Napoleon's Battles

Excellent job on your history presentations. Here are a couple videos:

The French Revolution - Freedom vs. Authority

After the fall of the Bastille everything was chaos in France. The administration, the army, the navy; the peasants set fire to their employers’ houses and lands, thus stopping their own source of bread. The People believed themselves to be the new owners of France. They saw themselves as free to regulate the Church, the Army and the Navy, to make laws and collect taxes. No power was available to make impositions on their National Assembly. They could even change the names of the Seasons and change Dates!

Against the seductive force of this democratic logic the voices of moderation and wisdom couldn’t operate. The belief in the essential goodness of human nature which was the fount of these theories was in fact the source of the terrible disasters which now began to assault France. The desperate need for authority was drowned in enthusiasm for democratic freedom. Who could be in authority if all were equal?

For a better understanding, read this excerpt from J.I. Packer's essay "Freedom & Authority"...

"AUTHORITY" is a word that makes most people think of law and order, direction and restraint, command and control, dominance and submission, respect and obedience. How, I wonder, do you react to such ideas? Have they any place in your vision of the life that is good and sweet? If so, you are unusual. One tragedy of our time is that, having these associations, "authority" has become almost a dirty word in the Western world, while opposition to authority in schools, families and society generally is cheerfully accepted as something that is at least harmless and perhaps rather fine… What goes on here? What is happening to us?

THE QUEST FOR FREEDOM

The answer to these questions is pinpointed by the fact that "freedom" is today almost a magic word  — freedom from want, freedom from fear, freedom of speech and freedom of religion—freedom in one form or another has been a worldwide passion, encouraged and catered to at every level.

Longings for freedom from restrictions, from the dead hand of the past, from disliked pressures, obligations, systems and what not are for many people the strongest of life’s driving forces. Freedom — "getting out from under" as we say — has become modern man’s obsession. And freedom is always seen as involving rejection of authority! Authority is equated with fixed limits, freedom with cutting loose from all that. Hence the crisis of authority which marks our time.

This way of conceiving freedom has its roots in philosophy: in dreams of the perfectibility of man… The effect is that all forms of authority are seen as cell walls, which makes the quest for freedom feel like a Great Escape from some ideological prison-camp. Undisguised contempt for restrictions and directions have become almost conventional, and anyone who respects authority stands out as odd.

The truth, paradoxical yet inescapable, is this: there is no freedom apart from external authority. To say "I am my own authority, a law to myself" is to enslave myself to myself, which is the worst bondage of all. Only as I bow to an authority which is not myself am I ever free.

Basically there are two ways of conceiving freedom, and we have pointed to the first already. It is to view freedom as secular, external and this-worldly. It is essentially a matter of breaking bonds and abolishing restrictions and hardships. It seeks freedom from or freedom not to.

The second approach to freedom is distinctively Christian. It is evangelical, personal and positive… This definition starts with freedom from and freedom not to — in this case, freedom from the guilt and power of sin, and freedom not to be dominated by tyrannical self-will — but it centers on freedom for: freedom for God and godliness, freedom to love and serve one’s Maker and fellow-creatures, freedom for the joy, hope and contentment which God gives to sinners who believe in Christ.

Ludwig van Beethoven 1770-1827

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany. His father, who was a singer, was his first teacher. After a while, even though he was still only a boy, Ludwig became a traveling performer, and soon he was supporting his family.

In his early twenties Beethoven moved to Vienna, where he spent the rest of his life. Beethoven was one of the first composers to make a living without being employed by the church or a member of the nobility. At first, he was known as a brilliant pianist, but when he was around 30 years old Beethoven began going deaf. Even though he could no longer hear well enough to play the piano, Beethoven composed some of his best music after he lost his hearing!

Beethoven is considered one of the greatest musical geniuses who ever lived. He may be most famous for his nine symphonies, but he also wrote many other kinds of music: chamber and choral pieces, piano works, string quartets, and an opera.

