A Loose Balance

Many men think they can rely in a general way upon fate or fortune to square their moral accounts, but in the long run a man must face his record.

       Mr. Moody tells of a young couple who on commencing to keep house started to keep an account of their family expenses. After a few months the young husband said to his wife: "Darling, I'll spend the evening at home tonight, and we will look over the account together." The young husband found frequent entries like this: "G.K.W., one dollar and a half"; and a little later on, "G.K.W., two dollars"; and after a little, "G.K.W., three dollars." Becoming a little suspicious, he demanded, "Who is this 'G.K.W.' you have spent so much on?" "Oh," said she, "I never could make the accounts come out right, so I lumped all together that wouldn't balance, and called it G.K.W.‚ Goodness Knows What!" (Text.)  Louis Albert Banks. 

• Sincerity and Duplicity by Spurgeon (pdf.)
• Forgiveness: What It Is, What It Is Not
• Three Characteristic Sermons by Dwight Lyman Moody

Badness In Boys

       "He is a bad boy" may mean so many things. In the eyes of some teachers a boy is "bad" if he talks repeatedly to his neighbor. The boy who has a fight with another boy is "bad." The boy who does not study his lessons is "bad." The boy who goes to a moving-picture show is "bad." The boy who throws ink across the room is "bad." The boy who "answers back" is "bad." The boy who rifles the teacher's desk is "bad." The boy who disobeys school rules is "bad." "Give a dog a bad name and hang him" should now read, "Give a boy a bad name and ruin him."

       All school types of "badness" need classification. Many of them under careful classification would no longer be considered "bad." A boy's wrong acts are often due not so much to deliberate choosing of wrong after he knows right, but to the lack of any sense of right or wrong. Children's so-called "badness" is due to unmorality oftener than to immorality. Until a boy's moral nature has been roused and developed, it is absurd to think that one can find the basis of appeal in theoretic ethics or right for right's sake. Who is to blame when blind, unquestioning obedience to short-sighted,

arbitrary school rules is made the basis of a child's conduct and reputation?

       When children go through school learning nothing except what can be given to hundreds simultaneously, in classes so large that undue emphasis is laid upon order and quiet, who is to blame if the majority leave school with morals that alarm those interested? Go through the list of "bad boys" in your school or your town! Classify their offenses. Is immorality or unmorality responsible? If the latter, what share of the blame for this condition belongs to the school? Why consider a boy hopeless or degenerate because he commits a moral offense? Do we consider him intellectually hopeless or defective because of his errors in spelling or arithmetic? Julia Richman, "Proceedings of  the National Education Association," 

• The Unmoral Christian Revisited by Fr. Stephen Freeman
• "No Stumbling Blocks Through Christian Love"
• The Spiritual Foundation of Morality
• Experience Victory Over Sexual Immorality by Joseph Prince

Badges

       Everywhere on the streets one meets men, from the gray-haired veteran to the half-developed beau, all parading on breast or coat lapel some distinctive mark of membership in some association. There are medals with ribbons, medals without ribbons, and ribbons without medals. There are buttons; big buttons and little buttons; silk buttons and metal buttons. There are pins, gold and silver and plated; every imaginable kind of pin. And these are worn by ladies and misses of all rank and quality, down to the little silver cross of the King's Daughters, so familiar everywhere. Nobody seems ashamed to own membership in these various societies and alliances. Men parade the streets under banners and flags, with uniforms, and distinctive feathers in their caps, and are not ashamed to acknowledge their favorite organizations. And yet there are many persons who seem to be ashamed to own their Lord and to confess His cause. The Mid-Continent.

• Badges of Honor
• Are only a few people going to be saved? 

Background Of Light

There is often great advantage in a position of obscurity from which to look out on the world. The lace-weavers of Nottingham founded a great industry in caves, as described below:

       This great (lace) industry here began in this way: There is, or was, originally, a long, high bank of very soft sandstone on the north bank of the river Trent, pointing to the sun. In this soft sandstone the early Britons dug caves. They dug them deep and wide and wonderful in construction. It is said that even now the city of caves under the ground is almost as large as the broad and populous city on top of the ground. In case of invasion or conquest these cave-dwellers would retreat underground and defy pursuit. It is the boast of the people of Nottingham that their ancestors were never really conquered by any one. The weaving of laces came about here in this way: The half or wholly savage women sitting at the mouths of these caves and holding their threads against the sun with the darkness behind them could see the fine threads better, and so could do finer and better work than any other women in western Europe. And their immunity from conquest and consequent interruption in their peculiar industry fastened it here and kept it well forward.  Joaquin Miller, The Independent.

