Altruism

  Little ones, take lesson from him
Be not overbold;
Stop and think that glittering things
Are not always gold.

by Elizabeth Hill

       The Venus fly trap is small and shaped as if you placed your two open palms side by side. Its surface is plastered with honey and the other palm has sharp needles pointing outward. The "silly fly" yields to the attraction of the sweets and is immediately shut in as the two palms close upon him. He is instantly stung to death by the needles.
       How alluring evil can appear at times. Satan himself can pose as an angel of light. Evil often presents its most subtle attraction to the young. But sin in any guise is the soul's death-trap.

Life and Death

  Life and Death 

by Edward Young

 

Life  makes  the  soul  dependent  on  the  dust,
Death  gives  her  wings  to  mount  above  the  spheres.
Through  chinks,  styled  organs,  dim  life  peeps  at  light,
Death  bursts  th'  involving  cloud,  and  all  is  day ; 
All  eye,  all  ear,  the  disembodied  power.
Death  has feigned  evils,  Nature  shall  not  feel.
Life,  ill  substantial,  Wisdom  cannot  shun.
Is  not  the  mighty  mind, - that  son  of  Heaven -
By  tyrant  Life,  dethroned,  imprisoned,  pained?
By  Death  enlarged,  ennobled,  deified?
Death  but  entombs  the  body ;  Life  the  soul! . . . .
Death  is  the  crown  of  life
Death  wounds  to  cure :  we  fall,  we  rise,  we  reign!
Spring  from  our  fetters,  fasten  in  the  skies.
Where  blooming  Eden  withers  in  our  sight,
Death  gives  us  more  than  was  in  Eden  lost.
This  king  of  terrors  is  the  prince  of  peace.
When  shall  I  die  to  vanity,  pain,  death?
When  shall  I  die? - When  shall  I  live  forever?

The Cross

 The Cross by John Donne

Since Christ embraced the Cross itself, dare I

His image, th’image of his Cross deny?

Would I have profit by the sacrifice,

And dare the chosen altar to despise?

It bore all other sins, but is it fit

That is should bear the sin of scorning it?

Who from the picture would avert his eye,

How would he fly his pains, who there did die?

From me, no pulpit, nor misgrounded law,

Nor scandal taken, shall this Cross withdraw,

It shall not, for it cannot; for, the loss

Of this Cross, were to me another cross;

Better were worse, for, no affliction,

No cross is so extreme, as to have none.

Who can blot out the Cross, which th’ instrument

Of God, dewed on me in the Sacrament?

Who can deny me power, and liberty

To stretch mine arms, and mine own cross to be?

Swim, and at every stroke, thou art thy cross,

The mast and yard make one, where seas to do toss.

Look down, thou spiest birds raised on crossed wings;

All the globe’s frame, and sphere’s, is nothing else

But the meridians crossing parallels.

Material crosses then, good physic be,

And yet spiritual have chief dignity.

These for extracted chemic medicine serve,

And cure much better, and as well preserve;

Then are you your own physic, or need none,

When stilled, or purged by tribulation.

For when that Cross ungrudged, unto you sticks,

Then are you to yourself, a crucifix.

As perchance, carvers do not faces make,

But that away, which hid them there, do take:

Let crosses, so, take what hid Christ in thee,

And be his image, or not his, but he.

But, as oft alchemists do coiners prove,

So may a self-despising, get self-love.

And then as worst surfeits, of best meats be,

So is pride, issued from humility,

For, ’tis no child, but monster; therefore cross

Your joy in crosses, else, ’tis double loss,

And cross thy senses, else, both they, and thou

Must perish soon, and to destruction bow.

For if the’eye seek good objects, and will take

No cross from bad, we cannot ‘scape a snake.

So with harsh, hard, sour, stinking, cross the rest,

Make them indifferent; call nothing best.

But most the eye needs crossing, that can roam,

And move; to th’ others th’ objects must come home.

And cross thy heart: for that in man alone

Points downwards, and hath palpitation.

Cross those dejections, when it downward trends,

And when it to forbidden heights pretends.

And as the brain through bony walls doth vent

By sutures, which a cross’s form present,

So when thy brain works, ere thou utter it,

Cross and correct concupiscence of wit.

Be covetous of crosses, let none fall.

Cross no man else, but cross thyself in all.

