Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
INCLUDES: Comfort, Death, Fight the Good Fight, Fighters, Handicaps, Healing, Resisting the
Devil, Romans 8:28.
RELATED INDEX TOPICS: Chastening, Courage, Faith & Trust, Fight, Persecution, Positiveness,
Shtick, Yieldedness.
1. Sometime ago a great religious leader came to our state capital to speak at the YMCA. He had a
terrific reputation as an evangelist, and to entertain him, his sponsors called on me and said, "Governor,
would you have this man up for dinner before the evening meeting?" Of course I was delighted.
The time came, and I rushed home from my office in high expectations to meet this dynamic
speaker who had made such a wonderful record for his God. Right before me was a gnome-like creature not
over five feet tall, who looked like something his mother would like to forget. My face registered my
disappointment. My guest looked at me and said, "Governor, isn't it wonderful what God can use?" And so
it was.
2. I thank Thee more that all our joy is touched with pain;
That shadows fall on brightest hours, that thorns remain;
So that Earth's bliss may be our guide, & not our chain.
3. I once learned a lesson from a dog we had. My father used to put a bit of meat or biscuit on the
floor near the dog and say, "No!" and the dog knew he must not touch it. But he never looked at the meat.
He seemed to feel that if he did so, the temptation to disobey would be too great, so he looked steadily at
my father's face. There is a lesson for us all. Always look up to the Master's face.
4. A biologist tells how he watched an ant carrying a piece of straw which seemed a big burden for
it. The ant came to a crack in the earth which was too wide for it to cross. It stood for a time as though
pondering the situation, then put the straw across the crack and walked over upon it. Here is a lesson for all
mankind! A man's burden can be made a bridge for his progress.
5. If you find a path with no obstacles--it is probably a path that doesn't lead anywhere.
6. The best way to forget your own problem is to help someone else solve his.
7. Are you contributing to the solution? Or are you a part of the problem?
8. The eagle is an interesting bird. She builds her nest in the tallest trees or on the loftiest mountain
ledges. One who has watched her construct her nest relates that she first lays down thorns, jagged stones,
and all manner of sharp objects, which seem utterly incredible materials for the purpose. Then she covers it
thickly with wool, feathers, and fur of animals she has killed. The nesting place thus becomes soft and
comfortable, a delightful home for the birds which the mother will hatch. But the little creatures are not
destined to remain in this inviting cradle so laboriously prepared for them. The time will come when the
mother will stir up the nest. With her sharp talons she will begin to point the sharp protrusions in their flesh.
Up to this time the tiny creatures have had their food delivered and dropped into their mouths. After the
nest has been stirred up, the eagles become so miserable and unhappy they are willing to get out, and go
somewhere else.
This is the mother's objective in picking out from the nest all the downy material with which it was
originally lined and casting it to the wind. It is not cruelty on her part, but rather an effort to produce
discontent with the old life of ease, and to whet their desire to move on to maturity.
9. A beekeeper told me a story of a hive--how, when the little bee is in the first stage, it is put into a
hexagonal cell, and enough honey is stored there for its use until it reaches maturity. The honey is sealed
with a capsule of wax, and when the tiny bee has fed itself on the honey and exhausted the supply, the time
has come for it to emerge into the open. But, oh, the wrestle, the tussle, the straining to get through that
wax! It is the strait gate for the bee, so strait that in the agony of exit the bee rubs off the membrane that hid
its wings, and on the other side is able to fly!
10. A maker of violins searched all his life for wood that would serve for making violins with a
certain beautiful and haunting resonance. At last he succeeded when he came into possession of wood
gathered from the timberline, the last stand of the trees of the Rockies, 12,000 feet above sea level. Up
there where the winds blow so fiercely and steadily that the bark to windward has no chance to grow, where
the branches all point one way, and where a tree to live must stay on its knees all through its life, that is
where the world's most resonant wood for violins is born and lives and dies.
11. When you flee temptation, be sure you don't leave a forwarding address.
13. When our eyes are washed with tears, they can better see the invisible land where there shall
be no more tears.
14. In a testimony meeting in the South, an old Christian got up and said that she was always
blessed by the words "And it came to pass." "When I am upset by troubles, I go to the Bible, and I never
get far before I read "It came to pass." And I say, "Bless the Lord it didn't come to stay--it came to pass!"
15. Times of great calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The
purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt comes from the darkest storm.
16. The vine clings to the oak during the fiercest of storms. Although the violence of nature may
uproot the oak, twining tendrils still cling to it. If the vine is on the side of the tree opposite the wind, the
great oak is its protection; if it is on the exposed side, the tempest only presses it closer to the trunk.
In some of the storms of life, God intervenes and shelters us; while in others He allows us to be
exposed, so that we will be pressed more closely to Him.
17. John Wesley had a terrible wife. She tormented him beyond measure. But he said that he
attributed most of his success to his wife--that she kept him on his knees and because he was kept on his
knees, he had the victory.
18. A team of Russian scientists have been conducting experiments aimed at discovering whether a
life of ease shortens or lengthens life. A report on the outcome claims: "A series of experiments were
staged on animal life spans. Some animals were provided with ideal conditions of life--quiet, fresh air,
plenty of food, and no cares whatever. Sleep if you like, play if you want. The fur of the animals began to
gloss.
"Another group of animals was placed in conditions that involved cares and joy, setbacks and
surprises of all kinds.
"Researchers found the first to fall sick and break down were animals existing in seemingly ideal
conditions.
"Now the Soviet researchers are trying to establish whether the same holds good for human
beings."
19. The test of tolerance comes when we are in a majority. The test of courage comes when we are
in a minority.
20. Let's learn a lesson from tea. It shows its real worth when it gets into hot water.
21. Scars are the price of scepters. Grief has always been the lot of greatness.
22. The cocoon of the emperor moth is flask-shaped. In order for the perfect insect to appear it
must force its way through the neck of the cocoon in hours of intense struggling. It is believed that the
pressure to which the moth's body is subjected is a provision of nature for forcing the juices into the vessels
of the wings.
A person was witnessing this struggle once, and out of pity took the point of some scissors and
snipped the confining threads to make the exit easier, but the moth's wings never developed, and it spent its
brief span of life crawling instead of flying through the air on rainbow wings.
Look not with false pity on God's children who suffer. As men we are inclined to be shortsighted.
God would have us inspire their courage in the midst of it by remembering His love, and then looking for
the glory to come out of it.
23. No physician ever weighed out medicine to his patient with half so much care and exactness as
God weighs out to us every trial. Not one grain too much does He ever permit to be put in the scale.
25. We are God's jewels. Often God exhibits His jewels on a dark background ... so they will shine
more brightly.
26. Nothing shows more accurately what kind of a Christian we really are than the way in which
we meet trials & difficulties.
27. Be confident of this--if God sends you on stony paths, He will provide you with strong shoes.--
Or will toughen your feet!
28. There is an old Greek story of a soldier under Antigonus who had a disease that was extremely
painful and likely at any time to destroy his life. In every campaign he was in the forefront of the hottest
battle. His pain prompted him to fight in death to forget it, and his expectation of death at any time made
him court death on the martial field.
His general, Antigonus so admired the bravery of the man that he had him cured of his malady by
a renowned physician. From that moment the valiant soldier was no longer seen at the front. He avoided
danger instead of seeking it, and sought to protect his life instead of risking it on the field. His tribulation
made him fight well; his health and comfort destroyed his usefulness as a soldier.
Were you relieved of some burden, or healed of some disease, or set free from some worry, you
might lose in moral and spiritual power and influence.
29. Dr. Lambie, medical missionary, formerly of Abyssinia, has forded many swift and bridgeless
streams in Africa. The danger in crossing such a stream lies in being swept off one's feet and carried down
the stream to greater depths or hurled to death against the hidden rocks. Dr. Lambie learned from the
natives the best way to make such a hazardous crossing. The man about to cross finds a large stone, the
heavier the better, lifts it to his shoulder, and carries it across the stream as "ballast." The extra weight of
the stone keeps his feet solid on the bed of the stream and he can cross safely without being swept away.
Dr. Lambie drew this application: While crossing the dangerous stream of life, the Enemy
constantly seeks to overthrow us and rush us down to ruin. We need the ballast of burden-bearing, a load of
affliction, to keep us from being swept off our feet.
30. Some morning you will pick up the paper & read that D. L. Moody is dead. When you do,
don't believe it, for at that very moment I will be more alive than I am now.
--Dwight L. Moody
32. Only with cutting & polishing is the beauty of the diamond produced. Only with trials &
testing is the beauty of Jesus produced in the Christian.
33. A Frenchman incurred the displeasure of Napoleon and was put into a dungeon. He seemed to
be forsaken by his friends and forgotten by everyone in the outside world. In loneliness and despair he took
a stone and scratched on the wall of his cell, "Nobody cares."
One day a green shoot came through the cracks in the stones on the floor of the dungeon and
began to reach up toward the light in the tiny window at the top of the cell. The prisoner kept part of the
water brought to him each day by the jailer and poured it on the blade of green. It grew until at last it
became a plant with a beautiful blue flower. As the petals opened in full blossom, the solitary captive
crossed out the words previously written on the wall and above them scratched, "God cares."
34. A German picture, called "Cloudland," hangs at the end of a long gallery; and at first sight
looks like a huge, repulsive daub of confused color, without form or comeliness. As you walk toward it, it
begins to take shape, and proves to be a mass of little cherub faces, like those in Raphael's "Madonna San
Sisto." Close to the picture, you see only an innumerable company of little angels and cherubims.
35. Charles W. Morton, an Atlantic Monthly editor, once told of the Harvard freshman who came
to Dean Briggs' office to explain his tardiness in handing in an assignment. "I'm sorry, sir, but I was not
feeling very well," he offered.
"Young man," Briggs said, "please bear in mind that by far the greater part of the world's work is
carried on by people who are not feeling very well."
37. Spiritual growth soars when we have prayed up, made up, & paid up.
39. Adversity does not make us frail; it only shows us how frail we are.
40. Lord Caradon, the British envoy to the United Nations knows how to put Christianity to work
in times of trouble. Speaking at a luncheon held by the American Bible Society in May, 1969, he recalled
the time when he had served as governor of Cyprus in the midst of a very troubled political situation.
Knowing of his devout father's concern, the young governor was not surprised when he received a
cable from England containing the words: "2Corinthians Four:Eight, Nine." He knew the passage: "We are
troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not
forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed."
It was a message of encouragement and assurance. Back to the anxious father went this cable:
"Romans Five:Three, Four."
The reply cable was a testimony of faith and hope: "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations
also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope."
41. The following prayer was prayed by an Ethiopian at Soddu, Walamo, Ethiopia: "Almighty
God, from the depth of my heart I plead with Thee to send us trouble. When our king was exiled we were in
much trouble with the foreign [Italian] rulers. We had to meet in secret and were in constant danger of our
lives. That was the time when we worked in harmony with our fellow Christians.
"Many a night after I had locked my door and gone to bed, tired from a day's long journey of
preaching and teaching, there came a persistent knocking. Lord, how I wanted to sleep, and surely but they
wouldn't want to be baptized at night and be hunted and chased and put in prison and beaten, but they said
they had seen the Christian's joy and they too wanted that religion. Every night there were more and more.
"We read Thy Word and talked about it and prayed through the nights. We shared our joy in the
Lord. We worked side by side with only one desire, to preach and teach the Gospel. Then, Lord, our king
came back. The foreign rulers were forced to leave our country ...
"We have peace in our land. We baptize in the daytime. We are not beaten. We meet and pray, yes,
but we are beginning to grow careless in our zeal for Thee. Jealousies creep in and spoil the harmony. Petty
troubles take on in large meetings. We are selfish in our ambitions. Dear Lord, send us more trouble, I pray
Thee, that we may forget ourselves and be so dependent on Thee that we have no time to become selfish
and jealous of our fellow Christians. For Jesus' sake. Amen."
43. The pessimist says of trouble: "It's enough to make a person lose his religion," while the
optimist says: "It's enough to make a person use his religion."
45. The story of one of the great presidents of Harvard College, Charles William Eliot, is worth
recalling. Born with a serious facial disfigurement, he discovered as a young man that nothing could be
done about it, and he must go through life with his mark. It is related that when his mother brought to him
that tragic truth, it was indeed "the dark hour of his soul."
His mother told him, "My son, it is not possible for you to get rid of this handicap. We have
consulted the best surgeons, and they say that nothing can be done. But it is possible for you, with God's
help, to grow a mind and soul so big that people will forget to look at your face."
46. "Bisogna soffrire per essere grandi." That was the favorite expression of the great singer
Enrico Caruso. The words mean, "To be great, it is necessary to suffer."
After years of difficulty, Caruso achieved fame; but the man communicated more than beautiful
music through his voice. A music critic observed, "His is a voice that loves you, but not only a voice, a
sympathetic man." Tribulation does that for a person who accepts life's difficulties in the proper spirit.
48. If you keep within your heart a green branch, I have heard there will come one day a singing
bird.
49. What we call adversity, God calls opportunity. What we call tribulation, God calls growth.
50. Your outcome in life doesn't depend on your income, but on how you overcome.
52. The diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials.
53. The brook would lose its song if you removed the rocks.
54. If men can be found faithful in hard places they can be trusted in high places.
57. Be thankful if you have a job a little harder than you like. A razor cannot be sharpened on a
piece of velvet.
58. Some people never look up until they are flat on their back.
61. Great supplicants have sought the secret place of the Most High, not that they might escape the
World, but that they might learn to conquer it.
62. To have suffered much is like knowing many languages: It gives the sufferer access to many
more people.
64. Among the parables that Chinese teachers use is the story of a woman who lost an only son.
She was grief-stricken out of all reason. She made her sorrow a wailing wall. Finally she went to a wise old
philosopher. He said to her, "I will give you back your son if you will bring me some mustard seed.