• Moving From Spectator to Owner by Billy Lowe 

Byzantine Saints

Description of Illustration: Eastern Orthodox, Saints, halos, watercolor, crosses, copy of Byzantine paintings

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Lantern Banner for Retreats

Description of Illustration: text, "By the Light of the Lantern, Ask us what you want to know", black and white clip art, simple drawing of a lantern

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Acquaintances

   If we could prove by statistics the number of acquaintances a man had fifty years ago, and those which the modern man has, the difference would be enormous. The tendency is everywhere to enlarge one's circle  ambitious people with discernment, but the foolish, blindly, without any interest  or inclination to guide them. I once heard a woman announce with pride, "I have 2,000 visits to make this winter." She flaunted this fact before her less favored friends, who had only 1,000 names on their visiting lists. Could there be anything more futile than this thirst for increasing one's bowing acquaintances? What useless ballast are these interminable lists, in which no place is left for  an hour's intelligent or affectionate discussion. The habit of going from drawing-room to drawing-room gives certain persons a style in conversation that is as flat as a well-drest stone, not one spontaneous word in it, not an angle, not a defined form! Dora Melegari, "Makers of Sorrow and Makers of Joy." 

So, it appears as though there has always been some version or another of twitter feeds or facebook friends? (grin)

• Assessing True Friendship 

Acknowledgment

       Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, was kind and courteous to his army, both to officers and soldiers. He shared the toils and hardships of those who were under his command. He gave them, too, their share of the glory which he acquired, by attributing his success to their courage and fidelity. At one time, after some brilliant campaign in Macedonia, some persons in his army compared his progress to the flight of an eagle. "If I am an eagle," replied Pyrrhus, "I owe it to you, for you are the wings by means of which I have risen so high."

• Body of Christ
• The Church
• The Eagle Analogy and Our Christian Walk
• The Bride of Christ
• The Grace of God In Courtesy
  

Achievement

The Denver Republican recently contained this brief account of a farmer working heroically on a one-man railroad, and remarked that it is typical of the individual spirit that has achieved great things in the West:

       The story of the Kansas farmer, who, with a scraper and a pair of mules, is building a fifty-mile railroad, would indicate that the supply of courageous men is not entirely exhausted.

       The farmer who is tackling this tremendous job alone and who is serenely indifferent to all the jeers of his neighbors, scorned to admit defeat when he could not interest any one with capital in the road which he deemed necessary. He went to work with such material as he had at hand and,  somehow, even without seeing the man or knowing aught of his project, one can not help sharing the farmer's belief that he is to "carry the thing through." 

• The Discipline of Spiritual Tenacity
• The Tenacity of the Canaanite Woman?
  

Accusation Insufficient

       When Numerius, governor of the Narbonnoise Gaul, was impeached for plunder of his province, he defended himself, and denied the charge and explained it away so skilfully that he baffled his accusers. A famous lawyer thereupon exclaimed, "Caesar, who will ever be found guilty, if it is sufficient for a man to deny the charge?" To which Julian retorted, "But who will appear innocent, if a bare accusation is sufficient?" (Text.)

• 3 Ways to Respond When Slandered 
• Lay Aside the Weight of Slander
• To Tell the Truth
• The Blasphemous Sin of Defaming Others

Accomplishment

       Among the influential public men who were wild in their unreasonable prejudice against Grant and cried aloud for his dismissal, was Col. Alexander K. McClure, of Philadelphia. He could not see how the President could sustain himself if he persisted in retaining Grant. So he went to Washington to counsel with Mr. Lincoln, and urge him in the name of the people to remove Grant without delay. I will let the Colonel tell in his own way the result of his visit to the President:

"I appealed to Lincoln for his own sake to remove Grant at once, and in giving my reasons for it I simply voiced the admittedly overwhelming protest from the loyal people of the land against Grant's continuance in command. . . . When I had said everything that could be said from my standpoint, we lapsed into silence. Lincoln remained silent for what seemed a very long time. He then gathered himself up in his chair and said in a tone of earnestness that I shall never forget: "I can't spare this man; he fights." That was all he said, but I knew that it was enough, and that Grant was safe in Lincoln's hands against the countless hosts of enemies." Col. Nicholas Smith, Grant, the Man of Mystery.

