Easter 7

Opening Verse of Scripture Ephesians Chapter 1:3

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Collect Prayer for the Day—Before we read we pray

O God the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: we beseech you, leave us not comfortless, but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. CW

Risen, ascended Lord, as we rejoice at your triumph, fill your Church on earth with power and compassion, that all who are estranged by sin may find forgiveness and know your peace, to the glory of God the Father. CW

First Bible Reading - Acts 16:16-34

One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.‘ She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.‘ And it came out that very hour.

But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, ‘These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.‘ The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.’ The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They answered, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God. NRSV

Second Reading - Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

I, John, heard a voice saying to me: ‘See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.

It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.’

The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

The one who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. NRSV

Gospel Reading John 17:20-26

Jesus looked up to heaven and prayed: ‘Holy Father, I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’ NRSV

Post Communion Prayer

Eternal God, giver of love and power, your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world to preach the gospel of his kingdom: confirm us in this mission, and help us to live the good news we proclaim; through Jesus Christ our Lord. CW

Commentary  -

To say I am not a fan of social media is something of an understatement, in fact I think it can be incredibly destructive in the wrong hands and has reduced normal social interaction turning some people into a zombie trance in company. We should not be surprised at the increased anxiety, depression and mental illness in society given that we have removed many of the human interactions which are essential to our well being and happiness. Perhaps one of the better things I thought about twitter was that it limited the number of characters which users can type into their Tweets or messages to 140 characters. There are only so many foul things you can say in 140 characters, but then they doubled it to 280 characters. The point about tweets however is that you have to collect what you want to say into a straightforward statement. The fewer our words the more we have to think about what we are putting across,

it is a bit like a good sermon!

When we have to boil things down in this way it helps us to get rid of the unimportant stuff and go to the heart of the matter. This is what marketing is all about, getting to the core of the product and then explaining it in a few words so that it captures the imagination and sells!

As Christians we need to learn lessons from this, how we can get the Gospel across in a way which condenses the Gospel without getting side-tracked into things which Jesus said absolutely nothing about. There is an urgent need for Christians to eradicate the negative and accentuate the positive. We have to recognise our shared common goals, the things which really matter, and then find ways of getting the message across, perhaps in 280 characters. Too much of our time is wasted on internal struggle and strife, vociferous debates in which we condemn particular things, or people or ideas. The stuff that we hate we make sure everybody knows about!

This is not very profound, but the church has found it very difficult. It is no surprise that because Christian people have failed to put into an understandable way what Jesus says, others have failed to catch on. This might seem like sound bite religion, and perhaps it is, but we need to recognise that Jesus was excellent at sound bites! Jesus deliberately took very complicated messages and reduced them to a few words, a simple picture or even a short story. People instantly knew what was in his heart, love, forgiveness and living a better life, he made these things understandable.

In the passage from the Gospel of John today Jesus draws attention to the core principle of being a Christian.

‘That the love with which you have loved me may be in them,’

There it is in less than 60 characters. A prayer of Jesus that his followers might put down their differences and be drawn together in love which creates unity. It is very simple but of course not simplistic and we have never been very good at it, preferring to quarrel and to try and get our own way.    

Jesus makes it clear that he expects his followers to be drawn together in unity. He captures this principle with the wonderful catch phrase

‘that they may be one as we are one’.

This is what it means to be a Christian, it is obedience to the deep desire of Jesus that his followers should be united in a love which transcends difference. It is not just a suggestion, it is not a complicated theological idea, it is just the straightforward prayer of Christ. When we read these words we might wonder what all the fuss has been about with different denominations and Christian churches. To be faithful to Christ our divisions must fall and we must learn to be as one. Fred Kaan (1929-2009) expressed some of these ideas in his hymn ‘For the healing of the Nations Lord, we pray with one accord.’ In verse 3 he wrote

All that kills abundant living, let it from the earth be banned:
pride of status, race or schooling, dogmas that obscure your plan. 
In our common quest for justice may we hallow life's brief span.

It is a prayer which acknowledges the harm which comes from human divisions and speaks profoundly to the circumstances in which we find ourselves today with increasing nationalism. It also challenges our preoccupation as Christians with pride in our denomination and the division which it causes, wounding the body of Christ.