However, the seed must come from a home where there has never been any sorrow." Eagerly she started her
search, and went from house to house. In every case she learned that a loved one had been lost. "How
selfish I have been in my grief," she said, "sorrow is common to all."
65. Don't despair. Even the sun has a sinking spell every night, but it rises again in the morning.
66. "See, Father," said a small boy who was walking with his father by the river, "they are
knocking the props away from under the bridge. What are they doing that for? Won't the bridge fall?"
"They are knocking them away," said the father, "that the timbers may rest more firmly upon the stone piers
which are now finished." God often takes away our earthly things that we may rest more firmly on Him.
68. God often digs wells of joy with the spade of sorrow!
69. We were going through a great furniture factory, when our guide, the superintendent, pointed
out to us a superbly grained and figured sideboard in the natural wood. "I want you to observe the beauty of
this oak," he said. "It is the finest selected timber of its kind, and the secret of the intricate and beautiful
graining is just this: that the trees from which it was taken grew in a spot where they were exposed to
almost constant conflict with storms."
What a suggestive fact: The stormbeaten tree develops the closest and finest and most intricately
woven fibers. When it is cut down and the saws lay bare its exquisitely figured grain, the cabinetmaker
selects it as the material for his finest work.
So with the human life beset by sorrows, tests and trials. If it stands the storm, how the wind of
God strengthens and beautifies it! We need life's stress.
70. Life offers only two alternatives; crucifixion with Christ or self-destruction without Him.
71. The true way to mourn the dead is to take care of the living who belong to them.
72. He who would have no trouble in this world must not be born in it.
73. I like my back against the wall because that's when I start fighting! If you don't have your back
against the wall, you better watch out because you might get a bullet in it.--Dad
75. We have read that during World War 1, when it was no longer possible to import those
beautiful singing canaries from the Harz Mountains, Germany, a dealer in New York decided to start a
system of training canaries to sing. He had bird songs put on records, and these proved of value. But one
day he made a real discovery which meant success. He found that if he covered the cages with thick cloths,
completely shutting out the light, the birds learned their song. The song of the Christian originates in the
heart, and many a Christian has learned that God sometimes teaches His children to sing in darkness.
Verily, "He giveth songs in the night."
76. The strongest trees grow not beneath the glass of a greenhouse, or in the protection of sheltered
and shaded valleys. The stoutest timber stands on Norwegian rocks, where tempests rage, and long, hard
winters reign. And is it not so with the Christian also? Exercise gives health, and strength is the reward of
activity. The muscles are seen fully developed in the brawny arm that plies the ringing hammer.
77. Our Father, who seeks to perfect His saints in holiness, knows the value of the refiner's fire. An
earnest Christian worker had been treated most unkindly, and was crying brokenheartedly when a neighbor
came in, and, laying a hand on her shoulder said quietly, "Why, Mrs. _____ , you're wriggling."
Lifting her head the other replied, "I don't think this is a time to be funny."
"Oh, I am not that. But don't you know that God has permitted this trouble to touch you, because
He sees something in your life that grieves Him, and He has put you in the furnace. When a goldsmith puts
gold into the crucible and the fire begins to work on the dross, it begins to wriggle and wriggle, and as the
dross is burned out it gets quieter, until at last the surface is so calm that the refiner sees his own face
reflected and puts out the fire."
78. So many people have told us, "If God will heal me, THEN I'll serve Him, THEN I'll believe."
It means nothing else in the World but that you're putting self first, trying to make a deal with God! "If God
will serve me first, then I'll serve Him. You work for me first, God, then I'll work for You!"--And He just
doesn't work that way!--Dad
79. Never doubt in the dark what God has spoken in the light.
81. A little boy made a boat. He went off in high glee to sail it on the water. But presently it got
beyond his reach. In his distress he appealed to a big boy for help, asking him to get it back for him. Saying
nothing, the big boy picked up stones, and seemingly threw them at the boat. The little boy thought he
would never get his boat back, and that instead of helping him, the big boy was annoying him. But
presently he noticed that instead of hitting the boat, each stone went BEYOND it, and made a little wave,
which moved the boat a little nearer to the shore. Every throw of the stones was PLANNED, and at last the
little boat was brought within reach. How happy the little boy was! Again he was in possession of his
treasure!
Sometimes things in our life seem disagreeable and without sense or plan. But let us WAIT awhile,
and we shall see that each trial, each striking of a stone upon the quiet water of our life, has brought us
NEARER to God!
82. The Lord let the Devil nearly destroy Job by killing his family & his finances, & almost even
killing him, but he still didn't say "Uncle" to the Devil, not even to his wife who told him to curse God &
die! He just kept on believing & obeying with boils from head to toe, sitting on a heap of ashes & wearily
scraping away the puss & the scabs & the sores with a piece of broken pottery saying, "Though He slay me,
yet will I trust Him!"--Can you?--I hope you don't have to get in such a mess as Job! But if you do, don't
quit whatever you do!--Dad
83. "I stood once in the test room of a great steel mill. All around me were little partitions and
compartments. Steel had been tested to the limit, and marked with figures that showed its breaking point.
Some pieces had been twisted until they broke, and the strength of torsion was marked on them. Some had
been stretched to the breaking point, and their tensile strength indicated. Some had been compressed to the
crushing point, and also marked. The master of the steel mill knew just what these pieces of steel would
stand under the strain. He knew just what they would bear if placed in the great ship, building, or bridge.
He KNEW because the TESTING ROOM revealed it. It is often so with God's children. God does not want
us to be like vases of glass or porcelain. He does not want us to be hothouse plants, but storm-beaten oaks;
not sand dunes, driven with every gust of wind, but granite rocks withstanding the fiercest storms. To make
us such He MUST bring us into His testing room of suffering. Better the storm waters with Christ than the
smooth waters without Him!"
84. It was due to the efforts of Samuel Plimsoll (1824-98), British reformer, that the Merchant
Shipping Act of 1876 was passed, requiring all ships to bear a mark known as the Plimsoll mark and
indicating the maximum load line. By this act the Board of Trade of England was empowered to detain any
vessel deemed unsafe, and the amount of cargo was restricted, thus making the long and perilous ocean
voyage of those days much safer. Because of his work, Plimsoll became known as the sailor's friend. The
Plimsoll mark, with its gradations and figures, may be seen on the bow of ships near the water line as they
lie at anchor in a harbor. In God's sight, each of us has a similar mark, though we may not be able to see it.
The burdens and responsibilities He gives us may seem unbearable, but He knows our limit, His everlasting
arms are underneath, and by His grace we can bear them without sinking. "God is faithful, who will not
suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make away to escape, that
ye may be able to bear it" (1Cor.10:13b).
85. There can never be peace in the bosom of a believer. There is peace with God, but constant war
with sin.
86. You will not get leave to steal quietly to Heaven in Christ's company without a conflict & a
cross.
87. The first step on the way to victory is to recognise the enemy.
88. We must wrestle earnestly in prayer, like men contending with a deadly enemy for life.
89. When Michelangelo was ordered to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel, he refused. He
had never done any work of that kind, and said he could not do it. But he was told his refusal would not be
accepted. When he discovered that there was no alternative without unpleasant consequences, he mixed his
colors and went to work. And thus came into being the world's finest painting. There are few who realize
what possibilities are locked up within them until some necessity compels them to attempt something they
have always considered impossible.
91. The ancients used an interesting little instrument, called the tribulum, to beat grain to divide
the chaff from the wheat. The word "tribulation" comes from this word. Tribulations truly separate the chaff
from the wheat in human character.
92. A jewel is a bit of ordinary earth which has passed through some extraordinary experiences.
94. The Lord seems to make the Entrance Exams hardest of all & they usually come all in one big
batch so that everyone will know right away if you've got what it takes, so you won't waste any more of our
time.--What's the use of paying for a big long education if you're going to flunk in the end?
It's kind of like being born: It's quite a crisis experience that the mother & baby go through! If they
can make that, they can usually make the rest pretty well. From then on you just go step by step & grade by
grade & the difficulties become a little more spread out, like the growth of the baby.--Dad
96.An elderly man asked a boy to go with him into the woods to cut down some hickory trees to
make ax handles. They soon came to several young hickory trees. The boy said, "These trees would make
good ax handles. Let's cut them down."
The old man said, "These trees in the lowlands have been protected from the storms which rage
higher up. Let's go to the heights where the trees have been rocked back and forth by fierce winds. Those
trees have been hardened by the tempest and they will make much stronger ax handles!"
Those who have been exposed to temptations -- rocked to and fro by the tempter, Satan, but who
have not yielded -- are made stronger. We can be "more than conquerors through him that loved us!"
Job said, "When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."
97. One of God's children was passing through the dark waters of sorrow and suffering. "God has
forgotten to be gracious to me. I don't understand His judgements," he said.
The pastor came to see him. He found him in the back yard, pruning a grapevine of its superfluous
twigs and branches. The man said, "Pastor, because of the heavy rains of late, this vine has become
overgrown with worthless twigs and branches. It is necessary to remove them so the vine can bring better
fruit to maturity."
"Does this vine resist and oppose you?" asked the pastor.
"Of course not," he said.
"Then why should you complain about the chastening hand of God when He does for you what
you have done to this vine?" asked the pastor.
98. The storm & the fire & the trials & the tribulations & the tests are all for what purpose? Yes, to
test your strength as a tree or your purity as gold & to give you a chance to battle the Devil & see if you'll
give up or if you'll keep on fighting & trust the Lord.--Dad
99. The hardiest trees are not reared in hothouses, but where they can battle with wind and
tempest.
100. In medieval times, the goldsmiths had a unique method to determine when the refining fire
had purged away all extraneous matter from the precious metal. They would stand patiently and peer
intently into the seething, molten mass, meantime making the fire hotter and hotter. At last, a smile of
satisfaction would lighten up the perspiring face of the goldsmith. He could see his face reflected in the
molten mass of gold. Seeing his face mirrored there, he knew that the refining fire had wrought its
purifying purpose.
Of the heavenly Father, the Bible says: "And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he
shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver" (Mal.3:3a).
Peter admonished: "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you"
(1Pet.4:12a).
When God sees the image of His dear Son reflected in our lives, He knows that His purifying fires
have wrought their intended purpose.
101. Jenny Lind, the famous Swedish nightingale, was considered one of the greatest popular
singers of her day. Her music teacher said, "Jenny, you've got everything to make you the World's greatest
singer, but one thing!"
"What in the World is that?" she asked. "I practice all day long, & you say I have tremendous
range, versatility, & talent! What haven't I got?"
"To make you a truly great singer," he replied, "you have to have a broken heart!"
So he thereupon proceeded to break it for her! She fell in love with him, & he jilted her. Then she
began to sing from her heart!--The songs she sang became her own songs of loneliness & tears--not just a
collection of words & music--but it was her own heartcry!--Dad
102. The bird whose pinion was once broken, by the grace of God will fly even higher than before,
& the straying sheep whose leg had to be broken will have to remain in the Shepherd's bosom so long he
will never stray again!--Dad
103. The meaning of trial is not only to test worthiness, but to increase it; as the oak is not only
tested by the storms, but toughened by them.
104. At a period of Donatello's life he went to Pisa to execute some works there which were found
so wonderful that the Pisans broke out into transports of delight, praising the artist to the skies. Oddly
enough, however, this excessive praise proved distasteful to the sculptor. He declared that he must go back
to Florence for the whimsical reason, that where he was praised by everybody he would soon forget all he
knew, grow lazy and self-satisfied, whereas at home in Florence he was notoriously abused and found fault
with and thus forced always to produce his best, "the constant blame forcing him," as he put it, "to study
and consequently do greater achievements."
105. A butter-fingered man who had been suffering from a long siege of unemployment at last
found a job in a chinaware house. He had been at work only a few days when he smashed a large vase. He
was summoned to the manager's office and told by that dignitary that he would have to have money
deducted from his wages every week until the vase was paid for. "How much did it cost?" asked the culprit.
"Three hundred dollars," said the manager. "Oh, that's wonderful," he said, "I'm so happy. At last I've got a
steady job!"
106. You try putting paper money faith through the fire & see what happens! That so-called faith--
so-called value, like paper money, is not worth a damned thing the minute it's put to the test!
That's why the whole World's paper-thin financial System is collapsing right now!--Because it is
based on pig paper money instead of God's good gold!--You just stick them both through the fire & see
which one comes out the best! You'll find that real gold--no matter how hot the fire or how long the fire,
how hot the test or how long it lasts--will still come out gold--even finer gold!--"Yea, than much fine gold!"
Because the fire burns all the dross & the impurities away!
But that paper pig stuff that claims to be valuable isn't worth the paper it is printed on when the
real test comes. The minute it feels the slightest flame it goes up in smoke & you've got nothing left but a
few ashes just to remind you of something that wasn't there in the first place!--Dad
108. Life holds nothing within it which Christ has not conquered.
109. The Lord makes you stronger with each victory. It's sort of like inoculation: He gives you
small doses so you won't catch the disease, so you will constantly gradually build up your resistance to it.
Whereas, if you are never tested, never given a small dose, you will never be able to take the big dose.
Like in the Middle Ages & Olden Times, because assassination by poison was so common, kings
& important men used to take small doses of poison every day. They'd start off with a very tiny portion, just
a few grains, & keep taking a little more each day, until they gradually built up a resistance, so that if
somebody gave them a large dose it wouldn't be fatal!
It's kind of like the Lord does with us: He gives us a little more each day to test us, to try us, to
build up our strength & resistance. He inoculates us with a little more serum of sacrifice & trial & trouble
& battle each day.
