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.

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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

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."

A Little Missionary

 "I can not afford it," said John Hale, the rich farmer, when asked to give to the cause of missions.
       Harry, his wide-awake grandson, was grieved and indignant.
       "But the poor heathen," he replied; "is it not too bad they can not have churches and schoolhouses and books?"
       "What do you know about the heathen?" exclaimed the old man testily. "Do you wish me to give away my hard earnings? I tell you, I can not afford it."
       But Harry was well posted in missionary intelligence, and day after day puzzled his curly head with plans for extracting money for the noble cause from his unwilling relative. At last, seizing an opportunity when his grandfather was in a good humor over the election news, he said: "Grandfather, if you do not feel able to give money to the missionary board, will you give a potato?"
       "A potato?" ejaculated Mr. Hale, looking up from his paper.
       "Yes, sir; and land enough to plant it in, and what it produces for four years?"
       "Oh, yes!" replied the unsuspecting grandparent, settling his glasses on his calculating nose in such a way that showed he was glad to escape on such cheap terms from the lad's persecution.
       Harry planted the potato, and it rewarded him the first year by producing nine; these, the following season, became a peck; the next, seven and a half bushels, and when the fourth harvest came, lo, the potato had increased to seventy bushels. And, when sold, the amount realized was put with a glad heart into the treasury of the Lord. Even the aged farmer exclaimed: "Why, I did not feel that donation in the least ! And, Harry, I've been thinking that if there were a little missionary like you in every house, and each one got a potato, or something else as productive, for the cause, there would be quite a large sum gathered." Friend for Boys and Girls. 

  "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand." Zechariah 4:10

Parasitism

       Some of the intruding insects that come from oak galls are not harmless. They are the ones called parasites. They live in the houses not for the sake of the protection or the food furnished by the house, but in order to eat the actual dwellers in the house. Often and often not a single real gall-insect comes out in the spring from many of the little houses, but only a little swarm, or sometimes just two or three, or even one, of these insect-devouring parasites that has eaten up the rightful owners of the house. Vernon L. Kellogg, "Insect Stories."

Manisfestation

         ''Just as creation is the revelation of God, his avowal, as a poet has said; so in the same way the external life of man, when it follows its normal development, is the translation, in signs and symbols, of what he bears at the bottom of his being. It would be easier to keep the sap from mounting, the flowers from opening, the leaves from tearing apart their coverings, than human nature from manifesting itself. It is this need that gives man his distinction as a social and communicative being.'' Charles Wagner

Christian Fellowship

       In the New York City aquarium long ago there was what was called a "happy family." In a wooden box, the bottom of which is covered with sand, there are a number of fiddler-crabs from local waters, a dozen or more climbing crabs or land-hermits from St. Kitts, and a small diamond-backed terrapin from Georgia. Although these little creatures live together happily, they were each fed on different food, and their habits and nature were by no means the same.
       The distinguishing characteristic of the Christian Church is that, though men and women are gathered from every kind of sinful past, they are transformed in their spirit by the grace of God, so that they feed upon the same spiritual food and are one in their love for Christ, who, as Paul says, "hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." 

"And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.'' Acts 2:42

The Poorest Offerings

       In the middle of the summer season tails of sick cattle are principal native offerings at Saint Herbot, a small parish not far from Paris, France. The annual cattle fair brings together a great number of dealers from all parts of Brittany. Business goes on from early morning until three o'clock in the afternoon, when every one adjourns to the church and joins in the service, at which the benediction of heaven on the worshipers' heads is implored. The custom is for the breeders to cut off the tails of sick animals and lay the tails on the altar, the idea being that this ceremony will restore the sick animals to health. The tails are afterward sold and considerable money realized from the sale.

       Many people are just this way toward God. The poorest products of their life they give to God, and make themselves believe that is giving. To give the tailings of the threshing floor is to give chaff. To give the tailings of the reduction mill is to give the low-grade ore. To give the tail ends of anything is to give the poorest.

The Last Days of Autumn

 THE LAST DAYS OF AUTUMN.

Sir Walter Scott.

Autumn departs — but still his mantle's fold

Rests on the groves of noble Somerville,

Beneath a shroud of russet dropp'd with gold,

Tweed and his tributaries mingle still;

Hoarser the wind, and deeper sounds the rill,

Yet lingering notes of sylvan music swell,

The deep-toned cushat, and the redbreast shrill;

And yet some tints of summer splendor tell

When the broad sun sinks down on Ettrick's western

fell.

Autumn departs — from Gala's fields no more

Come rural sounds our kindred banks to cheer;

Blent with the stream, and gale that wafts it o'er,

No more the distant reaper's mirth we hear.

The last blithe shout hath died upon our ear,

And harvest home hath hush'd the clanging wain,

On the waste hill no forms of life appear,

Save where sad laggard of the autumnal train,

Some age-struck wanderer gleans few ears of scat-

tered grain.