Then doth the Cross of Christ work fruitfully

Within our hearts, when we love harmlessly

That Cross’s pictures much, and with more care

Nature a Healer

Nature a Healer

 With  other  ministrations  thou,  O  Nature!
Healest  thy  wandering  and  distempered  child:
Thou  pourest  on  him  thy  soft  influences,
Thy  sunny  hues,  fair  forms,  and  breathing  sweets, -
Thy  melodies  of  woods,  and  winds,  and  waters
Till  he  relent,  and  can  no  more  endure
To  be  a  jarring  and  a  dissonant  thing
Amid  this  general  dance  and  minstrelsy;
But,  bursting  into  tears,  wins  back  his  way,
His  angry  spirit  healed  and  harmonized
By  the  benignant  touch  of  love  and  beauty.

by Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge.

Animated Bible Gifs

        Animated Bibles for your web pages, posts, email etc....

      A black Bible with a gold cross on top of it, beaming light streaming down on top of the Bible

      A black Bible with a white cross embossed on the cover, rosary with gold cross, burning purple candle.

Bible versus devil.

Boy reads Bible.

      A picture of a bible and a pastel swag of roses is animated with white glitter. A gold communion challis, pale blue ribbon, and gold cross are also a part of the illustration. 

Bible and cross illuminated by candle at night.

Large Bible flip through.

Open Bible with red bookmark and candle.

Verse and Quotes About Angels

 Think you the notes of holy song
On Milton's tuneful ear have died?
Think ye that Raphael's angel throng
Has vanished from his side?
                            -John G. Whittier.

What shall I be when days of grief are ended,

From earthly fetters set forever free;

When from the harps of saints and angels blended

I hear the burst of joyful melody?

                                                             -Langbecker.

Tune your harps anew, ye seraphs,

Join to sing the pleasing theme;

All in earth, and all in heaven,

Join to praise Emanuel's name.

                    -Rev. Jonathan Evans.

The world recedes, it disappears;

Heaven opens on my eyes; my ears

With sounds seraphie ring.

                                              -Pope.

I heard an angel singing

When the day was springing:

"Mercy, Pity and Peace

Are the world's release!"

          -William Blake.

O providence beyond compare!

O glorious vision, wondrous sight!

O miracle, transcending far

Imagination's boldest flight.

Horses and chariots of fire

About the mount keep watch and ward;

The highest seraphim aspire

To form Elisha's body-guard.

              -John Brooke Greenwood.

It has been said of William Blake that he "created the most

perfect, tremendous and dramatic types of angelhood that have

ever been given to the world, as accrurately shown as though they

had stood in Blake's little chamber while he drew." The man

himself, like Fra Angelico, believed that they did. With a firm

hand he pictured how "the morning stars sang together and all

the sons of God shouted for joy."

                                                                      -Isabel McDougal

The Lord, my Maker, forming me of clay,

By His own breath the breath of life conveyed;

O'er all the bright new world He gave me sway,

A little lower than the angels made.

                                                       -St. Theophanes.

To weary hearts, to mourning homes,

God's meekest angel gently comes:

No power has he to banish pain,

Or give us back our Lost again;

And yet in tenderest love, our dear

And Heavenly Father sends him here.

                                                 -Whittier.

For the great eye that sees us never sleeps;

It has its ministering angels wheresoe'er

Existence is beneath us, and above,

Around us, and within us, He has there His delegates.

                                                              -Lord Byron.

This was manna coming from heaven, where angels dwell.

                                                                                -Strong.

But when we shall have got to heaven, shall we hear the Word

and eat and drink with Him as the angels do now? Do the angels

need books and interpreters and readers? Surely not. They read

in seeing, for the truth itself they see, and are abundantly satisfied

from that fountain, from which we obtain so few drops.

                                                                                            -Augustine.

The obedience of the angels is absolutely perfect, and that

with perfection of both parts and degrees.

                                                                          -Bishop Hopkins.

Yet being pregnant still with powerful grace,

And fruitful love that loves to get

Things like himself, and to enlarge his race,

His second brood, though not of power so great

Yet full of beauty, next he did beget

An infinite increase of angels bright

All glistening glorious in their Maker's light.

                                               -Edmund Spenser.

Ye holy angels bright

Who stand before God's throne,

And dwell in glorious light,

Praise ye the Lord each one!