• Love & Obedience
• The Best Proof of True Love for Christ
• The Connection Between Obedience And Love
• The Expedience of Obedience
  

Mental Absorption

       The anecdote is a familiar one in the history of painting, of the artist employed upon the frescoes of a dome, who stept back to see from a better point of view the work which he had done, and became so absorbed in comparing the scenes which he had depicted with the forming idea as it lay in his mind, that still proceeding backward he had reached the edge of the lofty scaffolding, when a pupil, observing his instant peril, and afraid even to shout to him, rushed forward and marred the figures with his trowel, so calling back and saving the master. The mind, engrossed in its own operation, had forgotten the body, and was treating it as carelessly as the boy treats the chip which he tosses on the wave. Richard S. Storrs.

• The Heart's Self-Absorption 

Absent-Mindedness

       A Canadian farmer, noted for his absent-mindedness, went to town one day and transacted his business with the utmost precision. He started on his way home, however, with the firm conviction that he had forgotten something, but what it was he could not recall. As he neared home, the conviction increased, and three times he stopt his horse and went carefully through his pocketbook in a vain endeavor to discover what he had forgotten. In due course he reached home and was met by his daughter, who looked at him in surprise and exclaimed, "Why, father, where have you left mother?" Leslie's Weekly.

• Forgetting God by Benjamin Shaw
• The Deadly Problem of Forgetfulness by Tom Ascol
• 10 things that can distract us from God by Colton Jansen

Useless Ability

Plutarch says that a traveler at Sparta, standing long upon one leg, said to a Lacedaemonian, "I do not believe you can do as much." "True," said he, "but a goose can."

There are many who have abilities to do greater things who are content to boast of some accomplishment as useless as standing on one leg.

• Boasting in Man Is Doubly Excluded

Abdication

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." If men who are obscure and quiet and tempted to envy the glory of kings they might profitably meditate on the speech that Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Richard II while he abandons his crown:

I give this heavy weight from off my head

And this unwieldy scepter from my hand,

The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;

With mine own tears I wash away my value,

With mine own hands I give away my

crown.

With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,

With mine own breath release all duteous

oaths.

• The Cradle, the Cross and the Crown
• The Crown Of Life
• Crown Him With Many Crowns
  

Flagellation of Christ

Description of Illustrations: illustration, black and whites, Season of Lent, whips, two different illustrations

       The Flagellation of Christ, sometimes known as Christ at the Column or the Scourging at the Pillar, is a scene from the Passion of Christ very frequently shown in Christian art, in cycles of the Passion or the larger subject of the Life of Christ. It is the fourth station of the modern alternate Stations of the Cross, and a Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary. The column to which Christ is normally tied, and the rope, scourge, whip or birch are elements in the Arma Christi. The Basilica di Santa Prassede in Rome, claimed to possess the original column.

       Flagellation at the hands of the Romans is mentioned in three of the four canonical Gospels: John 19:1, Mark 15:15, and Matthew 27:26, and was the usual prelude to crucifixion under Roman law. None of three accounts are more detailed than John's "Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged" (NIV). Luke's comparable account, Luke 22:63-65 is of the High Priest's guards beating and mocking Jesus. In the Passion of Christ the episode precedes the Mocking of Christ and the Crowning with thorns, which the Gospels happened at the same time or immediately after. Unlike the flogging, these were not part of the normal Roman judicial process.

 

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Real strength is in the Lord...

"The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the
everlasting arms." Deuteronomy 33:27

Description of Illustration: strength in scripture, elderly and fragile, strength from God is true strength, portrait of an elderly woman, knowing gaze, black and white illustration

"Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your
strength." Nehemiah 8:10

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The Faithful

Description of Illustration: illustration, greyscale, congregation, pews, singing hymns, families, carved wood, umbrellas, hymnals, 

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Under the cover of darkness...

"Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them."
Ephesians 5:11 (ESV)

Description of Illustration: evil in the night, murderers, men with guns, masked men come to kill, hanging from a tree, victims of evil men, horses, forest, dark and dusty road, black and white illustration, white text

"in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience..."
 Ephesians 2:2 (ESV)

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The Trombone Player

Description of Illustration: big brass trombone, music, musician, craftsman, apron, black and white

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"The tables are turned"

Description of Illustration: cat cookie and mouse, black and white, idiom meaning the reverse of fortune, the rat or mouse now chases or eats the cat

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Antique Sacred Heart Scraps

 Description of the illustration: Jesus and Mary, halos, flaming hearts, angels, columns, rose buds, Victorian scraps

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Six rules for making good coffee...

Description of the illustration: chalkboard graphic, steps for making great coffee, black board, chalk paint, writing with chalk, green and black versions

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Scriptures About Lepers

"Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate;
and they said to one another, "Why do we sit here until we die?" 2 Kings 7:3

Description of Illustration: lepers, leprous, skin disease, unclean, drawing of lepers in stained glass design, skin affliction, lepers in Bible times, transparent background

Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae or Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Initially, infections are without symptoms and typically remain this way for 5 to 20 years. Symptoms that develop include granulomas of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This may result in a lack of ability to feel pain, thus loss of parts of extremities due to repeated injuries or infection due to unnoticed wounds. Weakness and poor eyesight may also be present. Read more...

"In all cases involving serious skin diseases, be careful to follow the instructions
 of the Levitical priests; obey all the commands I have given them. Remember
what the LORD your God did to Miraim as you were coming from Egypt."
Deuteronomy 23: 8-9

"The LORD furthermore said to him, "Now put your hand into your bosom."
So he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his
hand was leprous like snow. The He said, "Put your hand into your bosom
again." So he put his hand into his bosom again, and when he took it out of
 his bosom, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh." Exodus 4: 6-7

"The man is afflicted with a serious skin disease; he is unclean.
The priest must pronounce him unclean; the infection is on his head."
Leviticus 13:44

"As He entered one of the villages, He was met by ten lepers.
They stood at a distance..." Luke 17:12

"A man suffering from a dreaded skin disease came to Jesus, knelt down,
and begged him for help. "if you want to," he said, "you can make me clean."
Jesus was filled with pity, and reached out and touched him. "I do want to,"
he answered. "Be Clean! Mark 1: 40-41

And Yeshua said to him, "Take heed that you speak to no one, but
go shew yourself to the priest and bring a gift as Moses
commanded for their testimony." Matthew 8:4

"Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest
shall say unto the woman, The LORD make thee a curse and an oath among
thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly
to swell;" Numbers 5:21

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About lepers in modern culture.

Christ Bleeds for The World

Description of Illustration: illustration of Jesus, planet Earth, Sacred Heart, bleeding heart, halo, black and white

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Orthodox Trinity Portrait

Description of Illustration:  Jesus makes the sign of the Holy Trinity, He holds an open Bible with the letters symbolic for Alpha Omega, Greek text, halo, Trinity symbolism, Beginning and Ending, God The Father, God The Son, God The Holy Spirit, transparent background, Eastern Orthodox portrait of the Trinity. the blessing of the Trinity in the hand

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Passion Flowers and The Cross

 

Description of Illustration: scripture text from Galatians, "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Galatians 6:14, purple Passion Flowers, white cross, black background, two versions, one with text and one without

 

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A Cherubim Presents a Dramatic Persformance

Description of the illustration: Greyscale, hand drawn with a pencil, Greek theatre masks, happy and sad expressions, for a performance at your church, church theater, one version with a box for personalizing the performance and one without, add your own text or the name of your play within the box above.

 

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A hand adds things up...

 

Description of Illustration: black and white illustration of hand tabulating or calculating, adding things up, writing down numbers

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Elegant Blue Twilled Paper

Artist: restored, recolored, resized by the staff
 
Directions: Click directly on the image to download the largest available size.