There is now an undeniable disconnect between ordinary people and those in office. The ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally on 13th September in London’s Parliament Square and across Westminster Bridge drew almost hysterical comments from the Prime Minister. In an interview with Channel 4 News reported in the Standard, Sir Keir Starmer described the demonstration as “plastic patriotism”, adding that it had been more than “just very bad behaviour”, as if it were ‘very bad behaviour’ to turn up to an anti-establishment rally.

Prov 28:15 As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people. 16a The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor…

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The arrogance of Rehoboam

It reminds us of the arrogance, stupidity and contempt for those below him of the Bible’s King Rehoboam, when the people asked for a reduction in their taxes. That did not end well for him. He lost the majority of his kingdom and Judah was then invaded by Egypt. Find the story in 1Kings 12 and 2Chronicles 10-12. It is well worth a read. As it happens, at the end he repented and in Judah, finally, we read, ‘Things went well’. That is what we want for our United Kingdom, but it depends on the Lord raising up righteous, humble, God-fearing men to lead us:

2Chron 12:12 And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the LORD turned from him, that he would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went well. (KJV)

Rehoboan’s stupidity may well have been from the Lord, but nevertheless, the point stands. Arrogant rulers who underestimate the strength of feeling against them will fall under judgement.

It appears there were 24 arrests on the day in London with eight people charged, but how many of those were from the rival hard-left protest has not been disclosed. In comparison, there were over 500 arrests over the two days of Notting Hill Carnival last month, ‘50 of them for possession of an offensive weapon’, according to the Telegraph.

Eyewitness account

The mainstream media were careful to put numbers attending around 100,000. Commentator Philip Patrick attended the rally and had a different view: ‘Suffice to say the numbers who were there … far surpassed the expectations of the police or the mainstream media. … The authorities underestimated the breadth and depth of feeling of people in UK who oppose the direction the country seems to be taking. … The proliferation of Union Jacks, flags of St George, Saltires and Welsh Dragons evidenced the UK-wide appeal of this event – not just how frustrated people feel, but a renewed spirit of Unionism, too.

‘The number of crosses and placards proclaiming Jesus Christ our saviour was, to me at least, surprising. “Jesus is King” was chanted from the stage at one point. (It) reinforced the mood of a people striving for a higher, better, ancient authority to appeal to.’

Rev 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.

Downing Street condemned as “dangerous and inflammatory” comments of Elon Musk, urging those at the rally in London to “fight back” or “die”. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Mr Musk’s words threatened “violence and intimidation on our streets”, adding, hopefully: “I don’t think the British public will have any truck with that kind of language.”

But Reform’s Nigel Farage said: “If the fight that Musk was talking about was about standing up for our rights and free speech, if it was about fighting in elections to overcome the established parties, then that absolutely is the fight that we’re in,” he said.

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’Shiver’ through ‘our communities’

Sir Keir went on:“It sent a shiver through so many of our communities who now feel more scared than they did before. I understand that.”

But Mr Farage responded: “I’ll tell you what’s even worse, the fact that over 50% of women don’t feel safe walking the streets alone.”

Judges 5:6 In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways.

For London Mayor Sadiq Khan, writing in the Guardian, Elon Musk ‘tried to rally protesters against our democracy’. That’s Mr Khan’s and Sir Keir’s ‘democracy’ of course, not ordinary people’s. He also blamed Donald Trump for ‘dark times, but those who seek to divide us will not win.’ Those at the rally were from ‘the far right’, said the uber-inclusive mayor, leading London Assembly Conservative Leader Susan Hall to reply, ‘your constantly referring to others as far-right is divisive in itself’.

‘Rising tide of hatred’

Sir Sadiq claimed ‘many people, particularly from London’s diverse communities, are feeling extremely worried.’ It’s those plural ‘communities’ now with added ‘diversity’ wheeled out again.

We should note that when today’s elite speak of ‘our communities’ they acknowledge that they have destroyed the unified British community which stood together in two world wars. The ‘communities’ of which they speak are the Muslims who refuse to assimilate.

Numb 15:16 One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.

Showing little self-awareness, Mr Khan went on to claim ‘our politicians and pundits have refused to condemn the rising tide of hatred in this country’. The man who has encouraged antisemitic Islamo-left parades through London since 7th October 2023 said this even as the tide of hatred of the godless left for the late Charlie Kirk was on open display.

