Reduced To Ashes

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1875 edition. Excerpt: ...of martyrs, or many worthy people who have been reduced to ashes by great public conflagrations, such as the burning of Eome under Nero? No sane persons believe that we shall rise with the old framework of bone and the particles of flesh which have been dispersed by death through a thousand new forms of organic life. Those who plead for the survival of our individual selves after the shock of death, simply mean that life, instead of being the mere product of force and matter in certain combinations, is the subtle thing which builds itself a mortal tabernacle by the aid of force and matter, and can survive again and again the shock which destroys that special envelope called the human body, using new elements for self-expression adapted to the altered conditions of another life. This is the utmost that the advocates of Kesurrection must now be permitted to claim, and our German physiologists have denied them even that. "But even if the old literal Eesurrection doctrine be held, Cremation cannot affect it. For any power capable of recalling and arranging the atoms of a body consumed in one hundred years by earth, air, and water, could equally collect and re-arrange the atoms which, in one brief half-hour, have been dispersed by fire. "Fourthly, that the exhalations from Cremation are unwholesome. Hindoo Cremation and the old heathen funeral pyres doubtless were; but not the modern crematory, as I have described it. "Fifthly, it is argued that future palaeontologists would have no skulls to examine, if we burned all our bones. The objection is farcical. But in fact, however prevalent Cremation may become, some people are certain to be buried still in all ages and countries; and secondly, in all civilized museums skulls and...

A human body can be cremated and reduced to ashes, small granules of tissue, bone and carbon when, exposed to eleven hundred degrees Fahrenheit for two to three hours in a sealed oven. How then, could four boys be laughing and rough-housing while getting ready to start work one minute, and be reduced to the same ashen residue as cremation the next. The back of the restaurant kitchen where they worked had no evidence of a grease or electrical fire and was untouched by flames. The janitorial cubby where the boys had been standing was away from any of the ovens or stoves and was surrounded by large sinks and ice machines. When the smoke cleared, there was no evidence of fire, not even the odor of burning. The cardboard storage boxes on the shelves next to the boys were not scorched and the ceiling had no smoke residue on it. The surroundings were pristine and intact. How then was it possible for these four boys to have been so thoroughly cremated without leaving even the unique odor of burnt flesh? Adding to the mystery, this same phenomenon began to occur with regularity all over the world affecting all levels of society, even becoming an international problem that politicians were reluctant to make known to the public. Solving this perplexing problem became an obsession for Alan Stein, a retired pyrotechnic expert who was to enter into the world of human behavior that he could not have expected. The planet was beginning to revolt against the violence it had endured for centuries at the hands of brutal men, and the extent of aberrant human behavior against the innocent was about to be exposed. The outcome would become an uncontainable global crisis that could not be kept secret. Very few would be able to survive . . . . . .

*#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER *Winner, Kobo Emerging Writer Prize Nonfiction *Winner, Indigenous Voices Awards *Winner, High Plains Book Awards *Finalist, CBC Canada Reads *A Globe and Mail Book of the Year *An Indigo Book of the Year *A CBC Best Canadian Nonfiction Book of the Year In this extraordinary and inspiring debut memoir, Jesse Thistle, once a high school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is. If I can just make it to the next minute...then I might have a chance to live; I might have a chance to be something more than just a struggling crackhead. From the Ashes is a remarkable memoir about hope and resilience, and a revelatory look into the life of a Métis-Cree man who refused to give up. Abandoned by his parents as a toddler, Jesse Thistle briefly found himself in the foster-care system with his two brothers, cut off from all they had known. Eventually the children landed in the home of their paternal grandparents, whose tough-love attitudes quickly resulted in conflicts. Throughout it all, the ghost of Jesse’s drug-addicted father haunted the halls of the house and the memories of every family member. Struggling with all that had happened, Jesse succumbed to a self-destructive cycle of drug and alcohol addiction and petty crime, spending more than a decade on and off the streets, often homeless. Finally, he realized he would die unless he turned his life around. In this heartwarming and heart-wrenching memoir, Jesse Thistle writes honestly and fearlessly about his painful past, the abuse he endured, and how he uncovered the truth about his parents. Through sheer perseverance and education—and newfound love—he found his way back into the circle of his Indigenous culture and family. An eloquent exploration of the impact of prejudice and racism, From the Ashes is, in the end, about how love and support can help us find happiness despite the odds.

In the first Bloomsbury Lent book, former Conservative MP and Strictly star Ann Widdecombe explores the place of penance in a 'me, me, me' world. What is our modern concept of penance? Is it giving up chocolates for Lent or is it a lasting state of the awareness of sin? Is it public or private? Is it punishment or greater closeness to God? Is it always a response to personal sin or can an individual do penance for others' sins, or for the world? Ann Widdecombe looks at voluntary penance and its relation to repentance, at prescribed but not enforced penance as part of the sacrament of Absolution and, as an ex-Prisons Minister, at the role of penance as enforced by the State. Penance in art, penance in literature, penance in history, penance in the Bible are all examined in an important and thoughtful meditation on the concept of penance in the 21st Century.

The author recounts his childhood in Depression-era Brooklyn as the child of Irish immigrants who decide to return to worse poverty in Ireland when his infant sister dies

The most important work of the towering intellectual of the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae remains one of the great seminal works of philosophy and theology, while extending to subjects as diverse as law and government, sacraments and liturgy, and psychology and ethics. In his third and final part of the Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas begins to address the life of Christ, lived out both in Jesus himself, and in each of the baptized through the sacraments.