The Watcher By The Threshold, And Other Tales
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The Watcher By The Threshold, And Other Tales
''The Watcher by the Threshold, and other tales'' is a collection of early novellas and stories, most with supernatural elements, by the Scottish author John Buchan. When first published in the UK in 1902 the collection included five stories, mainly set in the Scottish Borders. The collection was republished for the US market in 1918 under the title ''The Watcher by the Threshold'', with four of the original stories and four new ones. Plots "No Man's Land" The story's narrator is Mr Graves, deputy-professor of Northern Antiquities at Oxford and expert on the Celts, Vikings and Picts. Graves travels to Scotland for a month's fishing holiday, where he stays at a remote shieling with the shepherd Adam and his elderly sister Margit. When several of Adam's lambs are killed he suspects it to be the work of devils that live high in the hills nearby, at the Scarts o' the Muneraw. Graves laughs at the man's superstitions, comparing them with well known folk tales of brownies in th ...
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John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir
John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career, Buchan simultaneously began his writing career and his political and diplomatic careers, serving as a private secretary to the administrator of various colonies in southern Africa. He eventually wrote propaganda for the British war effort during the First World War. He was elected Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities in 1927, but he spent most of his time on his writing career, notably writing '' The Thirty-Nine Steps'' and other adventure fiction. In 1935, King George V, on the advice of Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, appointed Buchan to replace the Earl of Bessborough as Governor General of Canada, for which purpose Buchan was raised to the peerage. He occupied the post until his death in 1940. Buchan was enthu ...
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Devil In Christianity
In Christianity, the Devil is the personification of evil, who rebelled against God in an attempt to become equal to God himself. He is depicted as a fallen angel, who was expelled from Heaven at the beginning of time, before God created the material world, and is in constant opposition to God. The devil is identified with several figures in the Bible including the serpent in the Garden of Eden, Lucifer, Satan, the tempter of the Gospels, Leviathan, and the dragon in the Book of Revelation. Early scholars discussed the role of the devil. Scholars influenced by neoplatonic cosmology, like Origen and Pseudo-Dionysius, portrayed the devil as representing deficiency and emptiness, the entity most remote from the divine. According to Augustine of Hippo, the realm of the devil is not nothingness, but an inferior realm standing in opposition to God. The standard Medieval depiction of the devil goes back to Gregory the Great. He integrated the devil, as the first creation of God, in ...
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Argyll And Bute
Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020). The administrative centre for the council area is in Lochgilphead at Kilmory Castle, a 19th-century Gothic Revival building and estate. The current council leader is Robin Currie, a councillor for Kintyre and the Islands. Description Argyll and Bute covers the second-largest administrative area of any Scottish council. The council area adjoins those of Highland, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire. Its border runs through Loch Lomond. The present council area was created in 1996, when it was carved out of the Strathclyde region, which was a two-tier local government region of 19 districts, created in 1975. Argyll and Bute merged the existing Argyll and Bute district and one ward of the Dumbarton district. The Dumbart ...
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Black Mount
Black Mount (also Blackmount) is a mountain range located in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is situated between Glen Orchy and Glen Coe. Its four Munros include Stob Ghabhar, Stob a' Choire Odhair, Creise and Meall a' Bhuiridh. The hills of Ben Inverveigh and Meall Tairbh are located between Black Mount and the Bridge of Orchy. The Black Mount Deer Forest includes moorland, the mountain, as well as several rivers, burns, lochs, and tarns. The scenic beauty of the area has led to its inclusion in the Ben Nevis and Glen Coe National Scenic Area, one of 40 such areas in Scotland. On 28 August 1980, Black Mount's Forest Lodge became protected as a listed building#Scotland, category B listed building by Historic Scotland. Clachlet Traverse The Clachlet Traverse is a 25 km hike over the four Munro peaks of the range, namely Stob a' Choire Odhair, Stob Ghabhar, Creise and Meall a' Bhuiridh. The route begins at the Inveroran Inn, near Bridge of Orchy, and ends at the Kingshouse Ho ...
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Salvation
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its consequences."Salvation." ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. 1989. "The saving of the soul; the deliverance from sin and its consequences." The academic study of salvation is called ''soteriology''. Meaning In Abrahamic religions and theology, ''salvation'' is the saving of the soul from sin and its consequences. It may also be called ''deliverance'' or ''redemption'' from sin and its effects. Depending on the religion or even denomination, salvation is considered to be caused either only by the grace of God (i.e. unmerited and unearned), or by faith, good deeds (works), or a combination thereof. Religions often emphasize that man is a sinner by nature and that the penalty of sin is death (physical death, ...