Deem'st thou these sadden'd scenes have pleasure

still,

Lovest thou through Autumn's fading realms to

stray,

To see the heath-flower wither'd on the hill,

To listen to the wood's expiring lay,

To note the red leaf shivering on the spray,

To mark the last bright tints the mountain stain,

On the waste fields to trace the gleaner's way,

And moralize on mortal joy and pain? —

Oh ! if such scenes thou lov'st, scorn not the minstrel

strain!

Parasites

Society has too many members who are willing to live on the labor of others, like the shoveler duck described in this extract:

       One of the ducks has learned a convenient trick for getting his dinner. Some of the diving brotherhood who feed under water stir up a great deal that floats, and the shoveler, preferring to take his provision from
the surface, follows his diving neighbor to the feeding-place, and while the feeders below stir up the inhabitants, he swims around on the surface and catches whatever floats. Olive Thorne Miller, 'The Bird Our Brother."

Defenting The Weak

         A young lady went out with a little girl eight years old for a walk in the mountains in Pennsylvania. Becoming weary, she seated herself and beguiled the time by reading. The child was playing near. Suddenly the woman was startled by an agonized cry, and was horrified to see an eagle trying to carry the child away. She went to the rescue. When the fierce bird saw her it left the child, and with a swoop came down with terrific force on her shoulders. Then began a desperate struggle. The girl tried to drive the eagle away. As often as it was beaten off it would return with a swoop, tearing her clothes. When almost exhausted she succeeded in getting a tight hold of the eagle's head. This proved her salvation, for the eagle, in its struggle to get free, broke its neck. Covered with blood, she led the child, which was but little hurt, and dragged the eagle a mile to her home.
       If we are to share the sufferings of our Savior, we must stand ready to defend the weak and the tempted from the fierce birds of prey that swoop down upon them in this wicked world. Every day we come in contact with those who are being torn and wounded by the cruel talons of sin. To go to their rescue, and bare our shoulders to their danger, and conquer their enemies in Christ's strength, is our blessed privilege.

        If we share with Christ in suffering, we shall also share with Him in victory. "Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.'' Romans 8:17-18

The Principles of Affluence

         The structural provisions of the living organism are not built on the principle of economy. On the contrary, the super-abundance of tissues and mechanisms indicates clearly that safety is the goal of the animal organism. We may safely state that the living animal organism is provided in its structures with factors of safety at least as abundantly as any human-made machine.
       The moral drawn from these facts is that to govern the supply of tissue and energy by means of food, nature indicates for us the same principle of affluence which controls the entire construction of the animal for the safety of its life and the perpetuation of its species. In other words, we should eat not just enough to preserve life, but a good deal more. In such cases safety is more important than economy. 

 

''But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.''' Mathew 4:4

Mystery In Nature

 What determines which queen shall leave the hive with the swarm? What determines which five thousand out of fifteen thousand worker bees, all apparently similarly stimulated and excited, shall swarm out, and which ten thousand shall stay in? These are questions too hard for us to answer. We may take refuge in Maeterlinck's poetical conception of the "spirit of the hive." Let us say that the "spirit of the hive" decides these things; as well as what workers shall forage and what ones clean house; what bees shall ventilate and what make wax and build comb. Which is simply to say that we don't know what decides all these things.  - Vernon L. Kellogg, "Insect Stories."

What Does "God's Image" Mean?

       In discussing spiritual things, to be right, no one can' go beyond the word of Scripture. The Bible tells us that God gave to man a living soul. In this sense he was in the image of his Maker in his dispositions, temperament and desires, and in his obedience to the divine will; but this condition was forfeited through sin. It could only be said thereafter of those who walked uprightly before God and were inspired of him, that they were "his offspring." (Matt. 13:38; Mark 7:10. See John 12:36; Acts 13:10; Col. 3:6.) Jesus himself drew the distinction when he told the wicked scribes and Pharisees that they were the children of the evil one, and this is the actual condition of every one living in sin, unrepentant and unforgiven. Thus while in his perfect condition man was like his Maker, in a condition of sin he is no longer so, nor has he any of the spiritual attributes and qualities that belong to the perfect condition, or even of the pardoned sinner, who has the hope through Christ of reconciliation and restoration. The Bible nowhere declares that man is of himself and inherently immortal. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." When sin entered, then came physical decay and death; man's first condition was lost and with the continuance of sin, and unrepentant and unforgiven, he also forfeited spiritual immortality. Eternal life is the gift of God. Paul declares that Jesus, through .his Gospel, brought life and immortality to light for fallen man and showed the path to restoration through repentance, forgiveness and acceptance.

Paradox

         Nature is full of paradoxes. The water which drowns us as a fluent stream can be  walked upon as ice. The bullet which, when fired from a musket, carries death, will be harmless if ground to dust before being fired. The crystallized part of the oil of roses, so graceful in its fragrance - a solid at ordinary temperatures, tho readily volatile - is a compound substance, containing exactly the same elements and exactly the same proportions as the gas with which we light the streets. The tea which we daily drink with benefit and pleasure produces palpitation, nervous tremblings, and even paralysis if taken in excess; yet the peculiar organic agent called "thein," to which tea owes its quality, may be taken by itself (as thein, not as tea) without any appreciable effect. - Vyrnwy Morgan 

 Joseph Hart, the hymnist, wrote "The
Paradox," as follows:

How strange is the course that a Christian
must steer!
How perplexed is the path he must tread!
The hope of his happiness rises from fear,
And his life he receives from the dead.

