Big Words!

I am currently reading a book called ‘The England of Elizabeth’by A.L. Rowse.

It is one of the most interesting books I have read in some time!

It goes into the people and places as well as the city and country life. It describes the government and judicial structure as well as the structure of society.

While he is a lucid and interesting writer he does have the habit of using words from the time and technical ie. farming, legal and obsolete words which may not be understood by the general reader without providing definitions.

To stumble over a word or two may be an inconvenience but to tripping over them every few pages is rather a trial especially when most dictionaries do not even carry them!

If you are writing for people with the same technical expertise you are quite justified in using using the words which are current in the profession. however if you are writing for the general public it is surely mere courtesy to provide some definition of the rarer words you are using.

That is not to say that you are required to simply your language to the point of a ‘Janet and John’ book!

In any communication we make allowance for a certain amount of understanding and intelligence! To some degree also we hope that for those things others do not understand they will make the effort to eventually come to an accurate understanding of what we are trying to say.

We live in a time more than ever where definitions are changing and words commonly used before are now falling out of fashion or dropped because they supposedly give offense to some, rightly or wrongly

Peter in his second letter says of Paul’s writings that…

“Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” 2Peter 3:16

To find some parts of Scripture difficult to understand is to be expected but when we come to them with hostility and an unwillingness to learn we are on the road to destruction.

Too many wrest the Scriptures to there own purposes while failing to understand and obey the purposes of God!

For this reason we must be ever realizing the Majesty and Wisdom of the one who inspired and breathed his Word to us!

Camden’s Brittania!

Was one of the many surveys and ‘travel guides which appeared in the Elizabethan period.

It was a time of rediscovery and taking stock of the land and people.

It was matched by the wonderful hand drawn maps which illustrated many aspects of English life and places.

Some of you may have seen a television program of ‘Great british railway journeys’. These ‘surveys were the post medieval eqivalent.

The reader would be able to get an understanding of what they would see and find if they actually went to the places described and some information on the history ,famous personages and goods and produce available etc.

While the works would not be as good as going to the places themselves they would certainly whet the appetite for travel and serve as a guide to what to see and what expect!

Of course in some ways these ‘guides’ would quickly become obsolete in a time of great change and prospect. Even then they would continue as a testimony to how things once were!

Without a stretch of the imagination the Bible serves as a guide to the ‘Heavenly ‘ country!

It charts the way there and gives a glimpse of what we can expect when we get there!

Sadly too few take advantage of it and those who do often go astray but for those who persevere will find that the half was not told them of the glory of ‘Immanuel’s land!’

The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. A Jew, speaking in the presence of Jews, said, “To him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth on him shall receive remission of sins,” Being the Christ he was officially pre-eminent and
not merely as respects the excellence of his teaching, the purity of his example, or the strength of his love to humanity. In these he was indeed pre-eminent ; but more than this was implied in the language of Daniel, five centuries earlier, “ One like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought
him near before them, and there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages should serve him.”‘Is Christianity of God, did Christ rise again’ George Bowen ,missionary to Bombay 1881