Ye there, so nigh

Are much more meet

Than we, the feet,

For things so high.

                                           -Baxter.

Angels! With regard to their essence or nature, they are all spirits,--not material beings, not clogged with flesh and blood like us; but having bodies, if any, not gross and earthly like ours, but of a finer substance, resembling fire or flame more than any of the lower elements. And is not something like this intimated by the Psalmist? As spirits, he has endowed them with understanding, will, affections, and liberty.

                                                                                                                                            -Wesley.

O God, who can doubt that You could create spirits without a body? Or is there need of a body that one might understand, love, and be happy? You who are Yourself so pure a spirit--are You not incorporeal and immaterial? Are not intelligence and love spiritual and immaterial operations which can be exercised without the need of a body? Who doubts, then, that You could create intelligencies of this kind? And You Yourself have not left us in doubt, but have revealed Yourself and the existence and nature of angels to us.

                                                                                                                                     -Bossuet.

These things the seer Isaiah did befall:

In spirit he beheld the Lord of all

On a high throne raised up in splendor bright,

His garment's border filled the choir with light.

Beside Him stood two seraphim, which had

Six wings, wherewith they both alike are clad;

With twain they hid their shining face, with twain

They hid their feet as with a flowing train,

And with the other twain they both did fly.

                                                -Martin Luther.

Round His throne archangels pour

Songs of praise forever more.

                       -Carmina Sanetorum.

If God gives them charge concerning us, how cheerfully and

trustfully we ought to enter upon the journey of the opening

year! When we need them most, they may be at hand.

                                                           -Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D.

O our angel friends above us!

Come, illume our darkened sphere,

Let us know that still you love us,

Let us feel your presence here.

                             -Submit C. Loomis.

Mighty God, while angels bless Thee,

May a mortal sing Thy Name?

Loved of men as well as angels,

Thou art every creature's theme,

For the grandeur of Thy nature--

Grand beyond a seraph's thought.

                                          -Albert Lowe.

A pillow for thee will I bring,

Stuffed with down of angel's wing.

                           -Richard Crashaw

The Angels were all singing out of tune,

And hoarse with having little else to do,

Excepting to wind up the sun and moon

Or curb a runaway young star or two.

                                                    -Lord Byron

Sleep undisturbed within this peaceful shrine,

Till angels wake thee with a note like thine.

                                                                   -Johnson.

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth

Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.

                                                             -John Milton.

From yon veil of midnight darkness rending,

Came the rich mysteries to the sleeper's eye,

That saw your hosts ascending and descending

On those bright steeps between the earth and sky;

Trembling he woke, and bowed o'er glory's trace,

And worshipping awe-struck in that fearful place.

                                                              -Mrs. Hemans.

Let Thy bless'd angels while I sleep

Around my bed their virgils keep.

                                 -Bishop Ken.

Yet to pure eyes that ladder still is set,

And angel visitants come and go.

                                -William Alexander.

Angels descending, bring from above,

Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

                                -Fanny J. Crosby

Voices are heard: a choir of golden strings,

Low winds whose breath is loaded with the rose;

Then chariot wheels; the nearer rush of wings;

Pale lightning round the park pavilion glows;

It thunders--the resplendent gates unclose.

Far as the eye can glance, on height o'er height,

Rose fiery waving wings, and star--crowned brows,

Millions on millions, brighter and more bright,

Till all is lost in one supreme, unmingled light.

                                                      -Crowley.

Opens a door in heaven;

From skies of glass

A Jacob's ladder falls

On greening grass,

And o'er the mountain-walls

Young angels pass.

                 -Tennyson.

Which of the petty kings of earth

Can boast a guard like ours,

Encircled from our second birth

With all the heavenly powers?

Myriads of bright cherubie bands,

Sent by the King of Kings,

Rejoice to bear us in their hands,

And shade us with their wings.

                          -Charles Wesley.

We trust in plumed procession

For such the angels go-

Rank after Rank, with even feet-

And uniforms of Snow.

                      -Emily Dickinson.

There are silent, unseen forces

Unto truth that are allied;

And the legions of the angels

Aid us from the other side.

There are voices from the silence

Soft as sweep of seraph's wings.

                              -J.A. Edgerton.

Heavenly messengers have been represented in all ages of the

church as furnished with wings.