Mr Farage and rally organiser Tommy Robinson are known not to get on, but the former was generous enough to say he thought “the vast majority of people that turned up were good, ordinary decent people who are very, very concerned about what’s happening in this country”. Sign our Petition:

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Why the disconnect?

So why is there such a disconnect between the elite and the ‘ordinary decent people’ at the rally? Why was a gathering intended to ‘unite the kingdom’ accused instead of division, of being ‘far-right’ and and inciting violence?

It is because the concept of uniting the kingdom around our Christian heritage, around flags with the cross of Jesus Christ on them (there is an alternative Welsh flag, that of St David, with the gold cross on a black ground) is anathema to the elite.

Prov 15:33 The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.

They want to unite around globalism, multiculturalism and secularism. They hate our Christian heritage and want to disparage it. Hence sending a young girl home from school on ‘culture day’ because she wore a dress depicting the union flag.

In fact 13-year-old Courtney Wright spoke at the rally. She was one of ‘Saturday’s best speakers’ according to the Telegraph’s Alison Pearson, who was there. And no, says Alison, the crowd were not ‘racist’.

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‘Culture based on lying’

Exodus 18:21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness;

Historian Dr David Starkey takes the problem with the establishment further on Spiked Online. He says: ‘Unfortunately, the ways in which our elites behave today is much like the elites of the latter days of the Soviet Union. It is an entire culture based on lying. Lying about output, about finance, about freedom. … If you govern by shutting people up rather than debating problems openly, those problems eventually grow to become feverish.’

He scorned ‘this idea that immigration is ‘good for the economy’, etc’ and traced the rot back to 2010. ‘The fact that David Cameron, a supposed conservative, professed his greatest achievement was gay marriage was absolute insanity. At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, Britons have effectively been living under a uniparty since John Major. It’s no wonder people are so furious.’

Dr Starkey concluded with a plea ‘To roll back the power of those elites who have lied to us about transgenderism, about multiculturalism and globalism.’

But he warned ‘these ideas .. are so deeply entrenched’ within the establishment. ‘We can change these things. But we can only change it if the right here is as well-prepared as Trump was for his second term – or, I would argue, better.’

The spiritual dimension

Although Dr Starkey does not really ‘Do God’, he is speaking, whether he knows it or not, of the involvement of the spiritual dimension. The godless left are powered by the realm of darkness. Nothing else can explain both the glee over the death of Charlie Kirk and the current language of the elite and their terror of ‘Unite the Kingdom’.

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

What Dr Starkey hopes for cannot be done in the flesh. Anyone who tries that will fail. And who better to bring that dimension of a prophetic voice into an emerging political party than Christian Voice members and supporters? Leave your comments below.

READ: 1Sam 30:6; 1Kings 12; 2Chronicles 10-12; Prov 28:15-17; Isa 50:2-4, 51:7; Luke 13:31-33.

PRAY: Pray the ordinary decent people standing for a kingdom united around our Christian heritage are encouraged in the Lord. Pray for the Lord to raise up more prophetic voices in politics today. Thank God for Danny Kruger and pray the Lord will keep him safe and encourage him.

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Previous articles

Christian MP defects to Reform →

Tommy Robinson: Far Right? Hate Chants? →

Illegal Migrants: blessing, threat, or judgment? →

Keir Starmer’s sinister deals →

Why has Kemi Badenoch lost her faith? →

City bans Muslim festivals →

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With just four words of his resignation letter, Wes Streeting exposed the contempt felt in the ruling party for the voters.

He wrote: ‘It is not clear whether democracy or tyranny will define the 21st century. After the financial crisis, austerity, the disaster of Brexit, Liz Truss, the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and now the war in Iran, the country needs to believe again that things can be better than this and that politics is part of the answer, not the source of the problem. These are big challenges that require a bold vision and bigger solutions than we are offering.’

’The Disaster of Brexit’

Did you notice the same four words I did? ‘The disaster of Brexit’. It is tempting to say to him, ‘That was ten years ago, dude. The people voted to come out of the EU. It’s called “democracy”. Get over it.’ But no, for Wes and the godless left, Brexit was and still is a ‘disaster’, a ‘big challenge’ needing ‘a bold vision and bigger solutions than we are offering’. Bigger than Keir’s own attempts to move back into the Single Market?

