Memorial Day

Courtesy of Student News Daily

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Persevero,

"The Gods of the Copybook Headings"

"During the 19th century, students were required to learn and memorize important truths by writing them down as axioms in copy books. In "The Gods in the Copybook Headings," Kipling reveals the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of those who view progress as a constant evolutionary process of finding new trendy philosphies by which to live. In the final analysis, the historic truths of Christianity will vanquish the platitudes of modernity."

Douglas W. Phillips, Poems for Patriarchs

-----------------------------
As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market-Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
~
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
~
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market-Place;
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
~
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch.
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch.
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings.
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market-Place Who promised these beautiful things.
~
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes should cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."
~
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbor and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."
~
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing collective Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."
~
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four -
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
~
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man -
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began: -
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt fool's bandaged finger goes wobbling back to the fire;
~
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return.

Rudyard Kipling

* * *
Persevero,

Basic Christianity - Chapter 6 "The Consequences of Sin"

In the last chapter of John Stott's Basic Christianity, we examined the reality, nature, and universality of human sin. In chapter 6, we will look at yet aspect of sin: it's consequences. Stott remarks, "We should like to leave this distasteful subject and pass on immediately to the good news of Christ's salvation, but we are not yet ready to do so. We need to grasp what the results of sin are before we can appreciate what God has done for us..."

~

Is sin really such a serious thing? It's devastating consquences can be best understood when its effects are seen on God, on ourselves and on our fellow men.

~

I. Alienation from God. "... the most terrible result of sin is that it cuts us off from God." Man is different from other creatures in that he was made in the image and God; he was given a soul, and is thus capable of knowing God and having a personal relationship with Him. Yet this God is a righteous Being, infinte in His moral perfection. Scripture lays much significance on this truth (Deuteronomy 4:24; Isaiah 33:14; 57:15; Habakkuk 1:13; 1 Timothy 6:15-16; Hebrews 12:29; 1 John 1:5-6)

~

Further, all those men of God in the Bible who caught a glimpse of God's glory shrank from the spectacle in an overpowering consciousness of their own sinfulness. Consider Moses, when God appeared to him in the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-6); Job, to whom God spoke "out of the whirlwind" (Job 42:5-6); Isaiah, who had a vision of God as the King of Israel, surrounded by worshipping angels who sang of his glory and holiness (Isaiah 6:1-5); Ezekiel, who had a vision of God enthroned and enveloped in the brightness of fire and of the rainbow (Ezekiel 1:26-28); Saul of Tarsus, who, as he rode to Damascus, encountered the risen Jesus Christ, and was struck to the ground and blinded by a brilliant light that shone brighter than the noonday sun (Acts 9:1-9); the aged John, exiled on Patmos, who saw a vision of the risen and glorified Christ, whose "eyes were like a flaming fire" and whose "face was like the sun shining in full strength" (Revelation 1:9-17). ~

"If that curtain which veils the unspeakable majesty of God could be drawn aside but for a moment," says Stott, "we too should not be able to bear the sight. As it is, we only dimly perceive how pure and brilliant must be the glory of Almighty God. However, we know enough to realize that sinful man while still in his sins can never approach this holy God. A great chasm yawns between God in His righteousness and man in his sin. 'What partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? asks Paul... Sin inevitably brings separation, and this separation is 'death', spiritual death the severence of a person from the person of God, the only source of true life. 'The wages of sin is death.'" 

~

Another thing to consider is this: if a person deliberately rejects Jesus Christ - who is the only one through whom we may find eternal life - he will spend eternity in hell. Hell is real: dreadfully and grimly real. Let no man say otherwise. Jesus Himself spoke of it. He called it the 'outer darkness' because it is just that: infinite and eternal separation from God, who is light. In the Bible, Hell is also called 'the second death' and 'the lake of fire', terms which describe symbolically the forfeiture of eternal life and the horrifying thirst of the soul which are "involved in irrevocable banishment from God's presence". 

~

Until our sins are forgiven, we have no communion with the Almighty. We are 'lost' or 'dead' in the trespasses and sins we have committed. (Ephesians 2:1) We are exiles. Augustine spoke rightly when he said, "Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee."