The poetry of Fred Kaan centred on a Jesus who embraced the whole of creation and excluded no one and nothing from his love. He was asked to write a cantata, Magnificat for a New Millennium, for the world's fair in Hanover, Expo 2000, he wrote:

Say 'yes' in love to all the human race ... Risk to become all we are meant to be, live out tomorrow's destiny today. Let us unite to keep the dream alive: the world at peace, the human race at play.

The importance of interdependence and sharing with each other is a fundamental part of being, not just as Christian people, but as human beings. We know the importance of sharing and intimate and supportive relationships. The concept of a Christian who is isolated from others is fundamentally flawed, we exist only in community - as a part of a body. Feeling lonely is painful, but is it nature's way of telling us that this is not how we should be. So Jesus expresses this in his prayer, that we might be one, even as he and the Father are one - absolutely. We are made to share the joys and sorrows, the burdens and triumphs together. As individuals we need to recognise the importance of being a part of others and we have to grow into mature adults so that we are able to know ourselves and others well enough to be able to get along without falling out. Immature Christians and churches need to grow up sufficiently that they will be able to get on with other Christians and churches whose only failure may be that they think or act differently. We are living some kind of fiction if we fail to realise that the fracturing of the church of Christ owes more to immaturity, tantrums and a determination by those seeking power to get their own way, than to any pursuit of godly truth.   Charles Royden

Meditation - Singing the Lord’s Song in a strange land (Ps 137 v 4)

Pete Askew of the Northumbria Community has asked, ‘Who do we seek? How shall we live? How do we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’ It’s easy to imagine Paul and the early believers having thoughts similar to these as they started out on their journey of faith and commitment to communicate the gospel message, a message and mission which was to change the known world. Many of the early believers came from and would continue to encounter a very mixed background of religious beliefs and practice. Some of them would feel a very Jewish, or Greek influence on their faith. In addition to this there would also be the religious and ritualistic practices of the Romans, much of them centred on the worship of the Emperor. How could the early believers communicate the clear message of the gospel of Christ against the cacophony of practices, customs and beliefs that many of them encountered? How could they communicate the gospel to those people who had become so tired of religion that they just turned a deaf ear to anything that was said on the subject? And yet communicate they did. What made the early believers stand out was not so much what they said, but the way they lived. A life characterised by love, unity and the care and concern for others in their society, irrespective of their beliefs. As they went about their daily business, however mundane it may have seemed at times, others looked on at these early believers and were attracted to the genuineness of their lives, their generosity of spirit, and their willing to share all they had, and all they had discovered with anyone who came along or would listen. They had truly found how to sing the Lord’s song in a strange land. We are called to do the same.

Hymns

• All hail the power of Jesus name
• Alleluia sing to Jesus
• The head that once was crowned with thorns
• Rejoice ! The Lord is king
• Crown him with many crowns
• Christ triumphant
• O for a heart to praise my God
• Hail the day that sees him rise (Llanfair)
• Would you walk by on the other side?
• Ascended Christ, who gained (Darwell’s 148th)
• Alleluia sing to Jesus (Hyfrydol)

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

God of glory, as you made yourself present in the person of Your Son, grant that we, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, may be your presence and glory in the world, that through you and obedience to your precepts all nations would know your lasting peace and hope. Amen

All shall be Amen and Alleluia. We shall rest and we shall see, we shall see and we shall know, we shall know and we shall love, we shall love and we shall praise. Behold our end which is no end. Amen St Augustine 

At Easter we rejoice in the salvation of the world. Christ is risen; let us arise in him! Christ enters new life; let us live in him! Christ has come forth from the tomb; Let us shake off the fetters of evil! The gates of hell are open, the powers of evil are overcome! In Christ a new creation is coming to birth, Alleluia! Lord make us new, Alleluia! Amen

Living God, you have given us an eternal and living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead: grant that we, being risen with Him, may fix our hearts on heavenly things and share in your eternal life, worshipping you for ever at your throne in heaven. Amen

The God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight; and may the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen

