
“was in the spring of 1859. She lived in an old thatched cottage, in Edge Green Lane, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire, into which I was not allowed to enter..., [her husband being] as hardened a wretch against God's truth and people as ever existed....
In the spring of 1862, he was seized with a serious illness, which terminated his mortal life. The curate of the parish visited him, but the poor old man received cold comfort from the mere reading of the service for the visitation of the sick. Prayers and entreaties from the sorrowing soul of his wife besieged the mercy seat on his behalf. She ventured, at length, to ask him, might she send for Mr B. To her astonishment and joy he consented. With a trembling heart I hastened to the bedside of this aged sinner, while the dear old woman, unknown to myself, crouched outside the chamber door, eagerly listening for some word to fall from his lips which she might accept as an evidence of the good Spirit's regenerating grace....
On the Thursday following I called again. The old man was gone. He exchanged worlds the day after I held the above conversation with him. From the time I left him, he gradually sank, until death put a period to his mortal career. If the words “I can see no fitness but in Christ; He must do all" were the utterance of an anxious, longing soul, there can be no doubt as to his acceptance in the courts of heaven. "The day will declare it."”
William Banks died on 24 June 1862 and was buried at St Thomas', Ashton-in-Makerfield, the cause of death as recorded in the burial register being “Natural Decay”. Alice herself succumbed to bronchitis 6 years later, aged 72-
“Her last words were in strains like these- 'Well I am not feared. This is my hope – My life is hid with Christ in God, and nowt can touch it there.' A gentle sigh from her dissolving frame ended her mortal strife. Without a struggle she was absent from the body -at home with the Lord, with Christ, which is far better”.
Given the Ambrose farm -“situate not far from old Alice's cottage”- was the base for Thomas Bradbury's activities at Edge Green, we learn surprisingly little about this family from his letters etc. The 1861 census return shows the household then comprised unmarried siblings Richard (52), Anne (60), Joseph (38) and Sarah Ambrose (33) together with their niece, Rachel Howard (5), and two servants, Samuel Barton (22) and John Warren (18). The Ambroses came originally from Upholland. The Edge Green Lane property then comprised 60 acres of land and was devoted at least in part to dairy farming. The listing in the 1881 edition of Worrall's Wigan and District Directory has Joseph Ambrose as sole proprietor of the farm, Richard having died in 1874.
Ann Simm occurs again in another chapter of Mr Bradbury's “Strangers and Pilgrims” (1889) as follows:
“In the self-same cottage in Edge Green Lane, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire, Ann Simm, the subject of the above incidents, still lives. With her husband, and a numerous family of children, she has struggled hard with poverty; but for every step of her pilgrim journey she has been enabled to praise and adore her covenant God for ordering all things well. She considers herself highly honoured of God in being blest with the acquaintance and friendship of that distinguished saint, whom Jehovah has taken home to Himself, the Rev William Parks, late Rector of Openshaw. Upon every visit which he paid to the neighbourhood he was sure to make the inquiry, “Where's Ann Simm?” Poor Ann! She lived in our dear departed friend's affection; and oh, how he lived in hers.... When the news reached her of the dear saint's departure for the better land, she took his portrait down from the wall, and seemed for a time to enjoy his company again...
Her husband is partner of her joy, and though poor they esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of this world. The Blessed Book – the Bible, God's own Word- is their daily companion. In the sunshine of spiritual prosperity it has refreshed and delighted their souls, and in the deep gloom of temporal adversity has quickened their spirits, and confirmed their hope”.
The inclusion in “Strangers and Pilgrims” of part of a letter written by Ann on 20 August 1885, in which she refers to the recent “sickness and death of our dear boy, Joe”, has enabled some further research. The 1881 census found her still at Edge Green Lane with husband Wilmot Simm (58), sons John (28), Aaron (18) and Joseph (16) and a daughter Mary (13). The family was thus much reduced from what it had been in 1871, when there were 4 daughters and 6 sons plus a boarder, 15 year old Samuel Simm. Joe had been a “labour in coal mine” in 1881; whether this activity had occasioned the “hurt” which “drained his system unto death” we are left to speculate. The record of Joe's burial at St Thomas', Ashton, on 29 July 1885 gives his last earthy abode as “America Lane, Stubshaw Cross”. America Lane is the old name for this part of Edge Green Lane/Golborne Rd, occurring several times in the parish registers between 1848 and 1892.* Ann herself died in 1891, aged 65, and was likewise buried at St Thomas'.
Images-
(Left, from top:)
-Portrait of Rev William Parks (1810-1867), from 1843 rector of St Barnabas at Openshaw, Manchester. “During the month of September 1862, the faithful and uncompromising William Parks, Rector of Openshaw, Manchester who was much beloved by the poor of the flock in these parts visited the neighbourhood and preached most blessedly in the farm kitchen from Mal. 3. 16, 17. Some said, and some say still, that he was hard - harsh - severe. So he was with mincing, mimicking triflers with truth. But in company with the Lord's tried and exercised ones, he was as humble as a child [and] as gentle as spiritual association with Christ could make him”. A valedictory address to his congregation at Openshaw can be found here. Several collections of his tracts and sermons are also available as free downloads from Google Play.
-Edge Green Farm, photographed on 23 June 2014.
-“Old Alice Banks”, 1930 Sovereign Grace Union tract. Since their initial inclusion in “Strangers and Pilgrims”, Thomas Bradbury's accounts of his meetings with Alice Banks and others have been republished several times and in various formats. The SGU pamphlet is a reprint of the Grove Chapel Tract that Mr Bradbury had authorised during his later pastorate there.
(Main photograph:)
Edge Green Lane cottage, 23 June 2014
*Wigan Archives ref. DP3. There are a further 98 occurrences of “America Lane” in the 1870-1919 admission registers of Emmanuel School, Ashton-in-Makerfield, at ref. SR/137.