--Dad
115. Life is not one uniform leaden sky loaded with weeping clouds; the darkest horizon is
rainbow-spanned; the bright spots outnumber the dark. Life is not all music in the minor--far less a clash of
discord and dissonance. It is rather made up of blended harmonies.
116. I remember there was one very precious girl, just as sweet as could be, wonderful Christian,
loved the Lord, always smiling, always cheerful, but her sister always pushed her to church in a wheelchair
because she was a spastic & had little control over her contorted limbs or her writhing head or even her
grotesque facial expressions!
But she could smile! Her face would just light up with joy & smile talking about the Lord &
talking to her friends! Everybody loved her & she loved everybody & she seemed to be very happy.
But for some reason or other, the Lord never delivered her, at least not as long as I can remember,
as long as I was a child in that church. And I just looked at her & wondered, & yet, I thought, she's so
happy in spite of that affliction. She'd never known anything else! But she seemed to be happy & enjoying
life.
But here was a church that believed in healing, so it was pretty humbling for us to have this girl
coming to every service in a wheelchair!--And it was pretty humbling for us to have this other girl falling
off the piano stool in epileptic fits! I mean it was pretty humbling, really embarrassing to say the least.
So I wonder if the Lord didn't use it for that reason, to keep us humble?
--Dad
Ever confessing
Thee, I will raise
Unto Thee blessing,
Glory, and praise:
All my endeavour,
World without end,
Thine to be ever,
SAVIOUR and Friend!
121. Zacchaeus had short legs, but he outran the crowd when Jesus passed through town.
Short legs will get you there as fast as long legs if you know how to use them.
122. A dear old saint was asked what she would do if a fierce temptation overtook her. Her quick
reply was, "I would lift up my hands to the Lord and say, 'Lord, your property is in danger. Take care of it
quick!' Then I'd forget about it 'til I was tried again."
133. President Lincoln once wrote to General McClellan, when the latter was in command of the
army. General McClellan, as is well known, conducted a waiting campaign, being so careful not to make
any mistakes that he made very little headway. President Lincoln sent this brief but exceedingly pertinent
letter:
If you don't want to use the army I should like to borrow it for a while.
Yours respectfully,
A. Lincoln."
134. During the heroic defence of the Bataan Peninsula, one of the commanding officers lined up a
company of his men and asked for a volunteer for a mission of the utmost peril. Anyone willing to serve
was instructed to step forward two paces from the line. He glanced for a second at a memorandum in his
hand and, looking up, was shocked and disappointed to see the ranks unbroken.
"What," he said unbelievingly, "not a single man!"
"You do not understand, sir," said an aide at his elbow,
"the whole line has stepped forward two paces."
136. Some Christians who should be wielding the Sword of the Spirit are still tugging at the
nursery bottle.
Must it be always so
With precious things?
Must they be bruised and go
With beaten wings?
140. He often tests us like He did Abraham by making us think He's going to take something away
from us permanently, just to see if we'll still obey Him & still follow Him, still worship Him & love Him &
serve Him. But I've found most of the time, that once He's threatened to take it away from you or looks like
He's going to take it away or does take it away from you for a little while, it's just a test to see if you'll still
love Him.
Just like Job, whom God allowed the Devil to test. He first of all took away all his wealth, then He
even took away his family, his children & wife & all that he loved, & finally his health. It was all a test,
perpetrated by the Devil but allowed by the Lord in order to show that Job really loved Him in spite of it
all.
And when Job passed the test & gave the final right answer: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust
Him" (Job 13:15), well, he got his diploma & the Lord gave him back everything & several times over
what he'd had before!--Although He'd allowed the Devil to take it all away from him. But it was just a test
to see if he would love the Lord still, in spite of all the sacrifice & suffering & denial & deprivation & all
the rest.--Dad
141. The other day I was trying to figure out how to get some scum off the surface of a pot of
water, & every time I tried to pour it off myself it just got worse stirred up with the rest! Finally, I got the
brilliant idea of sticking the pot under the faucet & turning on more water so it would cause the water level
to rise in the pot & the surface to overflow, & all that junk on the top just rolled off & went down the drain!
That's what God does in the refining fires of His trials & testings! He puts you under the fire, & He
brings you to a boil, so all the scum & dross comes to the top where everybody can see it! You don't have to
tell them about it--they'll just watch you while you're going through it! They probably already knew it
anyway! It just didn't show until God put you on the fire--but that brought it out! That's what the fire's for--
to bring out the meanness in you--to show how bad & impure you really are--& then get rid of it--boil it
off--let it go down the drain--get it off your chest! Get rid of it--but for God's sake, don't dump it on
somebody else--it may really burn them & leave a scar that will take years to heal!--Dad
142. I found that God usually gives me the most severe test, allows the Enemy to tempt & test me
the worst just as I'm considering or about to begin a new task for Him or a new project. You have the most
difficult times & the most difficult trials & the most severe testings in the beginning because God wants to
know if you're really going to go through with it, live or die, sink or swim, whether you really mean
business, whether you're really going to trust Him or not & whether you have really got what it takes to see
it through, because usually if you pass those first severe hard tests the Lord stamps your passport with His
stamp & says, "OK, buddy, go to it, you're free to go on into the Promised Land that I have offered you if
you're willing to forsake all & to follow & to die if need be to do the job I want you to do!"--Dad
143. "... That it may bring forth more fruit." (John 15:2)
Two years ago I set out a rosebush in the corner of my garden. It was to bear yellow roses, and it
was to bear them profusely. Yet, during those two years, it did not produce a blossom!
I asked the florist from whom I bought the bush why it was so barren of flowers. I had cultivated it
carefully, had watered it often, had made the soil around it as rich as possible; and it had grown well.
"That's just the reason," said the florist. "That kind of rose needs the poorest soil in the garden.
Sandy soil would be best and never a bit of fertilizer. Take away the rich soil and put gravelly earth in its
place. Cut the bush back severely.
Then it will bloom. I did--and the bush blossomed forth in the most gorgeous yellow known to
nature. Then I moralized: that yellow rose is just like many lives. Hardships develop beauty in the soul:
they thrive on troubles: trials bring out all the best in them; ease and comfort and applause only leave them
barren.
144. There is starlight through the shadows for the feet that have to tread
In the path of secret sorrow, with the hidden tears unshed.
There's the glory of the sunset flaming red down in the west,
When the storm is hushed to stillness and the waters sink to rest.
There's a lamp that God has lighted where the shadowed pathways are,
And it sheds a softened radiance like the shining of a star;
There's a haven of sweet refuge from the deeply hidden pain,
Where the heart that long has suffered sees God's rainbow through the rain.
148. The Christian's chief occupational hazards are depression & discouragement.
150. God does not despair of you, therefore you ought not to despair of yourself.
152. It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his Helper is omnipotent.
O, it is good to soar
These bolts and bars above
To Him Whose purpose I adore,
Whose Providence I love,
And in Thy mighty will to find
The joy, the freedom, of the mind.
--Madam de la Mothe Guyon (Ps.69:33; Acts 16:25; 2Tim.2:8,9).
157. When problems get Christians praying they do more good than harm.
158. There are no difficulties with God. Difficulties wholly exist in our own unbelieving minds.
159. There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will of God.
160. Our faith is really & truly tested only when we are brought into very severe conflicts, & when
even Hell itself seems opened to swallow us up.
164. Trust God even when the pieces don't seem to fit.
165. There may be a time when God will not be found, but no time wherein He must not be
trusted.
167. Faith tries God & God tries the faith He gives.
168. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains; it is
His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
170. Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.
172. We are told that Billy Bray, the Cornish miner, was noted far and near for his piety. One year
his potato crop was almost a failure. As he was digging the potatoes, Satan said, "There, Billy, isn't that
poor pay for serving your Father the way you have all this year? Just see those small potatoes!" "Ah,
Satan," said Billy, "at it again talking against my Father? Bless His Name! Why, when I served you I did
not have any potatoes at all. I thank my dear Father for small potatoes."
Those who thank God for the little things soon find their blessings multiplying.
173. A lady was summering in Switzerland. One day she started out for a stroll. Presently, as she
climbed the mountain-side, she came to a shepherd's fold. She walked to the door and looked in. There sat
the shepherd. Around him lay his flock. Near at hand, on a pile of straw, lay a single sheep. It seemed to be
in suffering. Scanning it closely, the lady saw that it's leg was broken. At once her sympathy went out to the
suffering sheep. She looked up inquiringly to the shepherd. "How did it happen?" she said.
To her amazement, the shepherd answered: "Madam, I broke that sheep's leg." A look of pain
swept over the visitor's face. Seeing it, the shepherd went on: "Madam, of all the sheep in my flock, this
one was the most wayward. It never would obey my voice. It never would follow in the pathway in which I
was leading the flock. It wandered to the verge of many a perilous cliff and dizzy abyss. And not only was
it disobedient itself, but it was ever leading the other sheep of my flock astray. I had before had experience
with sheep of this kind. So I broke it's leg. The first day I went to it with food, it tried to bite me. I let it lie
alone for a couple of days. Then, I went back to it. And now, it not only took the food, but licked my hand,
and showed every sign of submission and even affection. And now let me tell you something. When this
sheep is well, as it soon will be, it will be the model sheep of my flock. No sheep will hear my voice so
quickly. None will follow so closely at my side."
174. Sometimes Christ sees that we need the SICKNESS for the good of our souls more than the
HEALING for the ease of our bodies.
177. The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.
178. The finest flowers are often found growing in the soil of sorrow.
179. One Son God hath without sin, but none without sorrow.
180. God would sooner we had holy pain than unholy pleasure.
181. It is said that in Africa there is a fruit called the "taste berry," because it changes a person's
taste so that everything eaten tastes sweet and pleasant. Sour fruit, even if eaten several hours after the
"taste berry," becomes sweet and delicious. Gratitude is the "taste berry" of Christianity, and when our
hearts are filled with gratitude, nothing that God sends us seems unpleasant to us. Sorrowing heart, sweeten
your grief with gratitude. Burdened soul, lighten your burden by singing God's praises. Disappointed one,
dispel your loneliness by making others grateful. Sick one, grow strong in soul, thanking God that He loves
you enough to chasten you. Keep the "taste berry" of gratitude in you hearts, and it will do for you what the
"taste berry" of Africa does for the African.
183. Arthur Brisbane once pictured a crowd of grieving caterpillars carrying the corpse of a
cocoon to its final resting place. The poor, distressed caterpillars, clad in black raiment, were weeping, and
all the while the beautiful butterfly fluttered happily above the muck and the mire of earth, forever freed
from its earthly shell. Needless to say, Brisbane had the average orthodox funeral in mind and sought to
convey the idea that when our loved ones pass, it is foolish to remember only the cocoon and concentrate
our attention on the remains, while forgetting the bright butterfly.
184. Pain & suffering are not necessarily signs of God's anger; they may be exactly the opposite.
185. The face of Jesus must be very near our own when the thorns from His crown of suffering are
pressing our brow & hurting us.
186. We can sometimes see more through a tear than through a telescope.
188. Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared
with scars.
190. Handel lost his health. His right side was paralyzed. His money was gone. His creditors
threatened to imprison him. Handel was so disheartened by his tragic experiences that he almost lost faith
and despaired. He came through the ordeal, however, and composed his greatest work, "The Hallelujah
Chorus," which is the climactic part of his great Messiah.
John wrote, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."
191. In a cellar in Cologne, Germany after World War II were found these words on the wall:
I BELIEVE ...
I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining;
I believe in love,
even when I feel it not;
I believe in God,
Even when He is silent.
192. Bismark said of immortality: "I do not doubt it, even for a moment. This life is too sad, too
incomplete, to satisfy our highest aspirations and desires. It is meant to be a struggle to ennoble us. Can the
struggle be in vain? I think not. Final perfection, I believe in, a perfection which God has in store for us."
193. A little girl whose baby brother had just died asked her mother where baby had gone. "To be
with Jesus," replied the mother. A few days later, talking to a friend, the mother said, "I am so grieved to
have lost my baby." The little girl heard her, and, remembering what her mother had told her, looked up
into her and asked, "Mother, is a thing lost when you know where it is?"
"No, of course not." "Well, then, how can baby be lost when he has gone to be with Jesus?" Her
mother never forgot this. It was the truth.
194. There is as much difference between the sufferings of the saints & those of the ungodly as
there is between the cords with which an executioner pinions a condemned malefactor & the bandages
wherewith a tender surgeon binds his patient.
197. God whispers to us in health & prosperity, but, being hard of hearing, we often fail to hear
God's voice in both. Whereupon God turns up the amplifier by means of suffering. Then His voice booms.
198. A lady, when her husband was absent, lost both her children to cholera. She laid them out
with a mother's tenderness, spread a sheet over them, and waited at the door for her husband's return.
"A person lent me some jewels," she told her husband on his return, "and he now wants to have
them back. What shall I do?"
"Return them, by all means," said the husband. Then she led the way, and silently uncovered the
forms of their children.
201. The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do
not.
202. There is nothing the body suffers that the soul may not profit by.
205. I would ... suggest that some form of suffering is virtually indispensable to holiness.
209. The Bible has a great deal to say about suffering & most of it is encouraging.
210. Calvary is God's great proof that suffering in the Will of God always leads to glory.
212. We often learn more under the rod that strikes us, than under the staff that comforts us.
213. In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends.
214. BEREAVED
215. Madame de la Mothe Guyon, that notable prisoner for Christ's sake in the Chateau de Chillon,
sang:
Nor exile I nor prison fear;
Love makes my courage great;
I find a Saviour everywhere,
His grace in every state.
216. God sometimes snuffs out our brightest candle that we may look up to His eternal stars.
218. Only in the hot furnace of affliction do we as Christians let go of the dross to which, in our
foolishness, we ardently cling.
