On October 4^th, 1930, the pride of British aeronautical engineering, the Airship R101, left England on its maiden journey, a non-stop flight to India. The weather was far from good, and as the R101 crossed the Channel she was tossed and buffeted by ever stronger gusts of wind. Visibility was reduced to nil, and the airship, travelling at about 1000 feet bucked in unintentional swoops, losing 200 – 300 feet at a time. The crew were hardly able to correct these traumatic movements.  And so it was that at precisely 2.05 a.m. the gigantic ship crashed at the edge of a wood near Beauvais in Northern France, and burst into flames. [Read more…]

Social  evils  have always existed in the world,  and sincere  and sensitive  people have always tried to do what they can to relieve  the lot of those who, for one reason of another, have been downtrodden, and at  the butt end of injustice.  Dickens (1812-1870) depictedmany  such scenes in England in his lifetime, scenes which were later picked up by the communist rulers in Russia to use as evidence against our form  of society. [Read more…]

The British Government never anticipated the conflict of the first world  war  to  become anything but  a  short  conflict.  The  Foreign Secretary at the time, Sir Edward Grey, who in his leisure hours was an ornithologist  and  fisherman,  had sent the Government’s ultimatum  to Germany,   demanding  an  end  to  the  violation  of  neutral  Belgian territory.  The  ultimatum  expired on August 4th.  On  August  3rd  he reminded  the House of Commons of Britain’s obligations to France  and Belgium, and said, “If we are engaged in war we shall suffer but little more than if we stand aside.” [Read more…]

In  writing  this chapter I have before me  two  photographs,  the first showing King George Vth with the Czar of Russia in 1913. The Czar was King George’s cousin.  The second photograph shows King George Vth with the Kaiser of Germany, also taken in 1913. And the Kaiser was also his  cousin.  In  that year the King was not to know the fate  that would overtake his family and Europe in just a short while. [Read more…]

In all the chapters so far,  we have seen how behind the outward show of historical events, there is a Guiding Hand at work, the hand of God.  Man,  in his blindness,  may not perceive this Hand, and the news media  of  the world choose not to look for the evidence of this Upper Hand.  However,  it is there, and those who have an active faith in the Lord Jesus should search and see, so that they may redress the balance, and bring forth the evidences from the past,  that God is “working  His purposes out”, and that “the Most High rules in the Kingdoms of Men.” [Read more…]

The  period  between the wars,  from 1919 to 1939 has been  called “the Twenty Year Truce.” In this interval there was a radical  shake-up in Europe, as though the European “chess-board” was being re-assembled. Old  orders were crumbling and passing away. New ideas and  ideologies were  emerging.  Chief  amongst  the  ideologies  were  of course  the Socialist  ones,  as witnessed in Russia with the Bolshevik revolution, in Germany with the emergence of Hitler’s regime,  and even in Britain, where the Socialist, or Labour Party came into existence and formed  a government under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924, and again from 1929 to 1931. [Read more…]

In the first world war, Britain entered because of an ultimatum we sent to Germany over the invasion of Belgium.  In the second world war, we  entered because of another ultimatum,  this time against  Germany’s accession of Poland. This began on 3rd September 1939. I was only eight at the time,  but I can still remember hearing the news bulletin on the radio,  and  the  war years living in London during the blitz are ever with me in memory.  I can recall my parents’ feelings of horror when we learned of the impending fate of our men in France in May  1940,  being surrounded by the advancing German army with no apparent way of escape. It seemed that all hope was lost. [Read more…]

It  is now more than half a century since the end of world war two, and  a whole new generation has grown up,  knowing little  if  anything about  the  events  of  the war years, or even the  two  decades  that followed.  And  if any of today’s youngsters were asked about the  war, they  might  just have heard about Hitler,  but other  prominent  names would be quite foreign to them. However, those of us who are old enough to  remember those days,  whether as a child (like myself) or  even  to have had a part in the war,  will remember the chief names of those who served under Hitler, and may have cause to remember with bitterness. [Read more…]

In  post-war years,  Britain began the process of restoration. It  was  a  long grind. Ration books were still issued for  some  years. Austerity  measures were kept in force. And the  coalition  government under  Winston  Churchill  was replaced by a Conservative  government, still under Churchill.  But the mood of the people was such that he was unable to obtain a strong enough mandate to serve the  nation.  Another general election  was  held,  and the Socialists came to  power  under Clement Atlee. He remained in office from 1945 to 1951, when once again the country favoured a Conservative government. Churchill was back. But it was clear that Churchill the British bulldog in wartime, was not the same  as Churchill in post-war Britain.  By 1955 he had had enough and retired. [Read more…]

In  the  last chapter we looked at the question of lawlessness  in the Church of England,  as seen by the breaking of various English Laws by Sovereign and Prelate.  In this chapter we shall have to investigate how lawlessness has been at work in Parliament. [Read more…]