In the 1800s, a group
of women met to study the Bible in Dublin. They were puzzled by the words of Malachi
3:3, “And he shall sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver.” One of the ladies promised to call on a silversmith
and report to...
There was a fellow who was
about to jump from a bridge. An alert police officer slowly and methodically moved
toward him, talking with him all the time. When the officer got within inches
of the man he said, “Surely nothing could be bad enough...
At the one-hundredth anniversary of the arrival of missionaries in Zaire, Christians
gathered to celebrate from that part of Zaire that was once called the Belgian
Congo. Near the end of the celebration, a very old man stood to give a speech.
He...
Massena, one of Napoleon’s
generals, suddenly appeared with eighteen thousand men before an Austrian town
which had no means of defense. The town council had nearly decided to surrender
when the old dean of the church reminded them that it was...
A young woman named Anne Steele had encountered one
trial and disappointment after another. Her mother died when she was three, and
when she was nineteen she suffered a severe hip injury that left her an invalid. Eventually she fell in love and...
Two frogs fell into a tub of cream. One looked at the high sides of the tub
which were too difficult to crawl over and said, “It is hopeless.” So he
resigned himself to death, relaxed, and sank to the bottom. The other one
determined to keep...
On a wall in his bedroom Charles Spurgeon had a plaque with Isaiah 48:10 on
it: “. . . I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” God’s
choice makes chosen men choice men. We are chosen, not in the palace, but in
the...
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,...
A typical concert piano has over 240 strings that, when tuned and tightened, create a pull of 40,000 pounds on the frame. Without the
tension, there would be no beautiful music.