219. I never knew the meaning of God's Word until I came into affliction. Martin Luther.
225. By afflictions God is spoiling us of what otherwise might have spoiled us--when He makes
the World too hot for us to hold, we let it go.
231. There are some of your graces which would never be discovered if it were not for your trials.
232. Jesus was transfigured on the hilltop, but He transforms us in the valley.
236. We are safer in the storm God sends us than in a calm when we are befriended by the world.
237. The whale that swallowed Jonah was the means of bringing him safely to land.
239. HE IS RISEN
He is not dead,
Your son, your dear beloved son,
Your golden one,
With his blond touseled head,
The shining and excited words he said!
Ah no! Be comforted.
For him the world will never
Grow flat and tired and dull;
He is a part of all swift things forever,
All joyous things that run
Or fly,
Familiar to the wind and cloud and sky,
Forever beautiful!
--Joseph Auslander
240. SELFISHNESS
242. Among my list of blessings infinite stands this the foremost--that my heart has bled.
247. It is wonderful how many of the elect of the human race the winners of immortal fame
entered the contest with a severe handicap. HOMER was a blind minstrel; and MILTON, too was blind.
BEETHOVEN was deaf: "Though so deaf he could not hear the thunder for a token, he made music of his
soul, the grandest ever spoken." ALEXANDER THE GREAT was a hunchback; and so was ALEXANDER
POPE, and a suffering weakling to boot. ST. PAUL was an uncouth manikin, the jest of coarse adversaries
(cf. 2Cor.10:1,10) "three cubits high," says St. Chrysostom, "yet he touched the stars." And like him for
stature were HORATIO NELSON and NAPOLEON, SHAKESPEARE on his own testimony was a
cripple; and so were SCOTT, BYRON and KELVIN, to say nothing of EPICTETUS.
248. A little girl came home from a neighbor's house where her little friend had died.
"Why did you go?" questioned her father.
"To comfort her mother," replied the child.
"What could you do to comfort her?" the father continued.
"I climbed into her lap and cried with her," answered the child.
250. God may call you to endure difficulties, but He will never cause you to experience defeat.
251. The storms of life no more indicate the absence of God than clouds indicate the absence of
the sun.
253. God's way of answering the Christian's prayer for more patience, experience, hope & love
often is to put him into the furnace of affliction.
258. Spiritual believers are honoured with warfare in the front line trenches.
259. The Scriptures show conclusively that tribulation is a natural by-product of genuine
Christianity.
261. J. R. Miller commented that the "cup" is our portion, embracing all the experiences of our
earthly lives. Our Father gives us the cup, therefore it must be the very best that the wisest love can
provide. When death enters a Christian home there is sweetest comfort in the thought that God has really
done the best possible for the friend whom He has taken away. We prayed Him to crown our loved one with
His richest blessings, and is not that just what He has done?
262. God does not promise that waters of trouble shall never gather about His children, but He
does make it possible for them to keep their heads above the water. Dr. Jowett calls it "the grace of
aboveness." God's children shall never be under the circumstances -- always above!
265. There may be love in Christ's heart while there are frowns in his face.
266. Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with.
267.Bad news has come, and heart and mind are sobered,--
We did not think that things would come to this:
We deemed that God would surely send deliverance;
We asked that what was threatened we might miss.
269. In the day of prosperity we have many refuges to resort to; in the day of adversity only one.
270. I do not pray for a lighter load but for a stronger back.
273. The story is told of a king who placed a heavy stone in the road and then hid and watched to
see who would remove it. Men of various classes came and worked their way round it, some loudly
blaming the king for not keeping the highways clear, but all dodging the duty of getting it out of the way. At
last a poor peasant on his way to town with his flock of sheep came, and contemplating the stone, laid
down his load and rolled the stone into the gutter. Then, turning round, he spied a purse that had lain right
under the stone. He opened it and found it full of gold pieces with a note from the king saying it was for the
one who should remove the stone. Under every obstacle our King has hidden a blessing. We can turn back
from a cross or go round it, but we are eternal losers if we do. We cannot dodge the cross without dodging
God's blessing, and we cannot refuse it without endangering our crown. He is watching. (Luke 14.27; John
11.39)
274. A well-known missionary, Fidelia Fisk, was once instructing a class of heathen women. She
was obliged on account of the custom of the country, to occupy a sitting posture on the floor, without any
support to her back, and as she had just recovered from an illness, she became very tired. One of the
women who was a believer noticed this, left the circle and sat down right behind her, placing her back to
Miss Fisk's back, who acknowledged the kindness and timeliness of the act and leaned gently against the
prop offered to her. 'No! No!' said the Christian woman, 'if you love me, lean hard.'
275. In the Gospel records, fish as a provision for human needs occupies a prominent place in our
Lord's miracles. There were two miracles in which loaves and fishes were used to feed large companies,
and two miraculous draughts of fishes. The risen Lord had fish to feed His toiling, hungry disciples on the
shore of the Sea of Tiberias, and directed Peter to find the tribute money in the mouth of a fish, He knew
where the fish was, and He knew where the money was.
So, and because the Greek letters of the word for 'fish' spell out the initials of our Lord's titles, the
fish became the symbol of the Christians in days of persecution and trouble. It is frequently seen in the
catacombs. The Greek word for 'fish' has five letters, which form the initials of the Greek words in the
following order--Jesus Christ, Of God the Son--Saviour.
(Matt.14.17-19; 17.27; Mark 8.7; Luke 5.6; John 21.11)
276. God will never permit any troubles to come upon us unless He has a specific plan by which
great blessing can come out of the difficulty.
277. What we call life is a journey to death. What we call death is the gateway to life.
278. The water-spider lives in the water and is made for life in the water but it cannot live without
air. It would drown in the water, so is constantly surrounded by an element deadly to it; yet it continues to
live a happy life against odds. Over its body is a thick covering of hair. When it plunges into the water it
carries with it an envelope of air which at once forms a bubble round it. It chooses its place, spins a silken
dome attached to water-weed, and into this dome flicks the bubble of air. Then it rises and brings another
until it fills its home with the air it needs.
(Rom.8. 37; 2Cor.4.8,9)
279. Samuel Rutherford, writing from prison in Aberdeen three centuries ago, persecuted for his
faith, and writing his famous 'Letters' to his parishioners, ended one of them with this sentence: 'Jesus
Christ came into my prison-cell last night, and every stone in it glowed like a ruby.' (Luke 24.15,32;
2Tim.4.17)
280. The refiner is never far from the mouth of the furnace when his gold is in the fire, and the Son
of God is always walking in the flames when his holy children are cast into them. (Isa.43.2; Dan.3.22-25;
1Pet.1.7,8).
281. A jeweller gives as one of the surest tests for diamonds the 'water test'. He says: 'An imitation
diamond is never so brilliant as a genuine stone. If your eye is not experienced enough to detect the
difference, a simple test is to place the stone under water. The imitation diamond is practically
extinguished. A genuine diamond sparkles under water and is distinctly visible. If you place a genuine stone
beside an imitation under water, the contrast will be apparent to the least experienced eye.'
Many seem confident of their faith so long as they have no trials; but when the waters of sorrow
and affliction overflow them, their faith loses its brilliancy. It is under these circumstances that the true
children of God shine as genuine jewels.
(Job 23.10; Isa.43.1,2; I Pet.1.7)
282. If you go to the banks of a little stream and watch the flies that come and bathe in it, you will
notice that, while they plunge their bodies, they keep their wings high out of the water and fly away with
their wings unwet. Now, that is the lesson for us. Here we are, immersed in the cares and business of the
world, but let us keep the wings of our faith and love out of the world so that, with these unclogged, we
may be ready to take our flight to heaven.
The Christian is not ruined by living in the world, but by the world living in him.
(John 17.16-19; Gal.6.14; 1John 2.15-17)
283. Let God lay on a burden, He will be sure to strengthen the back.
284. Affliction by itself does not sanctify; it exhausts & embitters, it depresses & entices. It is the
presence of God & the use made of it by Him, as He relates it to our lives as a whole...that makes adversity
salutary.
286. 'Whenever I find myself in the cellar of affliction, I always look about for the wine,' said
Samuel Rutherford. (Rom.8.28; Heb.12.11)
287. The Scripture speaks of some being salted with fire. If you're already burned out by the Holy
Spirit, you can't be literally burned out by the judgements of the Lord! In fighting prairie fires, they used to
use a method called "backfiring"--they would set a controlled fire to the areas they had to save, so that
when the major fire reached that area, it was already burned out. Judgement begins at the House of the
Lord! We're the house of the Lord, & we're already judged by the Lord because we've accepted Him &
received His as payment. Therefore we don't have to undergo the literal horrible judgements that the World
is going to suffer.--Dad
288. David was greatly distressed and wept. No wonder, for he was enduring--Exile from his loved
homeland--'eating the bitter bread of banishment'. Ingratitude from the people whom he had saved from
Goliath and the Philistines: Postponement of his acceptance by his own people as their Divinely-appointed
king: Losses of material possessions snatched from him at a single blow, and of all he held dear; and
mutiny by his own followers, for 'the people spake of stoning him'.
Yet 'David encouraged himself in the Lord.'
(1Sam.30.6; 2Tim.4.17).
289. The mountain goat which lives in the higher reaches of the mountains must in due season
teach her offspring how to jump from crag to crag.
When they come to the edge of a ledge which mother has selected, the little fellow naturally
hesitates, so mother promptly pushes him over the cliff. Terrified, the young goat manages to strike his feet
against a jutting rock, and then he bounces safely to a trail below. Mother knows that there is a ledge below,
and a trail that her son can jump to, for she has made these jumps many times before, and she will not lead
her offspring into a task he is incapable of. The feet of a mountain goat are made 'non-skid.' In like manner
God trains His people. It is through God-appointed trials that our faith is strengthened.
(Deut.32.11; James 1.12)
292. God has done a mighty work in our hearts when we can praise Him in every pain, bless Him
for every burden, sing in every sorrow & delight in every discipline.
293. Adversity dose not make us frail; it only shows us how frail we are.
294. Poor King David, he had lots of troubles just like us sometimes, & he had his groanings. I
was always comforted by the Psalms, because when I have my hard times & troubles & my groanings, I
can remember, "Well, dear King David had the same problem sometimes!" Sometimes he was sure he was
finished! Once he said "I shall someday surely die at the hand of Saul!" (1Sam.27:1) That was really not
much faith, was it? He thought he was surely going to get killed by his enemies. But he didn't, did he? He
died in peace at a ripe old age when he was clear up in his 80's. He never got killed by his enemies & all of
his worries about his enemies killing him never happened. So he might as well have not done all his
worrying, just like I shouldn't worry.
The nice thing about all David's Psalms & all of his time that he gets down in the dumps & weeps
& groans & cries & laments is that he never stays there! He always pops back up again & winds up with a
positive note. I think the Lord probably let him have all these problems & troubles so he'd write about'm &
show how you can pull out of'm by looking to the Lord.--Dad
295. They say that the great London fire which destroyed most of London after the horrors of the
"Black Plague" had decimated most of its population--they say the fire probably was the best thing that
could have happened to London, to literally wipe out rat-infested buildings full of those bubonic-carrying
pests, & literally purge London from the putrefaction left by the plague, & purifying the city--lest, trade
centre that it was, it might have infected the entire World! The fire that destroyed London seemed a
catastrophic holocaust at the time, but is now known & realised as a blessing that blotted out the plagues of
the past! Both plague & fire seemed like the judgements of God on a wicked generation of Londoners, but
like most of God's merciful judgements, they turned out to be blessings of chastisement to purge & purify
His children & bring a change for the better!
--Dad
296. Afflictions are blessings to us when we can bless God for afflictions.
297. It lightens the stroke to draw near to Him who handles the rod.
298. We should be more anxious that our afflictions should benefit us than that they should be
speedily removed from us.
300. While the fire is hot, keep conversing with the Refiner.
301. You've got to believe & obey the Lord even if He never heals you! Like the three Hebrew
children who were thrown into the fiery furnace for refusing to renounce their faith & bow down to the
King of Babylon's idol: They said, "Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery
furnace, & He will deliver us out of thy hand. ... But if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not
serve thy gods, nor worship thy golden image!" (Dan.3:17,18)
And it looked like the end, because into the furnace they went, & the flames were so hot it even
killed their executioners! But because of their faith & obedience, God was with them, & they came out
without even the smell of smoke on them! (See Daniel 3.)
--Dad
302. I'm not alone, though others go
A different way from what I choose;
I'm not alone, though I say "No!"
I know that I will never lose.
I'm not alone, though others tease
And urge that I should go their way;
I'm not alone, though I displease
My friends by what I'll never say.
I'm not alone, for I now choose --
Though other folk may call me odd,
Though now it seems that I might lose --
To go the way that Jesus trod.
--L. E. Dunkin
311. The United States won its independence from Britain under the military leadership of a
soldier who would have been turned down flat by a modern draft board. When George Washington took
command of the Continental Army in 1775, Dr. Rudolph Marx writes in American Heritage, the 43-year-
old general was a man rendered hopelessly 4-F by previous attacks of smallpox, influenza, tubercular
pleurisy, dysentery, malaria. Despite his sickly condition, Marx says, "we have no record that Washington
was ever incapacitated all during the Revolutionary War."
317. Within a week after my conversion, I passed by a window of a picture store in St. Louis, and
saw hanging there an engraving of a painting of Daniel in the den of lions. The prophet, with his hands
behind him, and the lions circling about him, is looking up and answering the king's question. The one
thing I was in mortal fear of, in those days, was that I might go back to my sins. I was a drunken lawyer in
St. Louis when I was converted, with no power over an appetite for strong drink, and I was so afraid of a
barroom or a hotel or a club that when I saw I was coming to one I would cross the street. I was in torment
day and night. No one had told me anything about the keeping power of Jesus Christ. I stood before that
picture, and a great hope and faith came into my heart, and I said, "Why, these lions are all about ME--my
old habits and sins--but the God that shut the lions' mouths for Daniel can shut them for me." I learned that
my God was able. He had saved me, and He was able to deliver me from the lions. Oh, what a rest it was!
