“Fathers
are what give daughters away to other men who aren’t nearly good enough, so
they can have grandchildren that are smarter than anybody’s.”—Paul Harvey
“Between an airplane and every other
form of locomotion and transportation there is one great contrast. The horse
and wagon, the automobile, the bicycle, the locomotive, the speedboat, and the
great battleship—all can come to a standstill without danger, and they can all
reverse their engines, or their power, and go back.
The following was found written in the fly leaf of
Evangelist Billy Sunday’s Bible after he died:
Twenty-nine years ago, with the
Holy Spirit as my Guide, I entered at the portico of Genesis, walked down the
corridor of the Old Testament art galleries, where pictures of Noah, Abraham,
Moses, Joseph, Isaac, Jacob, and Daniel hung on the wall. I passed into the
music room of Psalms where the Spirit sweeps the keyboard of nature until it
seems that every reed and pipe in God’s great organ responds to the harp of
David, the sweet singer of Israel.
The English poet, Alexander Pope, wrote, “As the twig is
bent, so grows the tree.” When new trees are planted stakes are often put into the ground beside the tree.
The stakes are there for a purpose—to train the tree to grow straight and
tall.
Those stakes work remarkably well if they are put in place
when the tree is young. But If crooked growth has been allowed to develop for
several years, they will not be effective. Rules for our children work the same
way.
“I would recommend you
either believe God up to the hilt, or else not to believe at all. Believe this Book of God, every letter of it, or else reject it. There is no logical
standing place between the two. Be satisfied with nothing less than a faith
that swims in the deeps of divine revelation; a faith that paddles about the
edge of the water is poor faith at best. It is little better than a dry-land
faith, and is not good for much.”—C. H. Spurgeon
Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College
When an army officer asked President Lincoln if he could write an article defending the administration against attacks that were being made by the Committee on the Conduct of the War Lincoln replied: “If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me,
this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very
best I know how —the very best I can, and I mean to keep doing so until the
end.
The British minister, W. E. Sangster, began to lose
his voice and mobility in the mid-1950s. He had a disease that caused progressive
muscular atrophy. He recognized the end was near, so he threw himself into
writing and praying. In the midst of his suffering he pleaded, “Let me stay in
the struggle, Lord. I don’t mind if I can no longer be a general, but give me
just a regiment to lead.”
Early in his life, Benjamin Franklin penned his own epitaph:
The Body
of
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
Printer,
(Like the cover of an
old book its contents torn out
And stript of its lettering and gilding)
Lies here food for worms;
Yet the work itself shall not be lost,
For it will (as he believed) appear once more
In a new and more beautiful edition,
Corrected and amended by
The Author.
When Sir Michael Faraday (a great
scientist from the 1800s), was dying, some journalists questioned him about his
speculations for a life after death. “Speculations!” he said, “I know nothing
about speculations. I’m resting on certainties. I know that my Redeemer liveth,
and because He lives, I shall live also.”
Sir Isaac Newton: The Baptists are the only known body of Christians that has not symbolized with the Church of Rome.—The First Church, J. T. Mann
Mosheim (Lutheran): Before the rise of Luther and Calvin, there lay secreted in
almost all the countries of Europe persons who adhered tenaciously to the
principles of modern Dutch Baptists.—The Baptist Spirit, Isaac J. Van Ness, William D. Nowlin
During the Battle of Spotsylvania in the Civil
War, Union general John Sedgwick was inspecting his troops. At one point he
came to a parapet, over which he gazed out in the direction of the enemy. His
officers suggested that this was unwise and perhaps he ought to duck while
passing the parapet. “Nonsense,” snapped the general. “They couldn’t hit an
elephant at this distance.” As the words left his mouth, Sedgwick fell to the
ground, mortally wounded.
An American Indian was asked to explain the grace of Jesus. He took a pile of leaves and an
earth worm. He laid the worm in the leaves and set the leaves on fire—at the
last minute he lifted it out and said, “That is the way Jesus saved me!”
In Muhammad Ali’s heyday as the
heavy weight champion in boxing, he had taken his seat on a 747 which was
starting to taxi down the runway for take off. The flight attendant walked by
and noticed Ali did not have on his seatbelt, and said, “Please fasten your
seatbelt, sir.”
He looked up proudly and snapped, “Superman
don’t need no seatbelt.”
Without hesitation she stared at him and said,
“Superman don’t need no plane.”
Source: Tony Evan’s Book of Illustrations, Tony Evans
George Mueller said: “I look upon it as a lost day when I have not had a good time over
the Word of God. Friends often say, ‘I have so much to do, so many people to
see, I cannot find time for Scripture study.’ Perhaps there are not many who
have more to do than I. For more than half a century I have never known one
day when I had not more business than I could get through. For 4 years I have
had annually about 30,000 letters, and most of these have passed through my own
hands.
Throughout his administration, Abraham Lincoln
was a president under fire, especially during the scarring years of the Civil
War. And though he knew he would make errors of office, he resolved never to
compromise his integrity. So strong was this resolve that he once said, “I
desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end,
when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on
earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down
inside of me.”
“We do not need another committee. We have too
many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the
allegiance of all people, and to lift us out of the economic morass into which
we are sinking. Send us such a man and be he god or devil, we will receive him.”—Paul Henri Spaak, the first president of the UN General Assembly,
first president of the European Parliament, and onetime secretary
general of NATO
Source: What in the World Is Going On?, David Jeremiah
I conceived the bold and arduous project of
arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any
fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination,
custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew,
what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the
one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of
more difficulty than I had imagined.
David Livingstone, pioneer missionary to Africa, received a letter saying, “Have you found a good road to where you are? If so, we want to know how to send other men to join you.”
Livingstone replied, “If you have men who will come only if there is a good road, I do not want them. I want those who will come if there is no road at all.”
Repeated afflictions come, not as lightning on the scathed tree,
blasting it yet more and more, but as the strokes of the sculptor on the
marble block, forming, it into the image of beauty and loveliness. Let
but the Divine Presence be felt, and no lot is hard. Let me but see His
hand, and no event is unwelcome.