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Assurance (theology)
As a general term in theological use, assurance refers to a believer's confidence in God, God's response to prayer, and the hope of eternal salvation. In Protestant Christian doctrine, the term "assurance", also known as the Witness of the Spirit, affirms that the inner witness of the Holy Spirit allows the Christian disciple to know that he or she is justified. Based on the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo, ''assurance'' was historically a very important doctrine in Lutheranism and Calvinism, and remains a distinguishing doctrine of Methodism and Quakerism, although there are differences among these Christian traditions. Hymns that celebrate the witness of the Holy Spirit, such as "Blessed Assurance" are sung in Christian liturgies to celebrate the belief in assurance. John Wesley and Methodism John Wesley believed that all Christians have a faith which implies an ''assurance'' of God's forgiving love, and that one would feel that ''assurance'', or the "witness of the Spirit ...
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Damnation
Damnation (from Latin '' damnatio'') is the concept of divine punishment and torment in an afterlife for actions that were committed, or in some cases, not committed on Earth. In Ancient Egyptian religious tradition, citizens would recite the 42 negative confessions of Maat as their heart was weighed against the feather of truth. If the citizen's heart was heavier than a feather they would be devoured by Ammit. Zoroastrianism developed an eschatological concept of a Last Judgment called Frashokereti where the dead will be raised and the righteous wade through a river of milk while the wicked will be burned in a river of molten metal. Abrahamic religions such as Christianity have similar concepts of believers facing judgement on a last day to determine if they will spend eternity in Gehenna or heaven for their sin . A damned human "in damnation" is said to be either in Hell, or living in a state wherein they are divorced from Heaven and/or in a state of disgrace from God's fa ...
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Stream
A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams are usually called rivers, while smaller, less voluminous and more intermittent river, intermittent streams are known as streamlets, brooks or creeks. The flow of a stream is controlled by three inputs – surface runoff (from precipitation or meltwater), daylighting (streams), daylighted subterranean river, subterranean water, and surfaced groundwater (Spring (hydrology), spring water). The surface and subterranean water are highly variable between periods of rainfall. Groundwater, on the other hand, has a relatively constant input and is controlled more by long-term patterns of precipitation. The stream encompasses surface, subsurface and groundwater fluxes th ...
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Beltane
Beltane () is the Gaelic May Day festival. Commonly observed on the first of May, the festival falls midway between the spring equinox and summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. The festival name is synonymous with the month marking the start of summer in Ireland, May being ''Mí na Bealtaine''. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. In Irish the name for the festival day is (), in Scottish Gaelic (), and in Manx Gaelic /. Beltane is one of the principal four Gaelic seasonal festivals—along with Samhain, Imbolc, and Lughnasadh—and is similar to the Welsh . Bealtaine is mentioned in the earliest Irish literature and is associated with important events in Irish mythology. Also known as ("first of summer"), it marked the beginning of summer and was when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were performed to protect cattle, people and crops, and to encourage growth. Special bonfires were kindled, w ...
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Laird
Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in a territorial designation by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. They are usually styled 'name'' 'surname''of 'lairdship'' However, since "laird" is a courtesy title, it has no formal status in law. Historically, the term bonnet laird was applied to rural, petty landowners, as they wore a bonnet like the non-landowning classes. Bonnet lairds filled a position in society below lairds and above husbandmen (farmers), similar to the yeomen of England. An Internet fad is the selling of tiny souvenir plots of Scottish land and a claim of a "laird" title to go along with it, but the Lord Lyon has decreed these meaningless for several reasons. Etymology ''Laird'' (earlier ''lard'') is the now-standard Scots pronunciation (and spelling, which is ph ...
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Kirk
Kirk is a Scottish and former Northern English word meaning "church". It is often used specifically of the Church of Scotland. Many place names and personal names are also derived from it. Basic meaning and etymology As a common noun, ''kirk'' (meaning 'church') is found in Scots, Scottish English, Ulster-Scots and some English dialects, attested as a noun from the 14th century onwards, but as an element in placenames much earlier. Both words, ''kirk'' and ''church'', derive from the Koine Greek κυριακόν (δωμα) (kyriakon (dōma)) meaning ''Lord's (house)'', which was borrowed into the Germanic languages in late antiquity, possibly in the course of the Gothic missions. (Only a connection with the idiosyncrasies of Gothic explains how a Greek neuter noun became a Germanic feminine). Whereas ''church'' displays Old English palatalisation, ''kirk'' is a loanword from Old Norse and thus retains the original mainland Germanic consonants. Compare cognates: Icelandic & ...
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Election In Christianity
Election in Christianity involves God choosing a particular person or group of people to a particular task or relationship, especially eternal life. Election to eternal life is viewed by some as conditional on a person's faith, and by others as unconditional. In the Old Testament The Old Testament applies the term "elect" (Gk: ἐκλεκτος, Hebrew: בָּחִיר) to the Israelites in as far as they are called to be the chosen people, or people of God, or are faithful to their divine call. The idea of such an election is common in Deuteronomy and in Isaiah 40-66. In the New Testament The New Testament transfers the meaning of the term from its connection with the people of Israel to the members of the body of Christ (Christian church), either militant on earth or triumphant in heaven. Based on the statements of Jesus Christ that one should, "''enter in at the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there are that go in ...
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