318. Use your cross as a crutch to help you on, and not as a stumblingblock to cast you down.
319. The meaning of trial is not only to test worthiness, but to increase it; as the oak is not only
tested by the storms, but toughened by them.
I do not know that road o'er which my feet must run the race,
But I do know, though rough it be, though steep in many a place,
He has said, "Sufficient is my grace,"
As I go on.
321. Health is a good thing, but sickness is far better if it leads us to God.
322. There is no commentary that opens up the Bible so much as sickness & sorrow.
326. I had a friend who was very happy in the possession of a beautiful wife, and a sweet little
daughter of the age of three. Sudden sorrow struck the home when the young wife was killed in a traffic
accident, and it seemed that all of the light had gone out of his life forever. The night after the funeral, the
young father was putting his baby daughter to bed, and with awkward fingers was buttoning her sleeping
garment when the lights suddenly went out all over the house. He suspected that a fuse had blown out in the
basement, and said to the baby, "Papa will be right back; you lie still and wait here." But she, frightened at
the thought of being left alone, pleaded to be taken with him, so he picked her up in his arms and started
through the darkened hallways and down the stairs.
The babe snuggled in his arms for a while in silence; but as they entered the basement she
tightened her arms about his neck, and said, "It's awfully dark; but I'm not afraid, because my papa is here!"
A sob shook the man's whole body. He buried his face in the baby's hair and wept, as he said, "Yes,
dear, it IS dark, indeed; but I also am not afraid, because MY Father is here!"--"I will never leave thee nor
forsake thee." (Hebrews 13:5)
327. A story is told of a Christian girl in India, who was about to be married. She was attractive,
and one of the most capable girls in the institution. Sores appeared on her hands, and it was discovered that
she had leprosy. She was removed from the orphanage and sent to the leper asylum. She was dressed in her
beautiful white flowing garments, as she walked with her brother into that awful place. The women who
were there were dirty and filthy, and their faces looked sad and hopeless. When she saw them, she threw
her head on her brother's shoulder, and wept and sobbed, "My God," she said, "am I going to become as
they are?" She was so distressed, that those about her were afraid she might jump into the well. The
missionaries sympathized with her, and asked her if she wouldn't like to be a help to those poor women. A
ray of hope came to her and she caught the vision. She started a school, and taught the women to sing, read
and write. She could play, so the missionaries bought her a folding organ. Gradually a transformation took
place. The houses were made clean, neat and tidy; the women washed their clothes and combed their hair;
and that horrible place became a place of blessing.
After being there for some time, she said, "When I first came to the asylum I doubted that there
was a God." "Now," she said, "I know that God had a work for me to do, and if I had not become a leper, I
never would have discovered my work. Every day I live, I thank Him for having sent me here, and that He
has given me this work to do."
328. No affliction would trouble a child of God if he knew God's reasons for sending it.
329. A Christian should never let adversity get him down--except on his knees.
330. Many a man has thought himself broken up, when he has merely been made ready for the
sowing.
331. Few people travel the road to success without a puncture or two.
332. Cast your troubles where you have cast your sins.
333. Dr. Handley Moule, Bishop of Durham, visited West Stanley immediately after a terrible
colliery explosion. He addressed the crowd at the pit's mouth, among whom were relatives of the entombed
miners. "It is very difficult," he said, "for us to understand why God should let such an awful disaster
happen, but we know Him and trust Him, and all will be right. I have at home an old bookmarker given me
by my mother. It is worked in silk, and when I examine the wrong side of it, I see nothing but a tangle of
threads. It looks like a big mistake. One would think that someone had done it who did not know what she
was doing. But when I turn it over and look at the right side, I see there, beautifully embroidered, the
letters, 'God is love!' We are looking at all this today," he continued "from the wrong side. Some day we
shall see it from another standpoint and we shall understand."
335. Have you ever gone to your parked car and found a traffic ticket on it? The experience doesn't
make one feel happy. For years, I had been parking my car in an alley near my Chicago home. Neither I nor
others doing likewise had ever been ticketed, as there was no regulation against parking there. Going out
one morning, I found a ticket on the car. I paid the three-dollar fine. For a while, I was hesitant to include
the unpleasant experience among the "all things" which work together for good to God's children. Not until
some days thereafter did I see the hand of God in the experience. During a wind storm a mammoth oak
went down and fell right across the place where I had been parking my car for years. Had my car been in its
accustomed place, it would have been smashed right in the middle! I humbly thanked God for the fact that
nothing of a chance nature can ever befall His children who are "the called according to his purpose."
338. God wants us to be victors, not victims; to grow, not grovel; to soar, not sink; to overcome,
not to be overwhelmed.
339. When Satan borrows our senses to speak one thing, let faith appropriate Scripture to speak the
contrary.
340. Oh, it is sad for a poor Christian to stand at the door of the promise in the dark night of
affliction afraid to draw the latch!
341. "For years I have been memorizing precious promises from God's Word, cherishing the
comforting thought that I would repeat them as I entered the valley of the shadow of death," said an aged,
dying saint to his pastor, "but now my memory has failed me completely."
"My friend, do you think God has forgotten them?"
"Of course not, pastor."
"Then why not rest in the Promiser Himself?" said the pastor.
343. Wesley, when traveling in a carriage one day along a narrow road filled with ruts, became
stuck in the mud. The delay especially disturbed him because he was eager to preach at the next town.
While some helpers tried to get the vehicle moving, another Christian came by.
Wesley talked with him a moment and perceived that the poor fellow was deeply troubled. Asking
why he was so distressed, he learned that because of a crop failure, the man was almost destitute. "I haven't
been able to get the money together to pay the rent," he said despairingly. "The landlord is ready to turn us
out, and I don't know where to go with my wife and children."
"How much do you owe?" Wesley inquired--"Well," said Wesley, "I believe we can handle that.
The Lord evidently wanted me to meet you."
Taking the money from his wallet, he handed it to the man and said, "Here, go and be happy!"
Then turning to his companions, he exclaimed, "Now I see why our carriage had to get stuck in the mud.
Our steps were halted so that we might help that needy family."
344. He that rides to be crowned will not think much of a rainy day.
345. My own weakness makes me shrink, but God's promise makes me brave.
347. You can usually determine the caliber of a man by ascertaining the amount of opposition it
takes to discourage him.
348. We must suffer patiently, because impatience is rebellion against the justice of God.
350. Years ago a fishing fleet went out from a small harbor on the east coast of Newfoundland. In
the afternoon there came up a great storm. When night settled down not a single vessel of all the fleet had
found its way into port. All night long wives, mothers, children, and sweethearts paced up and down the
beach, wringing their hands and calling on God to save their loved ones. To add to the horror of the
situation, one of the cottages caught fire. Since the men were all away, it was impossible to save the home.
When the morning broke, to the joy of all, the entire fleet found safe harbor in the bay. But there
was one face which was a picture of despair--the wife of the man whose home had been destroyed. Meeting
her husband as he landed, she cried, "Oh, husband, we are ruined! Our home and all it contained was
destroyed by fire!" But the man exclaimed, "Thank God for the fire! It was the light of our burning cottage
that guided the whole fleet into port!"
351. For the Christian, trials & temptation are not only means for proving his faith but for
improving his life.
355. The darker the night, the brighter the stars; the hotter the fire, the purer the gold.
356. The more a tree of righteousness is shaken by the wind, the more it is rooted in Christ.
357. The story is told of an only survivor of a wreck who was thrown on an uninhabited island.
After a while he managed to build himself a hut, in which he placed the little that he had saved from the
wreck. He prayed to God for deliverance, and anxiously scanned the horizon each day to hail any passing
ship. One day on returning from a hunt for food he was horrified to find his hut in flames,--all he had had
gone up in smoke. The worst had happened it seemed. But that which seemed to have happened for the
worst was in reality for the best. The next day a ship arrived. "We saw your smoke signal," the captain said.
If our lives are in God's hands "all things work together for good." (Rom.8:28)
358. In his Confessions, Augustine relates that when as a young man, having expressed a purpose
to visit Rome, his mother remonstrated, and prayed earnestly that he might be prevented from going, her
reason being that she feared the effect upon the young man of the temptations and vices with which the
great city abounded.
He went, however, and during his stay there was converted to Christianity under the preaching of
St. Ambrose. Augustine writes that her prayer was answered, though not in its outward form, but in its
inward heart. What she really prayed for was that he might be saved from the ways of sin.
360. Benjamin Franklin, in his autobiography, tells of the man who bought an ax from the local
blacksmith. The purchaser wanted the whole of its surface as bright as its edge, and this the smith
consented to do, provided the man would turn the wheel while he ground it. It was a hard, wearisome job
and often the man stopped to see how the ax was getting on. "Turn on, turn on," said the smith; "we shall
have it bright by and by; as yet it is only speckled."
"Yes," said the man, "but I think I like a speckled ax best."
Is this not the case with many of God's children? Instead of going all the way into the fully
consecrated and victorious Christian life, they become satisfied with "a speckled ax" Christian experience,
God's second best for them.
361. We must shed tears if we would hereafter have them wiped away.
364. Stars shine brightest in the darkest night. Grapes come not to the proof till they come to the
press. Spices smell sweetest when pounded. Young trees root the faster for shaking. Vines are the better for
bleeding. Gold looks the brighter for scouring; & juniper smells sweeter in the fire.
366. The late President Theodore Roosevelt was very near-sighted. He always carried with him
two pairs of glasses of different strength, one for near and the other for distant vision. During his last great
political campaign he was shot in the city of Milwaukee by a man called Schrenk. The surgeon who was
examining his wound handed him his steel spectacle case with the remark that it was due to its presence in
his vest pocket that he owed his life. The case had broken the force of the bullet and had deflected its
course from his heart. "Well, now, that's strange," said Mr. Roosevelt as he took the case with the shattered
spectacles. "I've always considered the burden and handicap of having to carry these two pairs of glasses,
especially these heavy ones that were in this case, as a very sore one, and here at last they have been the
means of saving my life." We may not always know in this life the reason for the handicaps with which we
may be afflicted. We are certain, however, that they are often blessings in disguise. Milton, blind, was much
more of a poet than when he had his full sight. The imprisoned Bunyan was writing for the ages to come.
Sometimes lameness comes to a man that he may be slowed up, live much longer and thereby continue his
work. Countless are the illustrations which reveal to us that God is in the events of our lives to a greater
extent than most of us imagine.
367. As William Dean Howells and Mark Twain were coming out of church one morning, it
commenced to rain heavily. "Do you think it will stop?" asked Howells.
"It always has," answered Twain.
369. If we cry to God for the removal of the oppression & affliction we are under, & it is not
removed, the reason is not because the Lord's hand is shortened or His ear heavy, but because the affliction
has not done its work.
370. No man, without trials & temptations, can attain a true understanding of the Holy
Scriptures.--Martin Luther
371. We should never see the stars if God did not sometimes take away the day.
372. When a man has the will the way will mostly open itself. Francis Mouthelon, to whom was
awarded the 1000 franc prize by the French society of artists for the loveliest painting in 1895, had no
hands. He painted with wonderful skill by means of a wooden hand.
An artist of Antwerp, having no arms, held his brush between the toes of his right foot while he
painted. He did his work most exquisitely. If you have the heart, my brother, to your work you will find the
way.
373. A certain missionary found herself seriously ill in the outpost where the Lord had stationed
her. To add to her sorrow her check had not arrived and she was forced day after day to do without the good
food she needed and to live on a miserable diet of oatmeal and canned milk. In spite of everything, the lady
missionary got better, and after 30 days of steady oatmeal diet, she finally got her check and was able to get
something different on the table.
During her illness she had "a little sneaking suspicion" that the Lord was not doing her right.
When furlough time came, she told of her great trial to an eager audience. At the close of the meeting, a
kindly doctor inquired as to the nature of her ailment. On hearing what the digestional malfunction was, he
said, "Well, if your check had arrived, you would not be here talking to me today. And the diet we always
prescribe for that trouble is a 30-day oatmeal diet."
374. Dr. Hubert Davidson visited the noted poetess, Myra Brooks Welch, who perhaps is best
known for her masterpiece, "The Touch of the Master's Hand." As he turned to leave her home, Myra
Welch patted the arm of her wheelchair and said, "And I thank God for this." Imagine being grateful for a
wheelchair! But her talent lay undiscovered prior to her wheelchair days. Rather than becoming bitter, she
chose a better way, and a wonderful ministry opened new doors of blessings for her. Her poems have
blessed the whole world.
375. Henry Fawcett accompanied his father on a hunting trip. The father accidentally discharged
his shotgun, blinding his son in both eyes. The boy was just twenty at the time.
Before the accident, the son had been a bright, ambitious young man with a great future. No one
would have blamed him if the accident had made him bitter and full of despair. And that was how it did
seem to him at first. But there was one thing that saved him: he had deeply loved his father and knew that
his father was nearly out of his mind with grief at what he had done to his son.
The only way he could save his father's sanity was to choose hope over terrible despair. And that is
just what he did. He pretended to be cheerful when he was not. He pretended to take an interest in life that
he did not feel. He pretended to have hope that he could be a useful citizen, though he himself felt no such
hope.
Then an odd thing happened. The pretense turned into reality. It was as if, by an act of will, he had
exorcised an evil spirit, driving it out of himself. The result: Henry Fawcett was elected to Parliament.
Later, at Gladstone's request, he became postmaster general, where he brought about great improvements in
the English postal and telegraph systems.
378. The tools that the great Architect intends to use much are often kept long in the fire, to temper
them & fit them for work.