There was nothing in the Streeting resignation letter about energy costs and security, the welfare crisis or the injustice of inheritance tax. Crucially, there was no recognition of the small boats migrants, their crime wave, antisemitism, Muslim separatism, the grooming gangs, or the pro-Hamas hate marches in our streets.

These are things which concern ordinary people, but no-one can be found in the Labour Party to voice them. Indeed, Mr Streeting even criticised Keir Starmer for his ‘Island of Strangers’ speech, the point of which, that we are no longer a united nation because of migration, ordinary voters agreed.

’Disaster’ vs ‘Catastrophe’

Interestingly, the ability of the Wes to nurture a grudge against the voters for ten years of ‘Disaster’ is as nothing compared to the vitriol nurtured by those who will take part in the pro-‘Palestinian’ ‘Nakba’ march on Saturday 16th May. ‘Nakba’ is Arabic for ‘Catastrophe’. It refers to the displacement and dispossession of Arabs (or ‘Palestinians’) during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war during the creation of the State of Israel.

And who started the 1948 war? A coalition of five Arab nations (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria) invaded on 15th May 1948 in response to the Jewish Declaration of Independence the day before.

Remember, God himself promised the land to Abraham:
Gen 12:7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.

The promise was repeated by Moses and then by Joshua, centuries later:
Josh 1:13  Remember the word which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, The LORD your God hath given you rest, and hath given you this land.

It follows that the Holy Land is not ‘Palestinian’ land, and the Jews are not ‘occupiers’. It is indeed ‘The Promised Land’, given to them by the Lord Almighty.

Unite the Kingdom March

The same day, a Unite the Kingdom march organised by Tommy Robinson will conclude with a rally in Parliament Square. Many working-class people will take part, sensing that multiculturalism is a false god and that there is no strength in ‘diversity’, only, as the Bible states, in unity, in this case, under the flag, and under the Christian faith:

Psa 133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! … 3 As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

GB News reports that Sir Keir Starmer has banned 11 foreign speakers from entering the UK ahead of the march. Each of them would have been bringing a warning about Islam and its practitioners, some of them hyperbolic, all of them unwelcome to a ruling party fighting the Green Party for the Muslim vote.

We see no recognition from the Prime Minister that those marching under the Union flag have any sort of legitimate concern about what they see as a slow-burn Islamic invasion, the use of sectarianism in politics, the feeling of seeing their country taken from them, the welfare scandal of their taxes funding benefits for those not even born here or entering illegally, the indoctrination of their children in schools, the Establishment always putting other cultures before our own as they worship the false gods of ‘multiculturalism’ and ’strength in diversity’, imposed on us by our elites even as they promise to curtail immigration, ‘stop the boats’ or ‘smash the gangs’.

Fight for the soul

For Keir Starmer, ‘We’re in a fight for the soul of this country, and the Unite the Kingdom march this weekend is a stark reminder of exactly what we are up against. Its organisers are peddling hatred and division, plain and simple.’

That they might have a genuine grievance must not be allowed to occur to him. Right on cue, out came all the Southport rhetoric from 2024 as Sir Keir warned that ‘violent thugs who spew hatred on our streets’ will be hit with the ‘full force of the law’. Oh no, it’s locking people up for tweets all over again. Previous Unite the Kingdom marches have reportedly been entirely peaceful.

Which cannot be said of the Nakba march scheduled for the same day, which Sir Keir completely ignored. And yet, if he really wants to find hatred, that’s where it will be. Murderous antisemitism is written into the Muslim scriptures. It is behind chants like ‘globalise the intifada’, which calls for Jews world-wide to be murdered, and ‘From the River (Jordan) to the (Mediterranean) Sea, Palestine will be free’, no, not of Hamas, or Islam, but of Jews.

The Spiritual Dimension

On one thing, Keir Starmer is right. There is a spiritual dimension. We are in a battle, a spiritual war, for the soul of our country. And there can only be one winner. An atheist, secularist, or even demonic Labour Party is no match for the Lord and his people.