~

II. Bondage to Self. Sin not only estranges; it brings into captivity. It separates us from God and also enslaves us. Stott says, "We need now to consider the 'inwardness of sin'. It is more than an unfortuante outward act or habit; it is a deep-seated inward corruption. In fact, the sins we commit are merely outward and visible manifestations of this inward and invisible malady, the symptoms of a moral disease."

~

Many times in the New Testament, we are described as 'slaves'. We may resent it, but it is the truth. Jesus emphatically stated that anyone who commits sin "is a slave to sin." Several times in his Epistles, the Apostle Paul describes the humiliating servitude into which sin brings us (Romans 6:17; Ephesians 2:3; Titus 3:3).

~

We are in bondage - a deep, dark bondage from which we cannot free ourselves. We may have high ideals; we may want to live a good life. But we are chained down to our self-centeredness. We cannot do anything of ourselves. As Studdert Kennedy wrote,

"It is not finished, Lord,

There is not one thing done,

There is no battle of my life

That I have really won.

And now I come to tell Thee

How I fought to fail,

My human, all to human, tale

Of weakness and futility."

   ~  

"It is no use," Stott observes, "giving us rules of conduct; we cannot keep them. Let God go on saying 'Thou shalt not', yet we shall to the end of time. A lecture will not solve our problem; we need a Saviour. The education of the mind is not enough without a change of the heart."

~

III. Conflict with Others. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus summarizes the duty of man in these words: "You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

~

Stott says, "It is important to observe that the first commandment concerns our duty to God, and not our duty to our neighbor. We are to love God first; and then we are to love our neighbor next, as ourselves. So God's order is that we put Him first, others next, self last. Sin is the reversal of that order. It is to put ourselves first, our neighbor next, and God somewhere in the background." Archbishop William Temple describes it this way:

"I am the center of the world I see; where the horizon is depends on where I stand... Education may make my self-centerdness less disasterous by widening by horizon of interest; so far it is like climbing a tower, which widens the horizon for physical vision, while leaving me still the center and standard of reference."

~

Imagine how many quarrels and arguments might be avoided if only this self-centeredness were eliminated. We find it easier to be stubborn and fight than to listen and submit. We would rather strike back than turn the other cheek. James puts it well when he asks, "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?" (James 4:1). Man is a self-centered creature, and this self-centeredness continually leads him into conflict with others. 

~

In conclusion, Stott says, "What man needs is a radical change of nature, what Professor H.M. Gwatkin has called 'a change from self to unself'. Man cannot work it within himself. He cannot operate on himself. Again, he needs a Saviour." Jesus Christ is that Saviour. It is in Him that we must put our faith. But "faith is born of need. We shall never put our trust in Christ until we have first despaired of ourselves."

* * *

Persevero,

Bringing a Lawsuit Against a Law You Haven't Read

"Arizona has enacted a new law cracking down on illegal immigrants in response to a dramatic rise in violence along the Arizona-Mexico border. The new law authorizes law enforcement officers to arrest anyone reasonably suspected of being an illegal immigrant. Under the new law, state and local law enforcement officers are authorized to determine during lawful stops the immigration status of people for whom there is "reasonable suspicion" that they are in the country illegally. Reasonable suspicion is a legal standard requiring that before someone is arrested or detained there must be reasonable belief that the person has been, is or is about to be engaged in criminal activity."

Student News Daily

On Sunday, May 9 on NBC's "Meet the Press", Attorney General Eric Holder called for a federal lawsuit against Arizona's recently passed illegal immigration law (a law which is supported by 60% of Arizona voters). Then, on Thursday, May 13, Holder "told...the House Judiciary Committee the following about his knowledge of Arizona's recently passed immigration law-enforcement measure:

'...I've glanced at it. I have not read it.'

'...I have not been briefed yet.'

'... I've only made, made the comments that I've made on the basis of things that I've been able to glean by reading newspaper accounts, obviously, looking at television, talking to people who are on the review panel, on the review team that are looking at the law.'"

~

I'm going to bed. Wake me up when it's over. We have way too many morons in high places. 

~

"Holder Profiles Arizona -- Isn't that really what the Attorney General is doing?

