500 Years Ago...

     The early morning stillness was disturbed, gently, by the shuffle of feet on the stone steps of the church. A man, clothed in the drab robes of a monk, unrolled a parchment and glanced over it again, though he had every word of it by heart. A puff of his smoky breath drifted away in the frigid air, but he seemed scarcely to feel the chill. The parchment rustled as he pinned it against the chapel door with one hand while he groped in a pocket of his ample gown with the other. He found what he sought - a small iron nail - and transferred it to the fingers on the corner of the parchment. He lifted a hammer.

     The silence of the sleeping town was abruptly broken by the sharp, determined ring of the hammer against the nail. One nail sank through the parchment, into the wood, and he placed a second against another corner of the document. That one also was driven home, awaking uncertain echoes from the sharp-pointed roofs of the houses in the street behind, and the walls of the castle beyond. The monk began driving in another nail.

     A shutter creaked behind and above him and a man thrust his head out. His hair was tousled, his eyes bleary, and his face flushed with sleep. He blinked. The sight of a monk nailing parchments to the door of the Schlosskirche was not terribly unusual, but it was annoying to be awakened so early in the morning. He stifled a yawn as the monk turned around and looked up, after hammering the fourth and last nail.

      "I give thee good morning, father," he said, as respectfully as he could manage so early in the morning. "Thou art up early to begin thy learned disputes. What is so important that it must needs be brought to light so early?"

     "Good morning," the priest said gravely, pocketing the hammer. "Canst thou read?"

     "Aye, but -"

     "Then come and read what is here written, and thou wilt understand that it is not early, but late. These doctrines ought to have been discussed in long ages past, for mankind has been in woeful darkness for many years and Mother Church must needs bestir herself if they are to have light."

     A bolt rattled inside the chapel door and the monk in the street turned and walked swiftly away. The man at the window stared after him for a few seconds, then hastily withdrew his head and closed the shutter.

     In a wonderfully short space of time - for a man as phlegmatic as a German shopkeeper - he joined the priest who had unbolted the chapel door. "What is it, father?" he asked, after a brief greeting, which the priest had not heard.

     He looked up from perusing the document, which was written in good Latin, defeating the shopkeeper's attempt to read it. There was a dazed expression in his eyes. "It is either hidden truth," he said slowly, as if speaking to himself, "or deepest heresy."

     The shopkeeper fell back a step from him. "Truth - or heresy!" he gasped.

     The priest nodded and went on, as if still speaking to himself. "These questions will cause great commotion, questioning, war, perhaps - and yet... I have had some doubts myself, and if these theses be right, they mark the dawn of a brighter day than the Church has known."

    The sun rose higher, turning the silvery light of early morning to the golden glow of full day. A chill blast of wind accompanied the light, but it quickly passed away and the temperature rose. The priest went back into the chapel and shut the door, leaving the shopkeeper staring at the iron-bound oak. The parchment was still spread on the wooden door before him. Gently, he touched it with one finger, wishing he could read Latin. The words of the two priests had awakened something within him; something that had stirred often before when the chapel priest chanted the mass in Latin. He could not have named what he longed for - he only knew that he, and many others across Germany and the Christian world, hungered and thirsted for a change, a purification. The longing had become an undefined prayer, rising spontaneously from those who were kept in darkness by the few who had the light of learning and wealth.

     He sighed and walked back to his shop. At the door he paused and looked back. He could still see the parchment, a frail rectangle of light against the dark oak doors of the church. A shaft of the morning sun lit it up with golden brilliance and he smiled. Somehow, he knew that another light was dawning. He stepped into his shop and closed the door, content to await God's timing.

The monk who nailed the parchment to the door of the Schlosskirche of Wittenberg was Martin Luther.

The parchment contained 95 theses, or questions, based on the Bible instead of the teachings of the Catholic church.

The date was October 31st, 1517 - the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

Isaiah 9:2

Celebrate the great blessing of the Reformation! Thank God for the brave, faithful men and women who have gone before us. They endured - and many still endure - great tribulation for the sake of Jesus and the full Gospel.

Felix Mendelssohn wrote the great Reformation Symphony (Symphony no. 5) to celebrate the presentation of the Augsburg Confession, and the Reformation. It is well worth hearing, as he recounts, in music, the longing of oppressed people for the full truth of God's word, the dawning of the Reformation, and the struggle through the ages of persecution, ending with the triumphant declaration that God truly is a mighty fortress for His people, and that His truth will - and does - prevail.

(If you don't want to listen to the whole thing, at least listen to the finale.)

On a different note:

Lamplighter Publishing is giving away MP3 downloads of their audio drama, The Haunted Room. (I wrote a review of the book, The Haunted Room, some time ago.) This is an excellent story, although parts of the drama are - well - very dramatic. I don't recommend it for younger listeners and, as always, parents should be aware of what their children are taking in, and preferably, check it out themselves first.

If you want to download The Haunted Room, visit this page:  http://www.lamplighter.net/haunted

Simply fill out the form and they will send you an email with the information to download. Enjoy!

How I Filmed the War

By Geoffrey H. Malins

Rating:  6 out of 10 stars

    This book is an account of an early cinematographer’s experiences as he filmed important action in World War I.  Malins was the official cinematographer for the British government, and he describes life in the trenches, the spirit of the soldiers, especially the British troops, and various other experiences, such as filming from an early airplane over German lines, the visit of the King of England, and the action of the first tanks.  He shows the horrible conditions the men fought and lived under, and the devastated condition of the country as it was left behind the German troops.

    The early process of “making a film” was also described, and is interesting to read.  This was back in the days of silent films; in other words, motion pictures with no sound; and the film was literally cut into pieces for editing.

My Thoughts:

    How I Filmed the War is a true and realistic account of life on the front lines during WWI, but it is certainly not a book everyone should read.  While it is important to know history, and the sacrifices which were made so that we can be free, as a nation, reading a somewhat detailed account of these hardships and sacrifices can be too much for some people.  For my own part, what bothered me most about the book was the callousness of many of the soldiers to taking human life.  The jokes of the snipers when they “got their man” are a disgusting look at our fallen nature, and are all the sadder because they are true words spoken in a non-fiction work, and not merely invented from general stories of the war.  There is also some very questionable language in it, and more is implied than is written.

    Malins also is not writing from a Christian perspective, and somewhat pardonably, views the British as the saviors of the world, as they forced back the German invasion of France.

    So, while this book does have a great deal of educational value, as an eyewitness account of one of the worst wars in the history of man, it most certainly has some serious drawbacks, and discretion will be needed in discerning if it should be read, and who should read it.

Links:

Librivox:  How I Filmed the War

Gutenberg:  How I Filmed the War

The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, and Other East African Adventures

By Col. John Henry Patterson

Rating:  7 out of 10 stars

The Man-Eaters of Tsavo may seem like a rather strange name, but it is speaking of two famous man-eating lions which terrorized the camp of East African railroad builders, and actually brought the Government managed project to a complete halt for three weeks.  These two male maneless lions were relentless in their hunt for human prey, and killed “twenty-eight Indian coolies, besides scores of unfortunate natives of whom no official record was kept”.