379. Trials are intended to make us think, to wean us from the World, to send us to the Bible, to
drive us to our knees.
380. Poverty & affliction take away the fuel that feeds pride.
381. The tears of affliction are often needed to keep the eye of faith bright.
382. Thomas A. Edison's plant was on fire. As he helplessly watched it burn, taking his costly
experiments up in flames, he called his son Charles. "Come!" he said. "You'll never see anything like this
again!" Then he called his wife. As the three stood gazing, Edison said, "There go all our mistakes. Now we
can start over afresh." In two weeks he started rebuilding the plant, and it was not long before he invented
the phonograph.
383. Katherine Bevis tells how among the students at a well-known college there was a young man
who had to get about on crutches. He had an unusual talent for friendliness and optimism and so won the
deep respect of his classmates. One day a student asked him what had caused his deformity. "Infantile
paralysis," he replied briefly, not wishing to elaborate on his difficulties.
"With a misfortune like that, how can you face the world so cheerfully?" inquired his classmate.
"Oh," replied the young Christian, smiling, "the disease never touched my heart."
384. Cold blasts make a fire to flame the higher & burn the better.
385. Despise not the desert. There is where God polishes His brightest gems.
388. Christ went by the cross to the crown, & we must not think of going any other way.
388a. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph at age 30, and he was almost totally deaf from
childhood. He could hear only the loudest noises and shouts. This kind of delighted him, for he said, "A
man who has to shout can never tell a lie!"
His other inventions: incandescent bulb, microphone, mimeograph, fluoroscope and movies.
389. Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott were both lame. Byron was embittered by his lameness,
brooded on it till he loathed it, never entered a public place but his mind reverted to it, so that much of the
color and zest of existence were lost to him. Scott, on the other hand, never complained or spoke one bitter
word about his disability, not even to his dearest friend. In the circumstances it is not so very surprising that
Sir Walter should have received a letter from Byron with this sentence in it: "Ah, Scott, I would give my
fame to have your happiness."
390. For several months after he was born, Robert Louis Stevenson was not expected to live, his
health was so delicate. Sickness kept him from making much progress in school, and from joining in
strenuous exercises, and so he developed a love for stories, especially tales of the sea. In early manhood he
began to weave his own stories.
Bad health plagued him all through life. Yet, his courage and cheerfulness have seldom been
equalled. He had made a resolution never to complain, even though he could not share in the strenuous life
he admired so much. Still seeking soundness of body, he went to the island of Samoa, whose natives soon
came to love him as they gathered about every evening to hear their "Tusitala" or "Teller of Tales" as they
called him.
On this island he died in December of 1894, and is buried there. The world of literature is much
richer for his efforts. Almost every schoolboy is familiar with his entrancing story Treasure Island. His tales
have made him famous. But beneath it all is the more enduring and helpful legacy bequeathed by
Stevenson--his courage and cheerfulness in the face of such overwhelming odds.
391. To hold on to the plough while wiping our tears, that is Christianity.
392. God loves His people when He strikes them as well as when He strokes them.
393. Those whom God loves He takes to pieces; & then puts them together again.
394. Paradoxical as it may seem, God means not only to make us good, but to make us also happy,
by sickness, disaster & disappointment.
396. In Western Africa, it was fourteen years before one convert was received into the church. In
East Africa, ten; in New Zealand, nine years before one baptism and two more years before one
communicant; in Tahiti, it was sixteen years before the first harvest.
William Carey labored seven years before the first Hindu convert was baptized. In Burma, Judson
toiled for seven years before he had one, once writing England:
"Beg the churches to have patience. If a ship were here to carry me to any part of the world, I
would not leave my field. Tell the brethren success is as certain as the promise of a faithful God can make
it."
397. Could anything be more boring than sweeping floors? Murray Spangler, a department store
janitor in Canton, Ohio, didn't think so, even though the dust made him wheeze and cough. Many men
would have given up and quit. Instead, Spangler set out to find a better way to clean floors. "Why not
eliminate the broom," he wondered, "... maybe something that would suck up dust ... ?"
Spangler's question led to a crude but workable vacuum cleaner, which he induced an old friend in
the leather business to finance. The friend's name was H. W. Hoover.
398. When the late Bishop of Madras was visiting Travancore, there was introduced to him a little
slave girl called "The Child Apostle." She had won this title by the zeal with which she talked of Christ to
others. Her quiet, steady persistence in this had won several converts to Christ. But she had suffered
persecution too brutal to relate. When she was introduced to the Bishop, her face, neck and arms were
disfigured and scarred by stripes and blows. As he looked at her, the good man's eyes filled, and he said,
"My child, how could you bear this?"
She looked up at him in surprise and said, "Don't you like to suffer for Christ, sir?"
399. A sculptor does not use a manicure set to reduce the crude unshapely marble to a thing of
beauty.
401. Come then, affliction, if my Father wills, & be my frowning friend. A friend that frowns is
better than a smiling enemy.
402. Trials always change our relationship with God. Either they drive us to Him, or they drive us
away from Him.
403. If you would not have affliction visit you twice, listen at once to what it teaches.
404. The early Christians were so devoid of any political or worldly "pull" that they could not stay
out of jail. Yet they were so endued with the power of the Holy Spirit that no prison was strong enough to
hold them!
407. John Wesley was riding along a road one day when it dawned on him that three whole days
had passed in which he had suffered no persecution. Not a brick or an egg had been thrown at him for three
days.
Alarmed, he stopped his horse, and exclaimed, "Can it be that I have sinned, and am backslidden?"
Slipping from his horse, Wesley went down on his knees and began interceding with God to show
him where, if any, there had been a fault.
A rough fellow, on the other side of the hedge, hearing the prayer, looked across and recognized
the preacher. "I'll fix that Methodist preacher," he said, picking up a brick and tossing it over at him. It
missed its mark, and fell harmlessly beside John. Whereupon Wesley leaped to his feet joyfully exclaiming,
"Thank God, it's all right. I still have His presence."
408. Trials are medicines which our gracious & wise Physician prescribes, because we need them;
& He proportions the frequency & weight of them to what the case requires.
409. If the sun of God's countenance shines upon me, I may well be content with the rain of
affliction.
410. Perils & frights should drive us to God, not from Him.
414. As Adoniram Judson lay in a foul Burmese jail with thirty-two pounds of chains on his
ankles, and his feet tied to a bamboo pole, one sneeringly asked, "What about the prospects of converting
the heathen?" Instantly Judson replied, "The prospects are just as bright as the unfailing promises of the
never-failing God!"
417. Lord, how happy it is when strong afflictions from Thee raise in us strong affections for
Thee!
418. The average man can stand adversity better than prosperity.
419. When things get rough, remember: It's the rubbing that brings out the shine.
420. Character, like sweet herbs, should give off its finest fragrance when pressed.
421. There are two ways of meeting difficulties: alter the difficulties, or alter yourself to meet
them.
422. The only thing worse than a quitter is the man who is afraid to begin.
423. The man who lacks courage to start, has made a finish already.
424. Nearly every bride once received a copy of America's famous cookbook entitled Fanny
Farmer's Cookbook. How many women, however, know that these culinary secrets were revealed by a
cripple?
425. When the Emperor Valens sent messengers to lure Eusebius into heresy by fair words and
glowing promises, the saint answered them: "Alas, sirs, these speeches are fit to catch children; but we,
who are taught and nourished by the Sacred Scriptures, are ready to suffer a thousand deaths, rather than
permit one tittle of the Scriptures to be altered."
Then the emperor threatened to take by force all his goods, to torture him, banish him, and even
kill him. Answered the courageous Christian:
"He needs not fear confiscation, who has nothing to lose; nor banishment, to whom heaven is his
country; nor torments, when his body can be destroyed at one blow; nor death, which is the only way to set
him at liberty from sin and sorrow."
427. How would a person ever know whether his faith was weak or strong unless it has been tried
& tested?
428. Prosperity makes friends; adversity tries them.
429. God often tries us with a little to see what we would do with a lot.
430. When you're up to your ears in trouble, try using the part that isn't submerged.
431. The triumphal song of life would lose its melody without its minor keys.
432. It's not so bad making mistakes so long as you don't make a habit of it.
434. The story is told of Sundar Singh who was traveling with a Tibetan companion on a bitterly
cold day. Snow was falling heavily, and both men were almost too frozen to go forward; they felt they
would never survive the terrible experience. They reached a steep precipice, and there they saw that a man
had slipped over the edge, and was lying, almost dead, on the ledge of rock below. Sundar suggested that
they should carry the poor fellow into safety. The Tibetan refused to help, saying it was all they could do to
save themselves; and he went on, leaving Sundar behind. With great difficulty the Sadhu managed to get
the dying man up the slope and on to his back, and then he struggled on with his heavy burden. Before long
he came upon the body of his former companion, the Tibetan. He was dead, frozen to death. On struggled
Sundar, and gradually the dying man, receiving warmth from the friction of his own body against that of his
rescuer, began to revive, while the Sadhu himself grew warm through his labour. At last they reached a
village and were safe. With a full heart, Sundar thought of the words of his Master: "Whosoever will save
his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it."
435. When God allows a burden to be put upon you, He will put His arms underneath you to help
you carry it.
436. It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.
437. The heaviest burdens in life are the things that might happen but don't.
438. The burdens that appear easiest to carry are those born by others.
440. It had been a dull year in the church where Moffat was converted. The deacons finally said to
the old pastor: "We love you, pastor, but don't you think you had better resign? There hasn't been a convert
this year."
"Yes," he replied, "it has been a dull year, sadly dull to me. Yet, I mind me that one did come, wee
Bobby Moffat. But he is so wee a bairn that I suppose it is not right to count him."
A few years later Bobby came to the pastor and said, "Pastor, do you think that I could ever learn
to preach? I feel within me that I ought to. If I could just lead souls to Christ, that would be happiness to
me."
The pastor answered, "Well, Bobby, you might. Who knows? At least you can try!" He did try, and
years later when Robert Moffat came back from his wonder-work in Africa the King of England rose &
uncovered his head in his presence, & the British Parliament stood as a mark of respect. The humble old
preacher, who had but one convert, and who was so discouraged, is dead & forgotten, and yet that was the
greatest year's work he ever did, and few have equalled it!
442. One day during his great mission in London, Mr. Moody was holding a meeting in a theater
packed with a most select audience. Noblemen and noblewomen were there in large numbers, and a
prominent member of the royal family was in the royal box.
Mr. Moody arose to read the Scripture lesson. He attempted to read Luke 4:27: "And many lepers
were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet." When he came to the mane Eliseus he stammered and
stuttered over it. He went back to the beginning of the verse and began to read again, but when he reached
the word "Eliseus" he could not get over it. He went back the third time, but again the word was too much
for him. He closed the Bible with deep emotion and looked up and said, "Oh, God, use this stammering
tongue to preach Christ crucified to these people."
The power of God came upon him, and one who heard him then and had heard him often at other
times said to me that he had never heard Mr. Moody pour out his soul in such a torrent of eloquence as he
did then, and the whole audience was melted by the power of God.
444. Courage is the quality it takes to look at yourself with candor, your adversaries with kindness,
& your setbacks with serenity.
445. Trouble is what gives a fellow a chance to discover his strength--or lack of it.
447. The noble character of General O. O. Howard, whose death occurred some years ago, is well
known; and he was often referred to as the "Christian Soldier." Concerning General Howard, Dr. F.E. Clark
relates this incident: "When first appointed in command of a regiment located at Governor's Island, he used
to walk up and down Broadway, New York, where he was jostled in the crowds. This jostling pained and
irritated him, as his arm had been amputated at the shoulder. In his fear that this irritation would sour his
disposition he used to pray, as anyone ran into him and hurt him, "God bless him!" This habit became such
second nature with him that he was constantly praying for those about him."
448. For days the snow fell unabated until the roofs of the homes were heavy with snow. One
night, a robber entered a home occupied by a Christian man and wife and their baby. As the robber moved
about the room where all three were sleeping, the baby began to move and showed signs of awakening. The
robber, fearing that the baby might awaken and cry, and thus betray his presence, gently lifted the sleeping
infant from his crib, and placed him just outside the front door. The baby awakened and began to cry. His
crying awakened the father and mother. They ran in the direction where it came from. Just as they ran out
of the front door. the roof of their home fell in. Later, the robber was found dead beneath the ruins near the
things he had stolen!
449. I suddenly had the most wonderful thrilling peaceful feeling, perfect calm, perfect peace! I
guess it's what you'd call "Dying Grace!" It reminds me of that story I used to tell about Dwight L. Moody:
The two old sisters came up to Dr. Moody & asked him after the church service one night. They said, "Dr.
Moody, do you have dying grace?" He said, "No, dear sisters, I don't." And they looked shocked! "Why, Dr.
Moody! You don't have dying grace?" He said, "No, I'm not dying yet!"--Dad
451. A Communist teacher in East Germany said to a class of children: "Stand and say, 'There is no
God.'" A little eight-year-old girl from a Christian home refused. She was threatened, but she wouldn't say
the words. Finally the teacher angrily said "Go home and write fifty times, 'There is no God,' and give me
the paper tomorrow!" That night she sat down and wrote fifty times, "Es gibt doch ein Gott"--"There is a
God!" The teacher was angry. "When you go home write five hundred times, 'There is no God,' or else!"
The "or else" meant terrible punishment. The next day, the father and the little girl went to the
superintendent of the school and told him what had happened. "Don't worry," he said to the little girl. "Your
teacher was killed in a motorcycle accident last night. The matter is settled. Go to your class!"