He hasn't read the Arizona immigration law, even though reading the law is the basic duty of any lawyer (let alone the U.S. Attorney General) who is called on to assess a legal situation.

Thus, he hasn't got reasonable suspicion that Arizonans are violating the Constitution, even though reasonable suspicion is the basic investigative standard we expect law-enforcement to satisfy before officials harass Americans with stepped up scrutiny.

And we know he has a bias because he told us, unabashedly, that he thinks Americans are "cowards" on matters of race.

Think about it this way: If a police officer, without taking elementary investigative steps to inform himself about the facts of a situation, and thus without reasonable suspicion, simply assumed a person must be guilty of wrongdoing based on the police officer's avowed prejudice, what would Eric Holder call it?"

Andy McCarthy @ nationalreview.com

~

Watch this video of the Attorney General admitting that he hasn't read Arizona's law (first 1:30)

* * *

Persevero,

From C.H. Spurgeon...

O Bible! it cannot be said of any other book, that it is perfect and pure; but in thee we can declare all wisdom is gathered up in thee, without a particle of folly. This is the judge that ends all strife, where wit and reason fail. This is the book untainted by any error; but is pure, unallowed, perfect truth. Why? Because God wrote it. Ah! charge God with error if you please; tell Him that His book is not what it ought to be.

~

I have heard men, with prudish and mock-modesty, who would like to alter the Bible; and (I almost blush to say it) I have heard ministers alter God's Bible, because they are afraid of it. Have you never heard a man say, "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not" - what does the Bible say? - "Shall be damned." But that does not happen to be polite enough, so they say, "Shall be condemned." Gentlemen, pull the velvet out of your mouths; speak God's word; we want none of your alterations. I have heard men in prayer instead of saying, "Make your calling and election sure," say "Make your calling and salvation sure." Pity they were not born when God lived far, far back that they might have taught God how to write. Oh, impudence beyond bounds! Oh full-blown self-conceit! To attempt to dictate to the All-Wise - to teach the Omniscient and instruct the Eternal. Strange that there should be men so vile as to use the penknife of Jehoiakim to cut out passages of the word, because they are unpalatable.

~

O ye who dislike cretain portions of Holy Writ, rest assured that your taste is corrupt, and that God will not stay for your little opinion. Your dislike is the very reason God wrote it, because you ought not to be suited; you have no right to be pleased. God wrote what you do not like; He wrote the truth.

~ C.H. Spurgeon, Selected Sermons

* * *

Persevero,

Terrorist Training

Courtesy of Student News Daily

Created for Work ~ Ch. 20 "Sidestepping Discouragement"

"We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world."

~ Helen Keller

In this chapter, Schultz adresses one of the most successful strategies in the devil's playbook: discouragement. 

~

It's an undermining tool that's hard to beat for its simplicity and effectiveness. I imagine that if the devil were instructing one of his minions, he would say something like this: "My boy, if you want to defeat a Christian, all you have to do is get him to focus on himself instead of his God." That's the essence of discouragement. It's focusing on your own pathetic self instead of on Almighty God. And the consequence is debilitating. 

~

A Christian who constantly allows himself to be sucked into discouragement and then wallows in it will never do anything worth speaking of. He will never work the way God intends for him to work because he's too mindful of himself and too forgetful of Christ. He is allowing his selfish feelings to dictate what he will or will not do. His is a sorry state.

~

Discouragement is a thing all of us encounter it at one time or another. What matters is how we deal with it. Do we sidestep it, and go on to do what God has commanded us to do? Or do we give up, turn back, as Pliable did when he and Christian fell into the Slough of Despond? 

~

William Tyndale. John Calvin. Martin Luther. Ulrich Zwingli. These are the names of some of the greatest men of the Reformation. Can you imagine the amount of discouragement they faced? They were constantly threatened by death, prison, and all manner of ghastly persecutions. They were hated, scorned, and hunted down like beasts. Yet through all this, they persevered in the work God had given them. Imagine how history would have been affected if they had let discouragement get the better of them. 

