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Showing posts from January 7, 2018

"Self-Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies" by Colonel Monstery, ed. by Ben Miller. A Review

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Self-Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies: A Nineteenth-Century Treatise on Boxing, Kicking, Grappling, and Fencing with the Cane and Quarterstaff by Thomas Hoyer Monstery My rating: 4 of 5 stars There it was, that dashing bar-fight scene where Sherlock Holmes (played by Jeremy Brett) fights Mr. Woodley as a gentleman. The scuffle ends with victory for Mr. Holmes, the prostration of Mr. Woodley and the applause of the pub patrons. The fighting style looks odd when compared to more modern versions of Sherlock Holmes, but there is a historical twinge to the scene. In the 19th Century England and America there were men putting themselves forward as experts in self-defense, some of whom had personal experience. On U.S. soil Colonel Thomas Hoyer Monstery was one of these. From December 1877 to January 1879 Monstery wrote several articles on self-defense in the New York magazine "The Spirit of the Times". These articles have been reclaimed, re-collected and republished in the 216 p

"We Implore Your Help and Governance" - 7 January 2018

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We implore your help and governance, Good Lord, for your church throughout the world, for this congregation, and also for First Missionary Baptist, First Southern Baptist, Followers of Christ Baptist and Fortieth Street Baptist churches. May we flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. May we be planted in the house of the LORD; and flourish in the courts of our God. May we still bear fruit in old age; be ever full of sap and green, to declare that the LORD is upright; that you are our rock, and there is no unrighteousness in you (Psalm 92.12-15). We plead with you especially and expressly for your church in North America. Preserve us from ourselves; preserve us from amputating ourselves from the essential, directive, life-supporting connection to your Word; preserve us from caving in to the present social and sexual storm that is brewing. Raise us up and guide us in affirming the beauty of your creation ordinance of one man and one woman married for life; t