Hidden away in the steep, lush Eskdale  valley, just outside the hamlet of Littlebeck,  past the overgrown quarry workings and mysterious pools, is a cave. Carved out of an enormous boulder, the large room has a circular seating arrangement capable of accommodating about twenty people. On its roof are two, remarkably comfortable, carved, stone chairs.  [...]

Almighty God, by whom alone Kings reign, and Princes decree justice; and from whom alone cometh all counsel, wisdom, and understanding; we thine unworthy servants, here gathered together in thy Name, do most humbly beseech thee to send down thy Heavenly Wisdom from above, to direct and guide us in all our consultations;  and grant [...]

  The cheerful girl with bouncy, golden curls was almost five. Wandering along the toy aisle of the supermarket she saw them. A circle of glistening, white pearls in a pink, foil box.“Oh please, Mummy. Can I have them? Please, Mummy, please!” Quickly the mother checked the underside of the little box and then looked back into the [...]

  A father was trying to read the newspaper, but his young son kept interrupting him. Finally, the father grew tired of this and, tearing a page from the newspaper – one that bore a map of the world – he cut it into several pieces and handed them to the child. “Right, now you’ve got something to [...]

  What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there [...]

            ‘This little light o’ mine, I’m gonna let it shine, This little light o’ mine, I’m gonna let it shine, This little light o’ mine, I’m gonna let it shine, Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. ‘                            Harry Dixon Loes (1895-1965)    Also known as ‘Scarborough Pier Light’, Scarborough Lighthouse dates [...]

  Theodore E. Steinway, president of Steinway and Sons, once noted, “In one of our concert grand pianos, 243 taut strings exert a pull of 40,000 pounds on an iron frame. It is proof that out of great tension may come great harmony.”

  The story is told of a busy sawmill. One of the workers was so engrossed in his work, cutting great tree-trunks into smoothed planks of wood, the piles of sawdust accumulating beneath the bench, that he didn’t notice when his much loved pocket watch fell to the ground.    As the men broke their [...]

                                                                                    When William Scrots, the court artist appointed by Henry VIII in 1546, was commissioned to paint a portrait of Edward VI, there were many who felt that the future King of England had been mocked. The finished picture looked like a bad joke. The skull ballooned out at the back, the forehead bulged, the [...]

  I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go  into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God For that shall be to you better than light and safer than a [...]