Additional Resources



A strange turn of events

Sometimes things don’t always turn out the way we would expect and it becomes necessary to adapt to the situation we find ourselves in and reflect on what God might be saying to us. This is the situation which Paul finds himself in as we see from our readings from Acts both last week and again this week. After leaving the Council in Jerusalem where a compromise was reached on how Gentiles and Jews should live as a people under God both of whose heritages are respected and acknowledged, Paul returns to Antioch where he stays for a while before setting off on his second missionary journey. He’d originally planned to revisit some of the towns where he and Barnabas had previously travelled but things didn’t turn out quite as expected. Perhaps frustrated at his attempts to spread the gospel in Bithynia in Asia Paul immediately leaves for Europe after he has a night-time vision, perhaps in a dream, of a man calling him over to Macedonia. Paul and his companions leave from Troas and sail up the coast via Samothrace and Neapolis before arriving in Philippi his new intended destination. Paul’s normal practice, once he’d arrived in a new location, was to go immediately to the synagogue, where he could meet with the men there and share the gospel with them. So we can imagine his initial bewilderment when rather than Jews he finds gentiles, and rather than men, he finds a group of women, one of which was Lydia. Lydia was clearly a woman of some standing, arising from the fact that the purple cloth and dye in which she traded was a highly regarded and sought after commodity and therefore a source of significant wealth. She was a worshipper of God, almost certainly not a Jewess but a gentile and, like many, probably the principles and morals of the Jewish law without converting to Judaism. After the encounter she and her houseful were baptised and invited Paul and his friends to use her house as a base for their activity in the town. 

Whilst this may have seemed a little strange to Paul, who was probably intending to meet with Jewish man in their synagogue, he could perhaps understand what was happening in terms of the overall mission he had to the gentiles. But then events took yet another turn which Paul certainly would not have predicted. Whilst they were in the region of Philippi, presumably staying with Lydia in Thyatira, Paul and Silas went to daily prayer. As they did so they were pestered on a regular basis by a slave girl, probably someone we would see as a stalker in today’s language and society. She makes a great deal of money for her owners by her supposed clairvoyance. One day this constant barrage of apparent but empty praise seems to exasperate Paul more than usual and he turns round and orders the Spirit to leave the woman in order that she can be free. Seeing that their source of income has now disappeared the owners of the slave girl turn on Paul and Silas, engaging the power and influence of the Romans to do so. The slave girl’s owners accuse Paul and Silas of causing a disturbance (always something the Romans were keen to take action to maintain their own steely rule and order) and accused them of practices that were unlawful for Romans (something else on which the Romans were keen to take a hard line), something akin to treason. Not surprisingly then Paul and Silas were hauled before the magistrates, severely flogged and then thrown into prison. We can imagine as Paul sits in jail, hurting all over from the beating he’d just received, his feet in stocks, thinking, ‘This is not how I thought things would turn out. What is God doing?’ Later that night we read that Paul and Silas are singing and praying! However surprising this may seem it appears to result in the whole place being shaken, the doors flying open and their chains falling off. Rather than run away, Paul and Silas stay, an action which leads the jailer and his family to be converted and the magistrates releasing Paul and Silas. Interestingly it’s only now that Paul and Silas seem to claim their rights as Roman citizens and demand an apology from the embarrassed authorities and magistrates. In the verses that follow today’s reading the officials are entreated to come to the prison in person to see them, which they do. As Roman citizens Paul and Silas should at least have had a fair trial and almost certainly should not been imprisoned. Not surprisingly, the authorities request that Paul and Silas leave quietly, which they do, returning to Lydia’s house before departing for Thessalonica, Berea and ultimately Athens. 

Like Paul we’re perhaps left thinking, ‘So what did all this achieve, what was God up to?’ The central theme of Acts is the message of salvation to the Gentiles. This may have been because the Jews are often portrayed as rejecting this same message. Gentile Christians were legitimate heirs of the promises of God. This message is seen as one of the underpinning themes of Luke’s gospel, where we see Jesus rejected by his own (country) people, (Lk 4 v 24) and the praise of a Gentile’s faith in contrast to that of the Jews (Lk 7 v 9). But one of the other themes that permeates Acts is that of the innocence of Christians. In both Luke and Acts we see various Christians being tried before the Roman (and Jewish) courts and proclamations of innocence. In Jesus’ own trial Pilate pronounces Jesus innocent (Lk 23 v 4), and later a centurion pronounces Jesus innocent too (Lk 23 v 47). After Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem the King himself says to Festus, the procurator, that Paul could have been released if he had not appealed to Caesar. So perhaps the meaning of the story in today’s reading in Acts is threefold. Firstly Luke is showing that whatever it may seem, Christianity is not subversive to the Roman rule and government, but at the same time is clear about who the true Lord is and where He is to be found. Secondly he shows Roman officials (even if somewhat reluctantly) acting reasonably and in some cases even favourably towards Christianity and its proponents and supporters. Perhaps a message to others that Christianity should not be persecuted. And thirdly, Luke shows a God who is in control of everything, irrespective of how things may appear. However black things look, however much things are not turning out as we might expect, God is in control. Jesus has overcome death itself and His believers have His Spirit with them wherever they may go. We are as united with the Father though Christ as Christ was Himself. It’s a new world which has been inaugurated.