We read that the elites will be defeated in their inevitable war against the Lord, pictured here as the ‘lamb’:
Rev 17:14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

In response to Peter’s declaration of faith in him, the Lord responded with a promise to the Church:
Matt 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

For the promise to take effect, the Church has to pick up its weapons and go to war:
2Cor 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;

Pray For those in authority, for the Lord to grant them repentance or replace them with able, humble, God-fearing honest men of truth, men who understand the spiritual dimension and are prepared to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ of our Christian constitution as our only Saviour. And pray for the Church to rise up and contend for Gospel truth.

Previous Relevant Articles

Nanosermon: The Gospel Armour: Weapons →

Nanosermon: The Gospel Armour – Clothing →

Why is Britain Failing Its Jewish Communities? →

Why our Armed Forces are in a moral morass →

Illegal Migrants: blessing, threat, or judgment? →

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A teacher in London has been sacked for telling Muslim children that Britain is a Christian country. He also told the boys off for washing their feet in the hand wash basins in the toilets (‘restroom’ if you’re American).

He told them: ‘Britain is still a Christian state’ and observed that the King is head of the Church of England. Well, it seems you can’t have that going on in England’s capital city with its British values of democracy, the rule of law, liberty, respect and tolerance.

So the school suspended the teacher in March twenty-twenty-four, then sacked him.

Origin of ‘Safeguarding Boards’

A month later he was referred to a ‘safeguarding board’ as well as to the Metropolitan Police, for an alleged hate crime. The Met’s child abuse investigation team even became involved.

The safeguarding officer concluded the teacher had made hurtful comments about Islam and that a child had been subject to emotional harm. The teacher succeeded in appealing the ban but remained sacked. Thank God the police dropped their inquiry.

Did you know ‘Safeguarding Boards’ were set up in two thousand and four after the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham by Ian Huntley, the school caretaker, to protect children from dangers posed by adults working with or around them.

Children ‘safe’ from truth

It has not taken long, has it, for ‘safeguarding’ to be used by woke activists in teaching and sport, against Christians and anyone else whose views do not align with their own Islamo-left or secularist view.

Those in power must keep children ‘safe’ from truth to protect their multicultural antichrist ideology. Because the truth here is that the United Kingdom is constitutionally Christian.

During his coronation on 6th May twenty-twenty-three, King Charles was anointed by the Archbishop to rule as a Christian monarch, just as Zadok the priest anointed king Solomon in the Bible:

1Kings 1:39a And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon.

The king kissed the Holy Bible, and made solemn promises to maintain the laws of God in his realm as well as the true profession of the Gospel.

’Wudu’ ritual of feet-washing

This washing the Muslim boys were doing is a religious requirement, by the way.
Muslims are commanded by the Quran in Surah 5 verse 6 to wash their feet as part of the ‘wudu’ ritual. So they wash them in the sink:

Koran, Surah 5 v 6: O ye who believe! when ye prepare for prayer, wash your faces, and your hands (and arms) to the elbows; Rub your heads (with water); and (wash) your feet to the ankles. If ye are in a state of ceremonial impurity, bathe your whole body. (Yusuf Ali’s translation.)

Did you know Muslim boys were doing this in British state schools? It’s a ritual cleansing done before prayer to gain spiritual and physical purity. It’ll take more than that, guys. Whoever you are, it’ll take turning to Jesus for your sins to be forgiven.

As it is written:
1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Christianity largest group

The United Kingdom may be constitutionally Christian, and have a long Christian heritage, dating back 1500 years or even longer, but what about current demographics?

In the 2021 census, 46.2% of the population declared themselves Christian in England & Wales, not including Scotland and Northern Ireland, but down from 59.3% in twenty-eleven.

Those of ‘no religion’ were up to 37.2% and Muslims were 6.5%, up from 4.9% in 2011, a thirty-two per-cent increase over ten years.

So Christians are still the largest group, Muslims are growing, and there is a sizeable proportion looking for a spiritual home.

Father banned from football coaching

But this story comes as Jamie Michael, who served with the Royal Marines in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, was reported banned as a football youth coach in the Rhondda Valley for an online post he made after the murders of three children in Southport in July 2024.