                                                                         -McClintock.

In guise a seraph wrapt with love aflame

And all aflame with knowledge, like the bush

That burned with God in Horeb unconsumed.

                                                -Prof. Wilkinson.

Onward -- ever onward pressing,

Yet untired as an angel's wing.

                                         -Anonymous.

Altruism In Insects

       A gentleman, while reading the newspaper, feeling bothered by the buzzing of a wasp about his head, beat it down. It fell through the open window and lay on the sill as if dead. A few seconds afterward, to his great surprise, a large wasp flew on to the window-sill, and after buzzing around his wounded brother for a few minutes, began to lick him all over. The sick wasp seemed to revive under this treatment, and his friend then gently dragged him to the edge, grasped him round the body and flew away with him. It was plain that the stranger, finding a wounded comrade, gave him "first aid," as well as he could, and then bore him away home. This is one of many cases in which the law of altruism is traceable in the world of living things below man. How much more should intelligent man exercise this spirit of helpfulness in the rescue of his fallen brother.

"the King will reply, 'I tell you  the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' Matthew 25:40

Virgin Birth

 The Virgin by William Wordsworth

Mother, whose virgin bosom was uncrost
With the least shade of thought to sin
allied;
Woman, above all women glorified,
Our tainted nature's solitary boast;
Purer than foam on central ocean tost,
Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak
strewn
With fancied roses, than the unblem
-ished moon
Before her wane begins on heaven's blue
coast,
Thy image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween,
Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might
bend
As to a visible form in which did blend
All that was mixed and reconciled in
thee
Of mother's love with maiden purity,
Of high with low, celestial with terrene.

Quality Family Time

A child practices painting while her mother does housework.

Description of Illustrations: black and white line drawings of child painting, parent watching, grandmother reading, grandson listening, little boy shares a gift with his grandmother, children and their parents car ride, playing music together, playing like adults and feeding pet fish

Grandma reads a bedtime story.

Grandmother receives a special gift.

Children feed their pet fish.

Children perform on stage.

A musical family.

Children color and play while riding in Dad's car.

Have a question about the illustration? Just type it in the comment box and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. I only publish content that is closely related to the subject folks.

Fatal Allurement

        The Judas-tree, so-called, is a remarkable plant. Its blossoms appear before its leaves, and are a most brilliant crimson. The flowers flaming forth, attract innumerable insects. The bee, for instance, in quest of honey, is drawn to it. But searching the petals for nectar, it imbibes a fatal opiate. Beneath this Judas-tree the ground is strewn with the victims of its deadly fascination.

Flicker-flick,
Above the wick.
Burned the candle flame.
Through the open window-shutter
Young Moth Miller came.
Straight he fluttered toward the yellow.
Bright, alluring thing.
And, alas, poor foolish fellow
Scorched his downy wing!

The Bible Survives Three Great Dangers

        The deathless Book has survived three great dangers: the negligence of its friends; the false systems built upon it; the warfare of those who have hated it. Ibid.

Animism

The child's religious nature, like that of primitive man, is animistic. Professor Dawson, in "The Child and His Religion," says:

       It is hard for children to resist the feeling that a summer shower comes with a sort of personal benevolence to water the dry flowers and grass. A little girl of four years illustrated this feeling on a certain occasion. There was a thunder-shower after a long dry spell. The rain was pattering on the sidewalk outside the house. The child stretched forth her hands toward the rain- drops and said: "Come, good rain, and water our plants!" Flowers and trees have individuality for most children, if not for all. Ruth's mama found her sitting among the wild geraniums, some distance from the house. "What are you doing, Ruth?" "I'm sitting by the flowers. They are lonesome and like to have me with them, don't you know?" At another time she said: "Mama, these daisies seem to look up at me and talk to me. Perhaps they want us to kiss them." On one occasion she said to her brother, who was in the act of gathering some flowers she claimed for herself, ''I don't think it nice to break off those poor flowers. They like to live just as well as you do." The boy thus chided by his sister for gathering her flowers was generally very fond of plants and trees, and felt a quite human companionship in them. He could not bear to see flowering plants hanging in a broken condition, or lying crusht upon the sidewalk. Even at the age of ten years, he would still work solicitously over flowers like the violets, bluets, and crowfoots, with evident concern for their comfort