~

Even though he was a brilliant composer, most of Scott Joplin's works were received with little or no enthusiasm. Ragtime music was considered by most people to be "lower class". Joplin became depressed and finally had a nervous breakdown from which he never recovered. In 1917, he was admitted to a mental hospital, where he died soon afterwards. Joplin met with discouragement and succumbed to it.

~

So how does one sidestep discouragement? Here's some practical advice from Schultz:

Work even when you don't feel like it. "A discouraged man doesn't have to stop living. He doesn't have to wait until he feels joyful to accomplish his work. When you are committed to a job that you don't feel like doing, do it anyway. Waiting until you feel like working promotes laziness, destroys your productivity, and clouds your mind."

Ignore the excuses. "The leaves in the yard need raking. It's your job. Your afternoon is free, but it's raining lightly. Everybody knows that human bodies don't melt when exposed to water. Still, some discouragement sneaks into your mind to announce, 'It's too wet to work outside.' Once allowed into your mind and permitted to stay, that one discouraging thought opens the door to his buddies who enter declaring, 'By all means work on any other day but not today!' Is your body able to do the job? Yes. Forget the phantoms in your mind and let your body at it! Get a coat. Slap on your hat. Walk straight for the rake and begin. Soon you'll be finished!"

Keep your eyes focused on God, not yourself. "God has not given us a spirit of fear to back down from work. He has given us a spirit of power and of a sound mind to do the tasks before us. A good worker can keep a clear mind by tackling his work, especially when he doesn't feel like it."

~

"So we built the wall; and all the wall was joined

unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work."

~ Nehemiah 4:6

* * *

Persevero,

4 Against 1

I took this photo while at the NMMM State Tomahawk & Knife Championship in April. Looks kinda dramatic, don't you think? That's Dad in the blue shirt. And it looks like he's about to tetch them yeller-bellied scoundrels a lesson. 4 agin 1? That's hardly fair... for the scoundrels, that is. I think I hear the theme to The Magnificent Seven playing in the background. Go easy on 'em, Dad.

* * *

Persevero,

The Life of John Donne

"Adopted into God's family, and so,

My old coat lost, into new Arms I go.

The Cross, my Seal in Baptism, spread below,

Does by that form into an Anchor grow.

Crosses grow Anchors, bear as thou shouldst do

Thy Cross, and that Cross grows an Anchor too.

But He that makes our Crosses Anchors thus,

Is Christ, who there is crucified for us.

Yet with this I may my first Serpents hold;

God gives new blessings, and yet leaves the old -

The Serpent, may, as wise, my pattern be;

My poison, as he feeds on dust, that's me.

And, and he rounds the earth to murder, sure

He is my death; but on the Cross, my cure,

Crucify nature then; and then implore

All grace from Him, crucified there before.

When all is Cross, and that Cross Anchor grown

This Seal's a Catechism, not a Seal alone.

Under that little Seal great gifts I send,

Both works and prayers, pawns and fruits of a friend.

Oh! may that Saint that rides on our Great Seal,

To you that bear His name, large bounty deal."

John Donne

When people think of Izaak Walton (1593-1683), they usually think of the man behind the The Compleat Angler, the classic treatise on angling and joys of the English countryside. However, The Compleat Angler is not Walton's only gift to the world of literature. He also authored several biographies. I recently finished his The Life of John Donne, and it was absolutely superb. I cannot recommend it too highly. Walton's style is eminently readable, and he creates an amazing portrait of one of the greatest stylists of the English language. (It is interesting to note here that both Herbert and Donne were great friends of Walton. In fact, they often went fishing with him)  

~

John Donne was born in London in 1573, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.  As a young man, he was at first drawn towards the wealth and extravagance of Renaissance life, and even sailed as a gentleman adventurer at the time of England's war with Spain in the 1590's. Not long after that, he accepted a position as secretary to Lord Ellesmere, the Keeper of the Great Seal. It was a position which he eventually lost when he secretly married Lady Ellesmere's niece. He then entered the ministry (despite misgivings of his own unworthiness), and was appointed dean of St. Paul's in London in 1621. He went on to become one of the most eloquent and well-known preachers of his day. Today, we remember him for the beautiful poetry he penned. (It is from Donne that we get the famous lines "No man is an Island, entire in itself" and "For whom does the bell toll? It tolls for thee") 

~

Donne's life was marked by sadness as well. In 1617, his wife died of exhaustion after bearing her twelfth child. She was only thirty-three, and had been her husband's faithful and ever-loving companion throughout their marriage. Her death impressed Donne with a greater sense of the fleeting nature of worldly happiness.