452. A brilliant Chinese student was offered a fine position with the government. When Bishop
Wilson S. Lewis asked the young man why he refused the splendid offer and volunteered to preach the
Gospel for a mere pittance, he said:
"During the Boxer Uprising I lived in an inland village where there was a temple for devil
worship. The Christians were led by the soldiers to that temple and ordered to renounce their religion and
bow before the devil image or they would be executed. I saw one hundred and sixty-three of my townsmen
walk by the devil god with heads erect, when a little bow would have saved their lives--then out to a great
beam over which they placed their heads for the swift stroke of the executioner's sword that sent their heads
rolling in the dust. My father was one of that number. It was the unshaken integrity of their faith that
thrilled me and gave me a longing for the new life. I must go back and tell my fellow townsmen of Christ
who loves them, and of his power to save."
453. A Christian must get on his knees before he can get on his feet.
454. The cross is easier to the Christian who takes it up than to the one who drags it along.
455. It is usually not so much the greatness of our troubles as the littleness of our spirit which
causes us to complain.
456. Many things are worse than defeat, & compromise with evil is one of them.
457. On a Friday morning, an eager young man from Stanford University stood before Louis
Janin, seeking part-time employment. "All I need right now," said Janin, "is a stenographer." I'll take the
job," said the eager applicant, "but I can't come back until next Tuesday." On Tuesday he reported for duty.
"Why couldn't you come back before Tuesday?" Janin wanted to know. "Because I had to rent a typewriter
and learn to use it!" was the unexpected answer. That quickly prepared typist was Herbert Hoover!
459. A man whom others called poor, but who had just enough fortune to support himself, went
about the country in the simplest way, studying and enjoying the life and beauty of it.
He once talked with a great millionaire who was engaged in business, working at it daily, and
getting richer each week. The poor man said to the millionaire, "I am a richer man than you are."
"How do you figure that?" asked the millionaire.
"Why," he replied "I have as much money as I want, and you haven't."
460. He who receives scars for Christ here will wear stars with Christ there.
461. The sound of an egg beater drew me into the kitchen one day, & there I found my mother at
work...I began to watch what she was doing. I would find out just what she put into that chocolate cake that
made it so good. There was chocolate, of course, & I reached for a little crumb that had fallen off the bar...It
was bitter. I glanced at the other things on the table. There was a cupful of sour milk--surely Mother wasn't
going to put that in the cake!...I saw her add it, along with some of that awful soda that she had given me
once for stomachache. What kind of cake could she possibly make out of such things?...My nose turned up,
but Mother only smiled & told me to wait & see.
We were eating dinner...It was true that it looked as good as usual, but I tasted it carefully, a little
crumb, then a larger crumb, and finally a whole bite. It couldn't have been better. I forgot all about the sour
milk & asked for another piece.
Life is not all sweetness--there is much that is bitter, & we cannot believe anything good will come
from it. Certainly, all things are not good, but "all things work together for good." This is God's promise to
them that love Him. Day by day He is making you what He wants you to be, & He will never put anything
into your life by mistake.
462. Remember the steam kettle! Though up to its neck in hot water, it continues to sing.
463. Tackle any difficulty at first sight, for the longer you gaze at it the bigger it grows.
465. There are some flowers that will not yield their perfume till they are bruised.
466. The secret of happiness is to count your blessings while others are adding up their troubles.
467. When Robert Bruce, the famous emancipator of Scotland, was fleeing from his enemies, he
sought refuge in a cave. Although they were hot on his trail, when they reached his hideout a spider had
built a web over the mouth of the cave. His pursuers concluded that he could not have entered without first
destroying the web. Naturally they presumed that he had fled elsewhere. No wonder Bruce prayed, "O God
I thank Thee that in the tiny bowels of a spider you can save for me a shelter, and then send the spider in
time to place it for my protection."
471. Be happy when your troubles are at their worst--it means that anything that happens will be
an improvement.
472. Examine your troubles & you'll often find your name stamped on them as the manufacturer.
473. Borrowing trouble is as easy as pie, but the carrying charge runs pretty high.
474. Perhaps you heard about the Yankee shoe salesman who went to Africa & wired his
manufacturer, "I want to come home. Nobody wears shoes in this part of Africa." So they brought him
home & sent another salesman who shipped back order after order. He wrote the home office, "Everybody
here needs shoes!"
475. One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one
belonging to him & the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He
noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that
it happened at the very lowest & saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him & he questioned the Lord about it. "Lord, You said that once I decided to
follow You, You'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in
my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed You most You would
leave me."
The Lord replied, "My son, My precious child, I love you & would never leave you. During your
times of trial & suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."
476. John Burroughs, the naturalist, says that when a hawk is attacked by crows or kingbirds, he
does not make a counterattack, but soars higher and higher in ever widening circles until his tormentors
leave him alone.
477. If you find yourself getting miserly, begin to scatter, like a wealthy farmer in New York State
that I heard of. He was a noted miser but he was converted. Soon after, a poor man who had been burned
out and had no provisions, came to him for help. The farmer thought he would be liberal and give him a
ham from his smoke house. On his way to get it, the Tempter whispered to him:
"Give him the smallest one you have."
He had a struggle whether he would give a large ham or a small ham, but finally he took down the
largest he could find.
"You are a fool," the Devil said.
"If you don't keep still," the farmer replied, "I'll give him every ham I have in the smokehouse."
478. Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do which must be
done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you
temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues
which the idle never know.
479. Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three: all they have
now, all they have had, & all they expect to have.
480. We are told that the gray heron has a very singular mode of defense. When attacked by the
eagle or falcon it simply stands quiet and firm, using its bill as a sword, allowing the enemy to pierce
himself through by his own force. The Christian's method of defense is very similar. We have the sword of
the Spirit. When attacked by the enemy, stand firm and display the Word; hold it forth. The more fiercely
the foe attacks, the more surely will he pierce himself with it.
481. Did you ask the Lord for patience?
Did you plead for it in prayer?
But when tribulation tried you,
Did you think He didn't care?
Oh, my child, He heard & answered,
Answered full your earnest cry;
"Tribulation worketh patience!"
Now you know the reason why.
483. When you get to the end of your rope, be thankful--God is there!
484. Maybe the Lord allows some people to get into trouble because that is the only time they ever
think of Him.
485. The college of hard knocks is about the only one that doesn't let the student drop out if the
course gets tough.
486. Laughter is the shock absorber that erases the blows of life.
487. The path was steep & snowy--the way was hard & cold,
The wind rushed fiercely at us like a wolf upon the fold;
And we bit our lips & struggled in the terror of the blast,
And we blessed our staffs & wondered if the storm would soon be past.
Sometimes our feet slipped backwards on the crusty ice & snow,
Sometimes we stumbled, helpless, for the way was hard to go;
Sometimes we fell, & falling, we were sorry we had tried
To reach the mountain's summit, & the hope within us died.
The path was steep & snowy--the way was hard & cold,
But we struggled ever forward, half afraid--no longer bold;
And with dogged perseverance, we pushed up the hidden trail,
And we seemed but children playing with the elements--too frail
To live long in the displeasure of the wind, hail & sleet,
And the snowy down-like blanket seemed a mammoth winding sheet--
And we almost started homeward with a weary broken sigh,
But we flinched & struggled forward 'neath the scorn that cleft the sky.
The path was steep & snowy--the way was hard & cold,
But at last we reached the summit, & it glittered with the gold
Of the sun that had been shining, with a perfect, glowing light
From behind the heavy storm clouds that had turned the day to night.
And standing on the summit, we looked down & tried to pray,
For we wished to thank the Father Who had kept us on our way;
For the snow & sleet & windstorm were but trifles in the past,
And they made the sunshine brighter when we reached the top at last.
--Margaret E. Sangster, Jr.
488. God writes with a pen that never blots, speaks with a tongue that never slips, & acts with a
hand that never fails.
489. Half our troubles come in wanting our way; the other half comes in getting it.
490. When you brood over your troubles you are certain to hatch despair.
491. If you could kick the person who is most responsible for your troubles, you wouldn't be able
to sit down for a week.
494. Jesus Christ never met an unimportant person. That is why God sent His Son to die for us. If
someone dies for you, you must be important.
495. We never need be ashamed of our poverty unless our own sins have brought it upon us.
496. Trouble causes some people to go to pieces; others to come to their senses.
497. Of all the troubles great or small, the greatest are those that don't happen at all.
500. The cry of man's anguish went up to God, "Lord, take away pain!
The shadow that darkens the World Thou hast made; The close coiling chain
That strangles the heart: the burden that weighs on the wings that would soar--
Lord, take away pain from the World Thou hast made that it love Thee the more!"
Then answered the Lord to the cry of the World, "Shall I take away pain,
and with it the power of the soul to endure, made strong by the strain?
Shall I take away pity that knits heart to heart, and sacrifice high?
Will ye lose all your heroes that lift from the fire
White brows to the sky?
Shall I take away love that redeems with a price,
And smiles with its loss?
Can ye spare from your lives that would cling unto Mine
The Christ on his cross?"
501. What a different World this would be if people would only magnify their blessings the way
they do their troubles.
502. You'll have a better life if you make the most of the best & the least of the worst.
503. Life is like a mirror. If we frown at it, it frowns back. If we smile, it returns the greeting.
504. If your life looks cloudy, maybe the windows of your soul need washing.
508. Remember your spiritual system, forget your nervous system, & you'll have a place in God's
Heavenly system.
509. There is more chance for a cripple on the right road than for an athlete on the wrong road.
510. You can't have rosy thoughts about the future when your mind is full of the blues about the
past.
511. The optimist says his glass is half full; the pessimist says his glass is half empty.
512. Old Black Sam was the servant of this wealthy plantation owner down South. Sam was asked
by his master one day,
"How come, Sam, that you're a Christian & yet you have all these troubles & trials & tribulations?
Here I don't even believe in God & yet I don't have as much trouble as you do!" He said, "Well, Boss, I
guess I have to think for a little while before I can answer that one."
A few days later they were out duck hunting. In bird hunting, some birds are killed & some are just
lamed or temporarily wounded. Sometimes they'll even get up & fly off again if you don't grab them quick.
So his master yelled at him after he'd been shooting at several ducks & said,
"Bag the live ones! Bag the live ones! Leave the dead ones lay!" And old Sam came back & said,
"I think I got the answer, Boss." He said, "I'm a live one! The Devil is afraid I'm going to get away, so he
tries to bag me first. You's a dead one, he's already got you, he's not a bit worried about you!"--Dad.
513. An old deacon who used to pray every Wednesday night at prayer meeting always concluded
his prayer the same way: "And, Lord, clean all the cobwebs out of my life." The cobwebs were those things
that ought not to have been there, but had gathered during the week. It got too much for one fellow in the
prayer meeting, and he heard the old deacon one time too often. So when the man made that prayer, the
fellow jumped to his feet and shouted: "Lord, Lord, don't do it! Kill the spider!" That's what needs to
happen.
517. The prisoner of limitation is the person who says, "It can't be done." According to the laws of
aerodynamics the bumblebee is unable to fly. This is because the size, the weight & the shape of the body,
in relation to wingspread, makes flying impossible. But the bumblebee, being ignorant of the scientific
truths, goes ahead & flies anyway.
521. A real man is one who finds excuses for others, but never for himself.
522. We may not be responsible for many of the things that happen to us, but we are responsible
for the way we react when they do happen.
524. Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.
526. One stormy night in 1910, a group of traveling musicians arrived at the city of Riga, on the
Baltic Sea, to fulfil a concert engagement.
The weather was so bad, however, & the concert hall so far out of town, that the conductor of the
orchestra tried to persuade the manager of the hall to cancel the concert. He felt no one would venture out
on such a wild night.
The manager refused to cancel, but he agreed that if no one turned up, the orchestra could leave
early in order to catch the night boat for Helsinki, Finland.
When the musicians arrived at the concert hall, they found only one person sitting in the
audience...a stout old gentleman who seemed to smile at everyone.
Because of this old music-lover, the musicians were forced to play the entire concert. They were,
therefore, unable to leave early & catch the boat.
After the concert was over, the old man continued to keep his seat. Thinking he was asleep, an
usher nudged his shoulder. Only then was it discovered that the old man was not alive. The musicians had
played an entire concert for a dead man!
But in doing this, they also saved their lives. For the boat they would have taken to Helsinki went
down that stormy night with all hands lost.
527. Make yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts. None of us know what fairy palaces we may
build of beautiful thought--proof against all adversity. Bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble histories,
faithful sayings, treasure houses of precious & restful thoughts, which care cannot disturb, nor pain make
gloomy, nor poverty take away from us--houses built without hands, for our souls to live it.
528. You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all day today.
529. Here is the story by a stenographer who found it paid to act as if her work were interesting.
She used to fight her work. But no more:
There are four stenographers in my office & each of us is assigned to take letters from several
men. Once in awhile we get jammed up in these assignments; & one day, when an assistant department
head insisted that I do a long letter over, I started to rebel. I tried to point out to him that the letter could be
corrected without being retyped--& he retorted that if I didn't do it over, he would find someone else who
would! I was absolutely fuming! But as I started to retype this letter, it suddenly occurred to me that there
were a lot of other people who would jump at the chance to do the work I was doing. Also, that I was being
paid a salary to do just that work. I began to feel better. I suddenly made up my mind to do my work as if I
actually enjoyed it--even though I despised it. Then I made this important discovery: if I do my work as if I
really enjoy it, then I do enjoy it to some extent. I also found I can work faster when I enjoy my work. So
there is seldom any need now for me to work overtime. This new attitude of mine gained me the reputation
of being a good worker. And when one of the department superintendents needed a private secretary, he
asked for me for the job--because, he said, I was willing to do extra work without being sulky! This matter
of the power of a changed mental attitude has been a tremendously important discovery to me. It has
worked wonders!
530. "I am a lucky man," white-bearded Pierre Renoir told his friends. "Now I can do nothing but
paint."