Mr Michael posted a 12-minute video in which he said illegal immigrants have ‘the numbers to take over’ the country. He denounced ‘scumbags’ and ‘psychopaths’ and warned the country was ‘under attack’. Mr Michael, a father aged 47, was charged with inciting racial hatred.

At his trial, the veteran said the targets for his criticism had been Southport killer Axel Rudakubana and ‘illegal, unchecked or radicalised immigrants’. He was unanimously cleared by the jury after just 17 minutes.

But after his acquittal, you just know the local safeguarding board will spring into action. They banned him from working with children for his completely lawful video warning. Jamie Michael is suing both the safeguarding board and the Football Association of Wales for £25,000 in damages.

School has a ‘prayer-room

The teacher in our story is now suing the local authority. His lawyers point out the school was non-faith and that prayers had been informally banned from the playground and confined to a prayer room set aside for the purpose.

So it emerges that state schools in this United Kingdom have set aside prayer rooms, not for Christians, but for Muslims. Was that in any party manifesto?

It’s almost as if His Majesty’s Government, our elite, our teaching establishment and civil servants, are ashamed of our Christian heritage and are quietly working against it, without telling you, isn’t it?

Pray for them to repent and return to the Christ of our Christian constitution. Pray the Lord will raise up able, truthful, honest, humble, God-fearing men who are up to that challenge:
Exo 18:21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness;

It is written:
Psalm 33:12a Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD;

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In an article for Spiked Online, Columnist Simon Evans parodied Donald Trump’s ‘Art of the Deal’ as ‘Keir Starmer’s Art of the Deal’.

The UK PM, said Mr Evans, ‘is shaping up to be the worst negotiator in political history’.

I’m going to take a sideways look at Keir Starmer’s deal-making, because I think Mr Evans might be starting from the quite reasonable presumption that a British Prime Minister naturally has the best interests of the United Kingdom at heart, and because of sheer inability, the current occupier of that august office has simply botched it.

I’m not so sure of all that. The truth of the matter could be far, far more serious.

The Chagos Island Deal

Let me explain. As evidence, Simon Evans brought in Sir Keir’s Chagos Islands deal.

The Prime Minister signed this deal in May 2025. It is likely to cost the UK Treasury 10 times the initially quoted £3.4 billion over the next century. If Britain in any recognisable form is still here.

We are leasing back our own Diego Garcia military base for 99 years. And Sir Keir has even handed the homeland of the actual Chagossians to another country. ‘It is hard to find anything but abject defeat in this deal,’ says Mr Evans.

Closer to home, he cites Mr Starmer’s ‘one-in-one-out’ migrant-exchange deal with France.
‘Nearly 1,000 migrants have arrived via small boat since only the beginning of this week’, complains Mr Evans.

Now add in Sir Keir’s deal with the EU, his deal with India, both of which, says Mr Evans, did harm to the UK, and what more evidence do you need?

Son of Toolmaker ‘is bad Dealmaker’

Simon Evans concludes that the son of a presumably good toolmaker is a poor dealmaker. But maybe, just maybe, Mr Evans is missing the point.

What if advancing the United Kingdom is not the metric by which to judge the Starmer’s deal-making?

He would not be the first Prime Minister with an opposite objective from that which you and Mr Evans believed he naturally would have.

David Cameron, for instance, thought more of promoting gay rights in Africa than trade with Africa. While British envoys were solemnly attaching LGBT strings to proposed trade deals, the Russians were doing deals across the continent without any such baggage.

It’s all about what you want to achieve. For Mr Cameron, it was gay rights, not British interests. For his successor Theresa May, it was climate activism and Net Zero which came before the prosperity of the United Kingdom.

Boris Johnson continued that idea and put appeasing Big Pharma and his hapless health advisors before the liberties and real health of the British people during the Covid.

Sacred Cows

So what if Sir Keir has the same mentality, but this time, as they say, on steroids?

What if he is always consciously putting his sacred cows of multiculturalism, globalism, open borders, NetZero, de-industrialisation, British guilt, accommodation, appeasement, ‘moral leadership’, also known as virtue signalling, a long way before any actual British interests which might annoyingly occur to him?

If we adopt that assumption as our starting point, then, in every deal, Sir Keir has manifestly achieved his aims.