~

Fourteen years later, at the age of fifty-eight, Donne himself lay dying. Walton remarks, "His speech, which had long been his ready and faithful servant, left him not till the last minute of his life, and then forsook him, not to serve another master - for who speaks like him - but died before him; for that it was then become useless to him, that now conversed with God on earth, as the angels are said to do in heaven, only by thoughts and looks. Being speechless, and seeing heaven by that illumination by which he saw it, he did, as St. Stephen, 'look stead-fastly into it, till he saw the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God His Father;' and being satisfied with this blessed sight, as his soul ascended, and his last breath departed from him, he closed his eyes, and then disposed his hands and body in such a posture as required not the least alteration by those that came to shroud him... thus excellent, thus exemplary, was the death of this memorable man." 

~

John Donne was buried at St. Paul's Church. The day after his burial, an unknown friend wrote the following epitaph with coal on the wall over his grave:

Reader! I am to let thee know.

Donne's Body only lies below;

For, could the grave his Soul comprise,

Earth would be richer than the skies. 

~

At the conclusion of his narrative, Walton leaves us with these observations about Donne:

"He was of stature moderately tall; of a straight and equally-proportioned body, to which all his words and actions gave an unexpressable addition of comeliness.

"The melancholy and pleasant humour were in him so contempered, that each gave advantage to the other, and made his company one of the delights of mankind.

"His fancy was unimitably high, equalled only by his great wit; both being made useful by a commanding judgment.

"His aspect was cheerful, and such as gave a silent testimony of a clear knowing soul, and of a conscience at peace with itself.

"His melting eye showed that he had a soft heart, full of noble compassion; of too brave a soul to offer injuries, and too much a Christian not to pardon them in others.

"He did much contemplate - especially after he entered into his sacred calling - the mercies of Almighty God, the immortality of the soul, and the joys of heaven: and would often say in a kind of sacred ecstasy, 'Blessed be God that He is God, only and divinely like Himself.'

"He was by nature highly passionate, but more apt to reluct at the excesses of it. A great lover of the offices of humanity, and of so merciful a spirit, that he never beheld the miseries of mankind without pity and relief.

"He was earnest and unwearied in the search of knowledge, with which his vigorous soul is now satisfied, and employed in a continual praise of that God that first breathed into his active body: that body, which once was a temple of the Holy Ghost, and is now become a small quantity of Christian dust:

"But I shall see it re-animated."

* * *

Persevero,

On Courage & Cowardice

Courage - n. kur'rage. Bravery; intrepidity; that quality of mind which enables men to encounter danger and difficulties with firmness... valor; boldness; resolution.

~
Cowardice - n. Want of courage to face danger; timidity; pusillanimity; a fear of exposing one's person to danger.
Webster's 1828 Dictionary

--------------------------------------

"... be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." The Bible

"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die." G.K. Chesterton

   

"If all the world were just, there would be no need of valor." Plutarch

"Courage is grace under pressure." Ernest Hemingway

"Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength." Theodore Roosevelt

"Real valor consists not in being insensible to danger, but in being prompt to confront and disarm it." Sir Walter Scott

"Courage: the footstool of all virtues upon which they stand." Robert Louis Stevenson

"Among the Americans who served on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue." Fleet Admiral Chester. W. Nimitz

"There is a seed of courage hidden... waiting for some final and desperate danger to make it grow." J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

"Fear can keep a man out of danger, but courage can support him in it." Thomas Fuller

"In valor there is hope." Tactitus

"A coward dies a thousand deaths, the valiant dies but once." William Shakespeare

"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful until it became risky." C.S. Lewis

"One man with courage makes a majority." Andrew Jackson

"Chivalry is knowing what to do in a given situation and then having the courage to act without regard to the outcome." Rex Page

"A coward can fight any battle he's sure of winning; but give me the man who has the pluck to fight when he's sure of losing. That's my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than a defeat." George Eliot

"Where courage is not, no other virtue can survive except by accident." Samuel Johnson

"Tell a man he is brave, and you help him to become so." Thomas Carlyle

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." Sir Winston Churchill

"Courage consists not in hazarding without fear, but being resolutely minded in a just cause." Plutarch

"To see what is right and not to do it is cowardice. It is never a question of who is right but what is right." John Buchan. 

