In my teens, and throughout my early adult life I would occasionally stop and read the inscriptions on this silent witness wondering what they meant, (approx. 6' in height) and often tentatively bend the protruding sundial! The messages inscribed upon it were too deep for me to comprehend, as I was brought up in a household with absolutely zero Christian influence. Many of us are subjected to these gentle nudges, persuasions, or whatever we choose to call them and I believe Hebrews 3.15 gives us much light here; "Today if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation." I have shuddered many times in recent years, almost breaking out in a cold sweat when I consider it wasn't until about 2001-2 that I finally began to wake up! O to realise how close to the lake of fire I was!
In this Cotswold town where this silent witness still 'speaks' are a great many chapels, churches with towering spires, meeting houses and such like. When I last lived in the district (2013) the population was some 25,000, but consider how much less it would have been when these aforementioned structures were built? Church attendance was very healthy in the so-called post Reformation period leading up to the pre-technology age (1940? on) that we now live in, for in those days people had very few distractions or diversions (fun!) as we do today. Now we have not only 24 hour a day satellite television, laptops, handheld devices of every sort, gaming applications, novels, and whatever else, and this within our own four walls! what of beyond those walls; the cinemas, shopping malls, theatres, casinos, wine bars, pubs, night clubs and what have you? The Church was the big communal part in the period of time under discussion, for the distractions in that era were practically non-existent, most especially in the rural communities. In the village that I lived in it was said that in the non-conformist Baptist Church there, (they all were, before the downgrade controversy) when Charles Spurgeon visited to preach; that standing room was denied to those flocking within to hear the great London preacher; some 3,000 or more were in the two tiered chapel, with many outside to hear his thundering voice! In the same church building today, you would scarcely see more than a handful attend on a Sunday service! The 'simple' rural folk that lived in Spurgeon's time in that village, that lived in that time shall we say lived from hand to mouth. Today? no! they now live in the second most prosperous area in the UK outside of London and the South East, with houses and cars to match! Worldly prosperity chokes the gospel message, why do we want to know about the suffering Saviour when we are full to the brim with all the 'comforts' that the world provides us with? What can God give us that we don't have? The welfare state will even look after the 'have-not's' from the cradle to the grave! Does not this wicked system take personal responsibility away from us all?
Is it not a fact that these silent witnesses are everywhere in every village, town and city up and down the length and breadth of the UK? Are they less effective than vocal witness? at least they quote Scripture verbatim! unlike much of the drivel that emanates from our faltering lips! Isaiah 55.6 was the first verse I memorized, so I believe, I wonder why? It had a profound effect, thank God.
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