For the Study and Defence of the Holy Scripture

Vol. 87 No. 1,024 February 2017 TESTIMONY For the study and defence of the holy Scripture 60 How do you smell? Also in this issue: Portrait of a Christadelphian? 41 Jeremiah’s life fictionalised 55 The problem of Old Testament ‘genocide’ 68 New series on Proverbs 79 Contents Contents TESTIMONY Publishing Editor: JEREMY THOMAS. 22 Kingswood Close, Kings Norton, Birmingham, B30 3NX. Tel. 0121 444 6810; email: [email protected] Section Editors: Contents DAVID BURGES. 7 Whitehead Drive, Wellesbourne, Warwick, CV35 9PW. Tel. 01789 842692; email: [email protected] Science; Archaeology Publishing Editor’s column 41 “As soon as I was ‘scent’ EDWARD CARR. 46 New Street, Holiness for” Donisthorpe, DE12 7PG. 6. Uzzah’s error Sam Alexander 60 Tel. 01530 271522; email: [email protected] Joe Harding 44 Limiting God Geoff Henstock Exhortation The labourers in the vineyard 65 SHAUN MAHER. 5 Birch Court, Dennis Brown 45 Genocide and the Bible Neil Robin Doune, FK16 6JD. Evidence, reason and faith 68 Tel. 01786 842996; email: [email protected] 8. The New Testament Genesis 1–2 Watchman approach to faith (1) God’s names Kel Hammond 48 Peter Heavyside 72 ERIC MARSHALL. The Pines, Ling Common Road, Castle Matthew’s Gospel and the Your Letters Rising, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, kingdom of heaven Did God forsake His Son? 74 PE31 6AE. Tel. 01553 631279; David Burges email: [email protected] 52 Grace, mercy and peace Exposition A thought on . George Booker 75 The marks of Jesus JOHN NICHOLLS. 17 Upper The words of the wise Trinity Road, Halstead, Essex, CO9 Daniel Collard 54 1. Introduction 1EE. Tel. 01787 473089; email: A fictional account of the Mark Vincent [email protected] 79 (Review) Reviews life of Jeremiah Jewish scenes Geoff Henstock 55 2. Libya: the temple of Zeus, JEREMY THOMAS (see above) Principles, preaching and The mountains of Israel Cyrene problems Shaun Maher 57 Jeremy Thomas IV GEOFF HENSTOCK. 13 Alpha Crescent, Panorama 5041, Testimony books S. Australia. Tel. 8277-0730; email: [email protected] Australia Editor; Prophecy Articles for publication Articles to be considered for publication are welcome and should be Testimony website: forwarded to the Publishing Editor (in Australia, the local editor) in the http://testimonymagazine.com first instance. Publication of articles in the Testimony does not presume editorial endorsement except on matters of fundamental doctrine, as defined in the Birmingham Amended Statement of Faith. III Contents “All these things Jesus spoke to the crowd in parables, and he did not speak to them without a parable. This was to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet: ‘I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world.’ Then he left the crowds and went into the house. TESTIMONY And his disciples came to him . And he said . ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it’” (Mt. 13:34-46, NASB). Cover picture: “The Pearl of Great Price,” Parables series, Emily Honey Publishing Editor’s column HADN’T REALISED that I’d been walking capable of accommodating a congregation of well past such important buildings. The buildings over a thousand. Iin question are important not in the sense that So where exactly on Temple Street was it? the man in the street might assess their impor- Would I be able to identify it on my daily walk tance—for their grandeur or architectural merit, to work? The website of a local history society for instance, or because some person of note provided the answer (it was at number 8). There once lived there—but to the extent that they’re was also an old illustration of a stone-fronted associated with the progress of the Truth in my building, dating from 1858, with five tall, narrow home town. windows that looked out onto the street. Although the frontage of the building was remodelled later, Strolling past Temperance Hall after the Birmingham ecclesia relocated to the I live in Birmingham, and on each weekday I Midland Institute in 1932, the façade still features travel by train into the city centre, where I work. five windows. I therefore suspect that the internal Exiting the railway station and crossing New configuration of the building hasn’t changed very Street, I walk up Temple Street past a number much since then. A filthy alley leads round the of shops and offices. At the top of the hill I turn back of the building for anyone (like me) curious right, past a corner block of more shops and of- enough to want to view it. fices, onto Temple Row. The building in which I work is on the next corner on the left. The entire The Athenæum journey takes little more than five