In today’s culture the saying, “How the mighty have fallen” tends to be used against someone high up in society who has been knocked down a peg or two (to quote another old saying). The real meaning, however, cannot be any more different.
Its origin is in the “Lament of the Bow” from the Jewish Scriptures (2 Samuel 1:25) when the future King David is mourning the loss of his best friend (Jonathan) and his father (Saul) in the battle against the Philistines, during which both the King and the Crown Prince lost their lives.
In a couple of weeks, our Remembrance Sunday Community Service will be commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the conclusion of the First World War (in its day being identified as the war to end all wars – or so it was hoped!) Some time ago someone gave me a copy of the November 1918 Service sheet universally used by the Free Churches (Methodist, Baptist, etc.) to give thanks to God that the war was now over. One of the prayers used during that service contained these words, “We praise and thank Thy holy Name for Thy gracious dealings with us as a Nation, beneath the stress and strain of this great and terrible war… To our men Thou hast imparted heroic courage and to our women untiring patience”.
In Westbury this year, we shall have the opportunity to give the same thanks and appreciation once again; but thanks to the Westbury Area Branch of the Family History Society we also have an exhibition in All Saints Church (10am-4pm from the 11th to the 17th) describing the lives of those actual local men who responded to the call to serve their nation during that war, who with their families were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for their community and nation.
Rev Graham Warmington