John, the writer of Revelation speaks about the end of time. He looks down on the Holy City and sees that there is no Temple. For years the Temple, and before that the Tent of the Tabernacle, had been signs of God’s presence with His people. But in the New Jerusalem John sees that God Almighty and Jesus, the Lamb of God are present themselves. The signs of God’s presence have given way to the reality. God is present Himself, there is no longer any need for the Temple. Throughout the book of Revelation we see a God who is involved in human affairs, a God who is involved in creating and recreating a New World in which there will be no evil of suffering and in which all will be united with each other and with God. A New World in which God will be there, exercising His gentle and ultimate control, with us in person as a living reality as the Messiah who has come takes His rightful place in creation and the cosmos. The Reverend Dr Sam Cappleman

Commentary

Have you ever entered one of those competitions on cereal packets or some other commodity from the supermarket. They ask you simple questions and then conclude with a final challenge to write a slogan. It will say something like ‘now describe in less than 10 words why Shreddies are the best cereal.’ It focuses the mind to try and make a simple and easy to understand slogan which encapsulates the goodness of Shreddies. When we have to boil things down in this way it helps us to get rid of the unimportant stuff and go to the heart of the matter. This is what marketing is all about, getting to the core of the product and then explaining it in a few words so that it captures the imagination and sells!

I suspect that if the church employed marketing consultants, they would pronounce the verdict that we are failing to get our message across. Most people 'in the street' have very little clue what the church is really about. Ask the typical man on the bus what Methodists are about and he is more likely to say something like ‘they don’t drink’ than any theological understanding about grace. If he was asked the same question about Anglicans he would probably start thinking about internal divisions. 

There is an urgent need for Christians to eradicate the negative and accentuate the positive. We have to recognise our shared common goals, the things which really matter, and then find ways of getting our core message across. Too much of our time is wasted on internal struggle and strife, vociferous debates in which we condemn particular things, or people or ideas. The stuff that we hate we make sure everybody knows about!

This is not very profound, but the church has found it very difficult. It is no surprise that because Christian people have failed to put into an understandable way what we are about, others have failed to catch on. This might seem like sound bite religion, and perhaps it is, but we need to recognise that Jesus was excellent at sound bites! Jesus deliberately took very complicated messages and reduced them to a few words, a simple picture or even a short story. People instantly knew the things he was about, love, forgiveness and living a better life, he made them understandable.

In the passage from the Gospel of John today Jesus draws attention to one of these core principles of being a Christian. Jesus gives the same simple treatment to the complicated idea of unity, but like all of his teaching it is simple, not simplistic. 

Somebody asked me recently ‘what does it mean to be a ecumenical.’ I suppose I could have gone to great lengths to explain the development of the ecumenical message but I simply drew attention to the words of Jesus from the reading in John’s Gospel today. Jesus makes it clear that he expects his followers to be drawn together in unity. He captures this principle with the wonderful catch phrase ‘that they may be one as we are one’. If this had been a contest to find a slogan, it would have been a surefire winner. This is what it means to be ecumenical, it is obedience to the deep desire of Jesus that his followers should be united. It is not a suggestion, it is not a complicated theological idea, it is just the straightforward prayer of Christ. When we read these words we might wonder what all the fuss has been about with different denominations and Christian churches. To be faithful to Christ our divisions must fall and we must learn to be as one. 

This importance of dependence and sharing with each other is a fundamental part of being, not just as Christian people, but human beings. We know the importance of sharing and intimate and supportive relationship. The concept of a Christian who is isolated from others is fundamentally flawed, we exist only in community - as a part of a body. Feeling lonely is painful, but is it nature's way of telling us that this is not how we should be. So Jesus takes this on in his prayer that we might be one, even as he and the father are one - absolutely. We are made to share the joys and sorrows, the burdens and triumphs together. As individuals we need to recognise the importance of being a part of others and we have to grow into mature adults so that we are able to know ourselves and others well enough to be able to get along without falling out. Immature Christians and churches need to grow up sufficiently that they will be able to get on with other Christians and churches whose only failure may be that they think or act differently. We are living some kind of fiction if we fail to realise that the fracturing of the church of Christ owes more to immaturity, tantrums and a determination by those seeking power to get their own way, than to any pursuit of godly truth.