"The courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die decently but to live manfully." Thomas Carlyle

"Courage is resitance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. Except of creature be part coward, it is no compliment to say it is brave." Mark Twain

"Courage and resolution are the spirit and soul of virtue." Thomas Fuller

"I prefer to strive in bravery with the bravest, rather than in wealth with the wealthiest, or in greed with the greediest." Plutarch

"There is little extraordinary about the achievements of a genius, a prodigy, or a savant. Inevitably, a great leader is someone who overcomes tremendous obstacles and still succeeds. That is the essence of courage. It is the ability to maintain, in the face of grave perils, a kind of incognizance of the consequences of doing right. It is the ability to maintain great strength without any impulsive compulsion to use it - that strength is to be held in reserve until and unless it becomes necessary to use it for the cause of right." Tristan Gylbard

"Boldness is prudence. Couage is manliness." James Longstreet

"But screw your courage to the sticking place and we'll not fail." William Shakespeare

"A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck." James A. Garfield

"No coward soul is mine/No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere/I see Heaven's glories shine/And faith shines equal, arming me from fear." Emily Bronte

"The world has no room for cowards. We must all be ready somehow to suffer, to toil, to die. And yours is not the less noble because no drum beats before you when you go out into your daily battlefields, and no crowds shout about your coming when you return from your daily victory or defeat." Robert Louis Stevenson

"Cowardice alone is loss of fame." Dryden

"Courage that grows from constitution, often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty, acts in a uniform manner." Joseph Addison

(The majority of these qoutations were

taken from The Christian Almanac, edited by

George Grant & Gregory Wilbur)

* * *

Persevero,

 

The Richest Man

My family came across this story while we were doing our morning devotions. It's short, simple, and illustrates the importance of making God your treasure...

"A rich man named Carl loved to ride his horse through his vast estate to congratulate himself on his wealth. One day on such a ride, he came on Hans, an old tenant farmer who had sat down to eat his lunch in the shade of a great oak tree.

Hans' head was bowed in prayer. When he looked up, he said, 'Oh, excuse me, Sir. I didn't see you. I was giving thanks for my food.'

'Hmph!' Carl snorted, noticing the coarse dark bread and cheese constituting the old man's lunch. 'If that were all I had to eat, I don't think I would feel like giving thanks.'

'Oh,' replied Hans, 'it is quite sufficient. But it is remarkable that you should come by today, Sir. I... I feel I should tell you, I had a strange dream just before awakening this morning.'

'And what did you dream?' Carl asked with an amused smile.

'It seemed there was beauty and peace all around, and yet I could hear a voice saying, 'The richest man in the valley will die tonight.'

'Dreams!' cried the landowner. 'Nonsense!' And he turned and galloped away.

'Lord, have mercy on his soul if he really is to die so soon,' Hans prayed as he watched horse and rider disappear.

Die tonight, mused Carl. It was ridiculous, of course! No use his going into a panic. The best thing to do about the old man's dream was to forget it.

But he couldn't forget it. He had felt fine, at least until Hans described his stupid dream. Now he didn't feel too well.

That evening he called his doctor, who was also a personal friend. 'Could you come over?' he asked. 'I need to talk to you.'

When the doctor arrived, Carl told him the whole story. 'Sounds like poppycock to me,' the doctor said, 'but for your peace of mind let's examine you.'

A little later, his examination complete, the doctor was full of assurances. 'Carl, you're as strong and healthy as that horse of yours. There's no way you're going to die tonight.' Carl thanked his friend, and told him how foolish he felt for being upset by an old man's dream.

It was about 9 A.M. when a messenger arrived at Carl's door. 'It's old Hans,' the messenger said. 'He died last night in his sleep.'"

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

~ Matthew 6:19-21, KJV

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Persevero,