minutes on Brother Roberts also writes of a nearby building, foot. It’s a journey I’ve made twice a day (once in known as the Athenæum Hall, “in the very heart each direction) on most working days for nearly of Birmingham, viz., at the top of Temple Street, ten years. in Temple Row.” He recounts something of the I think it was from reading some early Christa- building’s history, and the shaky circumstances delphian literature, before I lived in Birmingham, in which the Birmingham ecclesia came to occupy that I first knew of Temple Street. A recent com- it in 1866, in chapter XXXI of the autobiography puter search on early issues of the Christadelphian already mentioned. It makes for entertaining magazine confirmed that this was the location reading. The property was evidently in a ter- of Temperance Hall, the building in which the rible state, and the brethren were persuaded Birmingham ecclesia met for some years. In His to take on the lease of £40 a year—equivalent autobiography My Days and My Ways Brother to around £25,000 today, measured in terms of Robert Roberts records that Brother John Thomas average income—only when Brother Roberts vol- preached there a number of times, and that it was unteered to undertake the necessary redecorating Testimony, February 2017 Contents 41 of the building himself. The ecclesia pooled its another lunchtime expedition, I was amazed to resources to provide for a baptismal bath and a discover that it’s the branch of a bank which I’ve table for the memorial meeting. Brother Thomas been into on many occasions. The original prem- lectured here too, and audiences of up to 300 are ises appear to have been rebuilt, so we may never mentioned. know how it looked externally. Yet, surprisingly, The ecclesia left the Athenæum Hall in 1882 we do have an idea of what the building looked when it was sold to be converted into offices. It like inside, for in the Birmingham Museum and was demolished long ago. Art Gallery, another five Would I still be able to “BIRMINGHAM.—During the month, there minutes’ walk away, is an find out precisely where have been two immersions. The first was 1855 painting of the school- it had stood? This time a case of special interest, viz., that of MRS. room by the local artist SMITH (69), who had been for upwards of 50 a lunchtime trip to the Alfred H. Green (1822–86). years a member of the Church of England. map section of the Library This shows a sizeable group She was governess at Ann street School, of Birmingham helped of young children accom- where the meetings of the ecclesia used out. Athenæum Buildings panied by a small num- formerly to be held, and from the first, took was on the very corner of ber of adults—the school an interest in the truth, the brethren, and Temple Street and Temple governess among them, I their affairs. She was however slow to throw Row—on the site of the overboard the convictions of a life-time, and presume. corner block of shops and the brethren had begun to despair of her Tentatively, one branch offices I pass on my daily obedience. Retirement from the active duties of this story can be traced walk to work. A study by of school life for the past twelve months has even further. The ‘Intelli- Birmingham University however given her leisure for the study of the gence’ section of the March contains a drawing of the Scriptures, and has also disencumbered her 1869 Christadelphian reports area, done from the top of of sundry obstacles attaching to her former the baptism of one Mrs the nearby cathedral tower, position, and she has finally seen her way to Smith, aged sixty-nine, who in about 1850. the step recorded. She was immersed on the had been the governess of evening of Saturday, February 13, the event the Ann Street school in First home—demolished being an occasion of joy to all concerned.”1 which the ecclesia had first With my interest piqued, I met. Sister Smith (her first wondered how far back into the history of the Bir- name is not mentioned) fell asleep in the Lord the mingham ecclesia I would be able to go. Brother following year, when the Christadelphian records Roberts’ autobiography came to the rescue again. that she had been governess for forty years before He moved from Yorkshire to Birmingham in the school closed. It seems likely, therefore, that late 1863, at which time he says that the ecclesia she is one of the ladies in Alfred Green’s 1855 (numbering about thirteen members, according to painting—perhaps the middle-aged lady just to the February 1904 Christadelphian) was meeting in left of centre, raising a finger in admonition (see an infants’ school on Ann Street.

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