His fairest pretensions must wholly be
waived,
And his best resolutions be crossed;
Nor can he expect to be perfectly saved.
Till he finds himself utterly lost.

When all this is done, and his heart is assured
Of the total remission of sins;
When his pardon is signed, and his peace is
procured,
From that moment his conflict begins.

The Real Best Seller

       The Bible is today more widely read than ever. Last year Bible societies printed and circulated 11,378,854 Bibles. More Bibles were sold than any other hundred books together. It is now printed in four hundred languages. China alone last year bought 428,000 Bibles. Last year's Bible output of the British and Foreign Bible Society was 6,620,024 copies. In the 106 years of its existence that society has issued 220,000,000 copies of the Scriptures and its annual output is steadily rising, last year's being 685,000 copies in excess of the year preceding. Of what other book could anything like this be said? If you pile in a single pyramid all the copies of the Koran since Mahomet's day till now, with all the copies of the Scandinavian Eddas, the Hindu Vedas, the Persian Zend-Avesta, the Buddhist Tripitakas and the Chinese Five Kings, and add to the pile the hundred other most famous books the world has ever known, including the best sellers of all ages, the pyramid, contrasted with the thousands of millions of copies of the Bible, would be as an ant-heap to Mount Everest. Christian Herald, 1912.

The Ideal Pastor

The Ideal Pastor by Bishop Hare

Give me the pastor whose graces shall
possess
Of an ambassador the just address;
A father's tenderness, a shepherd's care,
A leader's courage, which the cross can
bear;
A ruler's awe, a watchman's wakeful eye,
A fisher's patience, and a laborer's toil;
A guide's dexterity to disembroil;
A prophet's inspiration from above;
A teacher's knowledge, and a Savior's
love.

Key Bible passages for adults to memorize...

1. The Divine Word - - - - - John 1 : 1-18
2. The New Birth ------ John 3 : 1-21
3. Penitence and Pardon - - - Psalm 51
4. A Psalm of Trust ----- Psalm 91
5. A Prophet's Call Hosea 14
6. Some Laws of the Kingdom - Matt. 6 : 19-34
7. Comfort and the Comforter - John 14 : 1-17
8. A Model Church ----- Acts 2 : 41-47
9. The Lord's Supper - - - - 1 Cor. 11: 23-28
10. The Old and the New - - - Heb. 9 : 1-28
11. The Mind of Christ - - - - Philippians. 2:5-11
12. Secure in God's Love - - - Romans. 8 : 26-39 
13. ''Them that are Asleep " - 1 Thess. 4 : 13-18
14. The Last Day ------ Matt. 25 : 31-46

Midnight in Prison at Philippi

Description of Illustration: two followers of Christ sit in prison, never alone in the dark, chains and cold darkness, the light inside of enlightened men, scriptural reference from Book of Acts 16:25-40, Paul and Silas singing praises to God in the dark, just before the earthquake

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God-Consciousness Of The Bible

       The first thing which impresses the student of the Bible is what may be called the God-consciousness of its writers. As, on a beautiful day in spring, hills and valleys, fields and forests all lie bathed in the sunshine, so all parts of the Bible are bathed in this sense of the divine presence. On that beautiful spring day there may be a few places where shadows fall, so there may be places in the Bible where this divine presence may seem to be wanting. But this consciousness of the divine is certainly one of the dominant characteristics of the Bible. It opens with the significant words, ''In the beginning, God,'' and it closes with an eager, expectant, upward look, coupled with a gracious benediction. Its historical portions are the record, mainly, of a people who believed - that they were under the peculiar care of Jehovah and that He was working out His will through them. Its poetry breathes a lofty spirit of reverence and worship, and is charged with a powerful sense of the overshadowings of the Almighty. Its prophets came to the people burdened with the awful sense of a message from Jehovah, and their utterances abound with expressions showing their responsibility as bearers of such messages. The law, moral and ceremonial, rests upon a ''Thus saith the Lord,'' and every ministration of priest and Levite was calculated to direct the thought of the people to God.'' John Wesley Conley, D.D., in The Bible in Modern Light

Spirit of The Bible Inspired

       There are many texts cited in the New Testament from the Septuagint, where it differeth from the Hebrew; wherein it is utterly uncertain to us whether Christ and His apostles intended to justify absolutely the translation which they used, or only to make use of it as that which then was known and used for the sake of the sense which it contained. If they absolutely justify it, they seem to condemn the Hebrew, so far as it differeth. If not, why do they use it, and never blame it? It seemeth that Christ would hereby tell us, that the sense is the gold, and the words but as the purse; and we need not be over-curious about them, so we have the sense. Bazter, 1615-1691.