Charles Royden

Sermon

So that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’ 

I was speaking to my daughter Alex and reflecting on her childhood. She said that she had been well behaved growing up. I agreed. I did however say that one of the worst episodes was when we left her and Max in the house whilst we went away for a couple of days. They weren’t 5 or 6 or anything they were teenagers and it was all very legal. I gave the instruction to look after the Vicarage and not to do anything silly, keep a low profile I said, as if we were still at home. When we came home there had been a Liverpool football match with a good outcome and we returned to see the Vicarage with Liverpool flags flying out of the windows. On reflection this was not a crime of any great importance, of course there would have been hell to pay if they were Everton flags. The point was that not only was it most definitely not ‘low profile’, it surely wasn’t the kind of thing that would have happened if I had been around. We don’t do flags out of Vicarage windows. In the same way when Jesus left his disciples he gave them some going away instructions which we have here today. The disciples were not to behave as if Jesus had just left them to it, they were to carry on behaving properly, as if he was still there. The problem is that we so often do not behave as if Christ were present in his church. Th is week we remembered the Ascension of Jesus and it seems that the church has often behaved as if Jesus has left us and we can do what we like.

Jesus left instructions before he left, specifically we fail to live out this command of Jesus that

the love with which you have loved me may be in them

Love must be the defining quality evident in the church of Christ. So what is this love to look like ?

In our Lent course we thought about a famous politician who was caught out recently misbehaving having an affair. He subsequently left his wife and when questioned about his actions he said that

‘there was nobody to blame it was nobody’s fault, we just fell in love’. Interestingly like many men in this situation he ‘just fell in love’ with a younger woman who was not unattractive. It is an interesting idea that love is something which we fall into and which we have no control over. This is a false idea of love and it is clearly not something which Jesus means when he tells his disciples that they must be characterised by love. He tells them that they must love and it is by this love people will be identified as his disciples. 

In our Gospel reading this morning Jesus is preparing to take his leave of the disciples and he gives them a new, an incredibly important, and at first sight a rather baffling, commandment. Namely that they are to show this true love. This might appear to be a bizarre instruction in the sense that we do not normally think of love as something we can be commanded to do.  However love is an action which we do, not a feeling that happens to us. And so to love or not to love is entirely a decision under our control.

What Jesus is talking about here is not feelings but conduct – how we behave towards one another. The Gospel must change us to behave lovingly, regardless of how we happen to be feeling towards a specific individual. The point being that, if we get into the habit of behaving like that, then in time, that will begin to affect our relationship with the world; which in turn will begin to transform the kind of people we are.

 Jesus is requiring us to think about how we relate to one another (particularly to those whom we find most challenging), as a fundamental imperative of the Gospel. At which point, we find ourselves being confronted by the exact opposite of the naughty politician. Instead of only loving those we feel strong attraction towards, the words of Jesus require me to regard you as a precious child of God, and to behave towards you in that way, despite what my personal feelings might be.

The point is that if I do as Jesus says and commit myself to treating you in a loving and respectful manner, it is likely that, in time, not only will I find myself thinking about you differently, but that my feelings towards you will also change. It is entirely possible that, eventually, you might begin to relate to me differently as well and the world will be that little bit better as a result. The good news is that, even though we will inevitably get things wrong sometimes, the most important thing that is required of us, is that we give of our best; that we always strive to act with love in our hearts, knowing that in doing so, we are responding to the love that has been shown to us by God.

One day in the pandemic I took a walk through the Hill Fort at Mowsbury. A family had enjoyed a picnic. Unfortunately they had walked off and just left the litter from their picnic behind. They had come to enjoy a beautiful place and they had left it in a condition which they would not wish to find it. Perhaps we can think of things like that. How will we leave things behind us? Do we treat one another with kindness and love or do we mess things up with cruel words.  Jesus has ascended and he has left us with specific commands which are challenging but not in any way unrealistic. We must understand the generous love which flows from God towards us and then share that love in kindness towards others in the indiscriminate and unconditional way in which it has been shown to us.   Charles Royden