Searches can be by keyword or full text. Keyword searches are faster than full text, however it is often hard to tell if the results of the search are really what the user is looking for. The full text search on Fire and Ice is usually more helpful, even though it takes longer. The search engine on Fire and Ice includes the context and page title with the search results, which I believe is most helpful in determining if the results are what you are looking for.

For example, if you are looking for a specific poem by Newton, select "Cowper and Newton Poetry Page" as the start of the search, and then type in a few words from the poem. The applet will search the full text of each of their poems on Fire and Ice, and give you the context and page title of each match it finds.

The drawback of the search engine on Fire and Ice is that it acts as a spider, downloading each page individually and reading the text, then going on to the next one. Depending on your connection speed and the alacrity of your computer, this may take a little while. It is important, therefore, to choose an appropriate place to start, and to choose the search word(s) carefully. Starting with the Table of Contents and setting the pages to 200 will give you the most comprehensive search, but you should have a book to read handy!

Another alternative is to download the whole site and then search it with a grep. This is much faster; I regularly search my entire site with a grep in less than 30 seconds.

Remember, too, that even full text searches can miss things. Willard's sermon on the Decrees is quite relevant to understanding Predestination, but does not contain the word "predestination."

[Fire and Ice Search] [Site Map] [Table of Contents] [Fast Index]