Listen to the second movement of Beethoven’s 8th Symphony, then answer the questions on your worksheet.

* With your parents' supervision, you may also check out www.classicsforkids.com for more information and games about Beethoven and many more famous Classical composers.

Luther on Music

I, Doctor Martin Luther, wish all lovers of the unshackled art of music grace and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ!

I truly desire that all Christians would love and regard as worthy, the lovely gift of music which is a precious, worthy, and costly treasure given to mankind by God.

The riches of music are so excellent and so precious that words fail me whenever I attempt to discuss and describe them.... In sum, next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our thoughts, minds, hearts, and spirits...

Our dear fathers and prophets did desire that music be always used in the churches. Hence, we have so many songs and psalms.

This precious gift has been given to man alone that he might thereby remind himself that God has created man for the express purpose of praising and extolling God.

However, when man's natural musical ability is whetted and polished to the extent that it becomes an art, then do we note with great surprise the great and perfect wisdom of God in music, which is, after all, His product and His gift; we marvel when we hear music in which one voice sings a simple melody, while three, four, or five other voices play and trip lustily around the voice that sings its simple melody and adorn this simple melody wonderfully with artistic musical effects, thus reminding us of a heavenly dance, where all meet in a spirit of friendliness, caress and embrace.

A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.

Shakespeare's Coined Words Now Common Currency

While William Shakespeare died many years ago, the English playwright and poet lives on not only through his writings, but through the words and sayings attributed to him that still color the English language today. So whether you are "fashionable" or "sanctimonious," thank Shakespeare, who coined the terms.

Shakespeare is called the greatest author in the English language not only because his works are in English, but also for his profound and lasting impact on the language itself. Shakespeare coined over 1,500 words by  himself. (Some estimate this number to be closer to 10,000 words!)

Here's a collection of well-known quotations that are associated with Shakespeare:

• Eaten out of house and home
• Pomp and circumstance
• Full circle
• The makings of
• Method in the madness
• Neither rhyme nor reason
• One fell swoop
• Seen better days
• It smells to heaven
• A sorry sight
• A spotless reputation
• Sweets to the sweet
• In my heart of hearts
• All that glitters is not gold

Try the Shakespeare dictionary.

Defeat of the Spanish Armada

Does God control the weather? Some have concluded that suffering and natural disasters occur because they are beyond God's control. This is incorrect. God has indeed established certain laws and principles that govern nature, but he remains sovereign over these laws. Psalm 148:8 declares that storms “do his bidding.” He is in control, and has His reasons for all kinds of weather, both fair and stormy. Throughout time, God has divinely directed weather and that has often changed the course of history.

A great example of this is the story about the Spanish Armada…

Over four centuries ago, Philip II of Spain set out to rule the world. His goal was to reunite all of Christianity under the Catholic faith, and also under Spanish control. Philip was a heartless leader who had earlier supported the harsh measures of the Spanish Inquisition. He did not get along well with either Britain or Holland. When the Netherlands declared their independence from Spain in 1588, Philip sailed north with an “invincible” Armada of 130 warships and 30,000 men. Then, while far from home, bad weather hit the fleet. With no port available the ships were forced to anchor at sea. The smaller British fleet under Sir Francis Drake than harassed the Spanish by releasing flaming “tar ships” among the anchored fleet. The Spanish Armada fled north through the English Channel and around the coast of Scotland, where continued fierce storms, which have come to be know as the Protestant Wind,  pushed the fleet onto the rocky shores. Only half of the original Spanish fleet finally limped back home. The battle was over, the English had won!

Queen Elizabeth and her people were jubilant. No more were they a second rate sea power, for they had conquered the fleet of the mighty Spanish Empire. A thanksgiving service was held at St. Paul's Cathedral for the delivery of the country, and a medal was struck with the words "God blew and they were scattered" inscribed on it. They believed that the storm that had besieged the Spanish ships was no ordinary storm, but the work of God.

John Knox - Scottish Reformer