But it goes without saying that, outside the elite, the blob, the quangocracy, British people rather want their leaders to prosper them and the United Kingdom and be, as scripture says:

Exod 18:21 … able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness;

The Prime Minister should be, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 13:

Romans 13:4 … the minister of God to thee for good.

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We’ve come across two hymns written at least two hundred and fifty years ago. Both call us to look at ourselves in the light of history and both speak to our day in calling for national repentance.

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When Abram full of sacred awe

Elizabeth Scott (1708-1776) penned ‘When Abram Full of Sacred Awe’ in the middle of the Eighteenth Century. It was published in 1769.

Actually, the Lord had already changed his name to Abraham by the time he was pleading for Sodom (in Gen 18:19-33), but Miss Scott thought it best to fit her thoughts in to Common Metre, or four lines with syllables thus: 8.6.8.6. (We sing this to the tune ‘Cheshire’.) So she begins:

1. When Abra’m full of sacred awe, before Jehovah stood,
and with a humble, fervent prayer, for guilty Sodom sued;

Her second verse describes the wonderful result of his prayer:

2. With what success, what wondrous grace, was his petition crowned!
The Lord would spare, if in the place ten righteous men be found.

Of what was Britain ‘guilty’?

The man of God did not dare go below the Hebrew number for a congregation, but even then, he pitched his request too high. As Elizabeth Scott goes on:

3. And could a single holy soul so rich a boon obtain?
Great God, and shall thy remnant cry and plead with thee in vain?

No-one could be found in Sodom except righteous Lot, his wife and his weird daughters. Not even their husbands believed Lot’s warning of impending destruction (Gen 19:1-19). But why did she move on immediately to citing God’s remnant in her own day? And what does Miss Scott mean in the next verse by this:

4. Britain, all guilty as she is, her several saints confess,
And now their fervent prayers ascend; and can those prayers be lost?

See gracious God before thy throne

Our other eighteenth-century hymn was published in 1760 and written by Miss Scott’s contemporary Anne Steele, (1717-1778). It is also in CM (we use the tune ‘Burford’) and begins with six verses making a case for repentance and reformation. Here are the first four:

1. See gracious God, before Thy throne, Thy mourning people bend;
‘Tis on Thy grace in Christ alone, Our failing hopes depend.
2. Tremendous judgments from Thy hand, Thy dreadful power display;
Yet mercy spares this guilty land, And still we live to pray.
3. Great God! and why is Britain spared? Ungrateful as we are;
O make thy awful warnings heard, While mercy cries, Forbear!
4. What numerous crimes increasing rise, Through this apostate isle!
What land as favoured of the skies, And yet what land so vile!

Seventeenth Century upheavals

So what was going on in their day to inspire these two ladies to speak of Britain’s guilt? Was not the Eighteenth Century, Georgian Britain, prospering and growing with an expanding empire? Did not Britannia rule the waves?

The previous century had seen great upheaval. The throne of England and Wales became united with that of Scotland in 1603 under James VI/I, him of King James Bible fame. He was Protestant and targeted by the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. King James died in 1625. His son, Charles I, became arrogant and thought he was above parliament. That led to a dreadful civil war and to the king’s execution in 1649.

The Commonwealth lasted until 1660. Parliament restored the monarchy in the shape of Charles II. But his son James II was adjudged a Roman Catholic activist and was deposed in 1688.

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The Glorious Revolution

Parliament brought James’s Protestant daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange, over from the Netherlands in 1689, and enthroned them as joint rulers. Christians, that is virtually everyone of the time, gave thanks to God for this bloodless ‘Glorious Revolution’.

After that tumultuous Seventeenth Century, William and Mary’s daughter Queen Anne reigned from 1702 to 1714. Climate change had brought about the ‘Little Ice Age’ by now. The low point was the Great Frost of 1709, when the ground froze to a depth of three feet during a terrible period of starvation and death from January to April. The Great Frost was followed by a severe economic depression. The Guardian explains how the cold left the economy in ruins: ‘Per capita gross domestic product dropped by 23%, and did not fully recover for another 10 years, all from a single terrible winter.’

Anne was succeeded by her son George I, the first of the Hanoverians, in 1714. Now hymn writer Isaac Watts would give thanks in his hymn ‘To thee most holy and most high’ for deliverance from popery and for the ‘happy accession’ of King George.

Drunkenness and depravity

The optimism was not to last. The economy recovered, but the people fell into sin. Thirty-seven years later, in 1751, now under George II, William Hogarth engraved the illustrations ‘Beer Street’ and ‘Gin Lane’, castigating the drunkenness and depravity of London.

John Wesley was preaching on sin and redemption up and down the land from 1727 until weeks before his death in March 1791.

Nine years after Hogarth’s satires, as Miss Steele was printing her hymn and George III was acceding to the throne, in 1760, ‘Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies’ was first published. It was a blatant directory of London prostitutes. The ‘List’ was in print, constantly updated, until 1794.

It was estimated that 6,000 – 7,000 mainly working-class women were earning a living from prostitution at the time in London alone. Another estimate is 50,000, which seems improbable out of a population of just 650,000. 6-7,000 is surely bad enough. John Wesley preached at least one sermon against prostitution, in the Covent Garden area of Seven Dials, in January 1763.

Elizabeth Scott and Anne Steele speak to our day

Crime and venereal disease were rampant in the time when Wesley preached. Elizabeth Scott’s lines lead us to conclude homosexuality was also part of the sorry picture:

5. Are not thy righteous dear to thee
Now, as in ancient times?
Or does this guilty land
exceed Gomorrah in its crimes?

Anne Steele seems to have agreed, even if words change their meaning over time:

5. How changed, alas, are truths divine,
For error, guilt and shame!
Impious numbers, bold in sin,
Disgrace the Christian name!
6. Regardless of thy smile or frown,
Their pleasures they require;
And sink with gay indifference down,
To everlasting fire.

There was indeed an effeminate homosexual sub-culture of ‘Molly Houses’ existing at the time. It is sobering, if the expression does not fall too awkwardly in a discussion of the eighteenth century, to recognise our own times in the world about which Miss Scott and Miss Steele wrote.

Not only was theirs a prophetic voice in their own time, but they speak to ours today.

Suppression of vice

When Miss Scott and Miss Steele were writing their hymns, Messrs Hogarth and Wesley were just about the sum of the century’s reformers. It is true that William Wilberforce was born in 1759 but neither lady would live to see him elected to Parliament in 1780.

Nevertheless, the MP, together with Bishop Beilby Porteus, successfully petitioned King George III for a Royal Proclamation in June 1787 to suppress vice and honour the Lord’s Day.

John Wesley wrote to Wilberforce to encourage him in his fight to end slavery in the last letter he wrote, days before his death.

A ‘new thing’ in our land, in our day

As the writer of Ecclesiastes puts it:
Eccl 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

However, there is one ‘new thing’ in our day which our hymn writers would not recognise. It may well be that politicians of their time were involved in the sins of their day. But they were not advancing them as good things. Hogarth’s paintings shocked because the viewers, politicians among them, recognised he had a valid point.

Today, the entire British establishment is promoting the sins of homosexuality, transgenderism and abortion both at home and abroad, even to young children in ‘relationships and sex education’. The State actively promoting evil, spitting in the face of God, has only ever been done once in history, in Sodom and Gomorrah, in the Days of Lot.

And that did not end well:
Gen 19:24 Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;

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The hymn writers’ prayers

The hymns ‘When Abram full of sacred awe’ and ‘See gracious God’ both end with prayers. There are also today those in our land who bear the name of Jesus. God dwells within us. Our Constitution yet owns the name above every name. We have a great spiritual heritage in the Lord Jesus. This land was founded upon the word of God. We can follow the writer of the epistle:

Heb 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Therefore we can in confidence pray Miss Scott’s concluding verse and prayer:

6. Still there are those who bear thy name, here yet is thine abode;
Long has thy presence blessed our land; forsake us not, O God!

Anne Steele’s last two verses go further. They call for repentance and for our rulers to seek the face of the King of kings. Her words have additional force when she prophetically speaks of ‘insulting’ invaders. Even then, she writes that we can be fearless, but only if our elite have drawn the nation close to God:

7. O turn us, turn us, mighty Lord, By thy resistless grace;
Then shall our hearts obey thy word, And humbly seek thy face;
8. Then, should insulting foes invade, We shall not sink in fear;
Secure of never-failing aid, If God, our God, is near.

Join your prayers with ours as we pray for national repentance:

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