He was in a wheel chair, this shy little man, humming off key, his fingers & joints twisted by
rheumatism. Strapped to one hand was an artist's brush, with which he made painful strokes on the canvas
in front of him. Yet, to look at his easel, no one would have guessed how much he suffered; he painted only
beauty. He was already famous & could have rested on his past glories, but he forced his stony hands to
create still more loveliness. Later collectors & museums were to pay small fortunes for the fruits of his
determination.
He got things done because he wanted to do things; he could not tolerate doing nothing. But
Renoir did not need the heavy time of illness to make him want to do something. He was a genius, & a
large ingredient in genius is a wish to get things done that is stronger than one's natural inclination to
laziness.
531. The lilting music of "Pinafore" must have been written by a happy, carefree man; or so it
would seem.
It was written by Sir Arthur Sullivan while he was in torment from kidney stones. His pain, day &
night, did not keep him from getting things done. He made the pain more endurable by creating frolicsome
music, not a dirge.
532. The man who really wants to do something finds a way; the other man finds an excuse.
533. There was a young woman who had taken ballet lessons all through her childhood, & now
she felt that she was ready to commit herself to the study & discipline necessary to make a career of it. She
wanted to be a prima ballerina, but first she wanted to be sure that she had a special talent. So when the
ballet company came to town she went backstage after the performance & spoke to the ballet master.
"I want to be a great ballerina," she said, "but I don't know if I have the talent."
"Dance for me," the master said, & after only a minute or so he shook his head. "No, no," he said.
"You don't have what it takes."
The young woman went home, heartbroken. She tossed her ballet slippers in the closet & never
wore them again. Instead, she got married & had babies, & when the kids were old enough she took a part-
time job running a cash register at the convenience store.
Years later she attended the ballet, & on the way out she ran into the old master, now in his
eighties. She reminded him that they had spoken before. She showed him photos of her kids & told him
about the job at the convenience store, & then she said, "There's just one thing that's always bothered me.
How could you tell so quickly that I didn't have what it takes?"
"Oh, I barely looked at you when you danced," he said. "That's what I tell all of them who come to
me."
"But that's unforgivable," she cried. "You ruined my life. Maybe I could have been a great prima
ballerina."
"No, I don't think so," said the old master. "If you had had what it takes you wouldn't have paid
any attention to what I said."
534. Brooks Brothers, the men's store, has a well-earned reputation for imperturbability. On the
opening day of its Chicago branch, in 1950, the manager was briefing his salespeople. Just before the doors
were unlocked, a Cadillac went out of control & ran through the show window. "Gentleman," the manager
said to his staff, "our first customers have arrived."
535. Just over the hill is a beautiful valley, but you must climb the hill to see it.
536. Louis was a blind boy. He had been able to see when he was born, but a serious accident lost
him his sight. He was sent to a school for blind children.
But Louis did not waste his time feeling sorry for himself because he could not see like other
children. Reading was the skill he most longed to have; & he began to dream of finding a way to help blind
people to read easily. He tried one method after another, but without success. Then one day he heard of a
captain in the army who had found a way of sending messages to his soldiers at night. He did it by piercing
a piece of cardboard so as to form letters on its surface. Louis knew at once that this was the answer he was
seeking.
It took him ten years to work out this system. But he kept at it steadily, & at last he had perfected
it. And today the name of this blind boy is known throughout the World, & especially by the blind, for the
system of reading which he created is called by his own surname--Braille.
537. "I need a better place to work, more equipment," is also a common alibi. But the Curies
isolated radium in a rickety shed. The Brashears made their famous astronomical lenses in a shack that was
just as rickety & much smaller. Rokitansky founded pathological anatomy in a shed in Vienna. Einstein
worked in a plain room on a plain kitchen table.
Poor workplaces do not discourage people; they discourage themselves.
"People bother me & prevent me from getting things done," is another of the side-stepper's
allegations.
Yet A. Canan Doyle wrote some of his famous Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in the corner of a
room where a dozen people were talking & milling about. George Sand scribbled even surrounded by
friends. Concentration is needed for such work, but some people let nothing deter them from getting things
done. They do not let grass grow under their feet merely because others are there to distract them.
538. Lord, rebuke this devilish sickness! Precious Jesus, rebuke this thing, in the name of Jesus!
You promised, "They shall lay hands on the sick & they shall be healed." So I right now lay my hands on
this sick one, & Lord, I command Thee to recover her. You said, "Command thou Me." So we ask Thee in
Jesus' name to do it!--Dad
539. You have to claim the victory. You have to rebuke the Enemy & resist the Evil One & he will
flee from you, in Jesus' name!--Dad
540. Arriving at Chester at 2 a.m. on a cold winter's night, after a rough passage across the Irish
Channel, I found I should have five or six hours to wait before the train would arrive to take me the rest of
my journey.
The station is a dreary place to wait in at this hour, and season. It is cold, desolate, and terribly
draughty, being open from end to end, and not a terminus. I went to the waiting room and found an old
porter, apparently the only man left on the premises at that hour, sweeping out the room. I could not help
noticing his face, as it had such a happy, patient look.
'Are you here all night?' I said.
'For many, many years, sir, I've been on night duty here; but I'm almost worn out now."
'It must be very cold for you, you don't look very strong."
"No, sir, I'm not, and I'm almost racked to death with the rheumatics, but oh, sir, I've had such a
blessed time this night, although the cold has gone right through my old bones.'
Curious to know, and but half suspecting the old porter's source of comfort, I said that there was
not much comfort in being frozen to death with cold.
'Oh! sir,' said the old man, his face all lighting up, 'it is not that, but what I've been a-thinking of
before you came in was that blessed Jesus; and what love it was of Him to go and take a body that could
feel, and go through all His sorrow and suffering down here that He night be able to understand all my cold
and pain this night, while He's up there in Heaven. I know His feeling for me, and He knows and
understands all I suffer; and when I think of Him a-feeling for me and loving me up there, I seem as if I
didn't half mind the pain. Oh! 'tis a wonderful thing--His love--isn't it, sir?'
Through God's mercy I was enabled to share my fellow-pilgrim's enjoyment of the Good
Shepherd's love, and a happy time we spent together talking of the One dear to both our hearts.
(Gal.2.20; Heb.2.18; 4.15)
541. A thirteen-year old girl left her village and was travelling to another place. On the road a lama
met her. He asked her, 'Child, I think you are a Christian. Is it because your father is a Christian that you
have become a Christian?'
To that she replied, 'No, a Christian Sadhu came to our house and preached. I thought about it
again and again. Then from my own experience I knew that Christ was the Saviour. That is why I became a
Christian.
The lama burned with anger. He took her and shut her in a dark room, giving her no food or water.
The man was amazed to hear her singing with great gladness. After four days he went to see her. What was
it that he saw there? He did not see that poor child singing. She was speaking quietly to someone, and with
eyes closed. What was she saying? The lama tried to understand. This is what he heard from her:
'O Lord, I thank Thee that I have received the privilege of suffering for Thee. Lord, have mercy on
this lama. Open the eyes of his heart to see the light.'
Hearing this sincere prayer, the man broke down and cried. He fell at her feet and before very long
he accepted her words as he would the words of a Guru. That lama told everyone he saw about the
wonderful strength of the girl; and not only that, he desired to receive that wonderful strength himself.
(2Kings 5.2,3; Acts 1.8; 5.41)
542. Claim the Promises, "I am the Lord that healeth thee." "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases." You cannot be in bondage. "Whom the Lord hath set free is free indeed."--
Dad
543. Quote Scriptures against the Devil! Go before the congregation & let them openly lay hands
on you, openly confess & ask the Lord to forgive you & openly ask them for help & the Lord will heal
you!--Dad
545. F.B. Meyer, just before passing into glory, said, 'You will tell the others I am going home a
little sooner than I thought. Then tell them not to talk about the servant but to talk about the Saviour.'
(Gal.2.20; Phil.1.19,20)
546. Fanny Crosby, blind writer of six thousand hymns testified, "I am the happiest creature in all
the land."
547. You've got to fight! Fight! Fight! Fight, team, fight! You've got to rebuke him & fight, in
Jesus' name! Rebuke the Devil that is trying to interfere, & trust the Lord! You've got to fight, team, fight!
It's the Devil! It's a battle! You've got to just rebuke & resist the Devil so he will flee from you. The Lord
can heal you but He has to have your cooperation!--Dad
548. If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master;
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run--
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!
--Rudyard Kipling
549. Words are very important! You need to use them. "By thy words art thou justified, or by thy
words art thou condemned." The Lord hears them & the Heavenly Hosts hear them & you hear them & the
Devil hears them. If you get busy quoting Scripture & praising the Lord & rebuking the Devil, you won't
have so much time to think about your aches & pains & sorrows! If your mind is centered on the Lord &
stayed on Him, then He is the One you are thinking about & you can't think about both things at once.--Dad
552. It makes me furious when people take the attacks of the Enemy lying down & let the Devil
walk all over them without resistance, or go pussyfooting around trying to appease him or trying not to
disturb or upset him or arouse him! I like to hit him head-on & rebuke him in the name of Jesus in the
power of the Spirit, & get rid of him, not just keep putting up with him, tolerating him, & letting him hang
around bothering us & the poor people he is oppressing, obsessing & attacking! Hallelujah!--Dad
561. When we look within we are depressed, when we look around we are impressed, but when we
look at Jesus Christ we are blessed.
565. "Go to the ant, ... consider her ways, and be wise." (Prov.6:6)
"GO TO THE ant." Tammerlane used to relate to his friends an anecdote of his early life. "I once
was forced to take shelter from my enemies in a ruined building, where I sat alone many hours," he said.
"Desiring to divert my mind from my hopeless condition, I fixed my eyes on an ant that was carrying a
grain of corn larger than itself up a high wall. I numbered the efforts it made to accomplish this object. The
grain fell sixty-nine times to the ground; but the insect persevered, and the seventieth time it reached the
top! This sight gave me courage at the moment, and I never forgot the lesson."
566. "Uncle Joe," said Albert Edward Wiggam, the author, meeting an old Negro who was always
cheerful in spite of having had more than his share of life's troubles, "how have you managed to remain so
cheerful and calm?"
"Well, I'll tell yo," replied Uncle Joe. "I'se jus' learned to cooperate wid de inevitable."
569. There is just something about saying the words that really crystallises your resistance and
causes the devils to flee. They hate to hear the Word! Just saying it in your mind is good but sometimes it is
just not quite enough! You need to say it out loud, because if others are listening, it is a declaration to them
that you are trusting the Lord, that you have faith in His Word. It's a declaration of independence from the
Devil! It shows your confidence in the Word & your belief in praise. "Thou shalt confess with thy mouth
that Christ is Lord." (Rom.10:9) "With my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness unto all generations."
You've got to put it into words & say it! Words are real things! They can either damn you or save
you! "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus & shalt believe in thy heart that God hast raised
Him from the dead" (that's faith in His resurrection power, which is healing), "thou shalt be saved (or
healed)."--Dad
576. When you're lost in the wild, and you're scared as a child,
And death looks you bang in the eye.
And you're sore as a boil, it's according to Hoyle
To cock your revolver and ... die.
But the code of a man, says: "Fight all you can,"
And self-dissolution is barred.
In hunger and woe, oh, it's easy to blow ...
It's the hell-served for-breakfast that's hard.
578. Be strong!
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;
We have hard work to do and loads to lift;
Shun not the struggle--face it; 'tis God's gift.
Be strong!
Say not, "The days are evil. Who's to blame?"
And fold the hands and acquiesce--oh, shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God's name.
Be strong!
It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day how long;
Faint not--fight on! Tomorrow comes the song.
--Maltbie D. Babcock
579. Did you tackle that trouble that came your way
With a resolute heart and cheerful?
Or hide your face from the light of day
With a craven soul and fearful?
Oh, a trouble's a ton, or a trouble's an ounce,
Or a trouble is what you make it,
And it isn't the fact that you're hurt that counts,
But only how did you take it?
580. Go on the attack & talk back to the Devil out loud! Go on the attack & start praising the Lord,
quoting Scriptures, praying, talking in tongues, singing! The Devil hates song because it is praise to the
Lord! Let others know that you are attacking so they can stand with you in faith! One can chase a thousand
but two can put 10,000 to flight. (Deut.32:30)--Dad
581. Let's declare war on the Evil One! We've declared war on his works & his churchianity, his
whore! Let's declare war on the Ol' Boy himself!--Dad
584. If you can only whisper, then whisper these Scriptures aloud to yourself & to the Lord & to
the Devil & to whoever else may be listening, all the hosts of Heaven & even Hell! The great cloud of
witnesses who are watching us from the spirit world will be thrilled by your positiveness & your definite
attack out loud in the Spirit!--Dad
585. In the name of Jesus we ask Thee, O God, to deliver us! O God, have mercy, deliver in Jesus'
name. Not by might nor by power but by Thy Spirit, O God!--Dad
587. As long as you keep thinking about your problems or your pains & concentrating on your
headache or your backache or your toothache or your earache or your labour pains or your problems with
your wife or husband or children or whatever it may be, then it is these problems you'll have! But if you get
your mind on something else it won't be as bad! That's how my Mother got healed in the first place:
Quoting Scripture out loud! She could only whisper it, but she whispered it. Gradually she noticed her
voice was stronger & her hands were up praising the Lord!--Dad
588. On his voyage to discover America, as day after day no land appeared, and again and again
his sailors threatened mutiny and tried to persuade him to turn back, Columbus refused to listen to their
entreaties and entered each day in the ship's log-book the two words--'Sailed on'. (Exo.14.15; Num.13.30;
Luke 9.62; Heb.6.2)
589. Speaking at the University of Glasgow in 1896 David Livingstone said: "Would you like me
to tell you what supported me through all the years of exile among a people whose language I could not
understand, and whose attitude toward me was always uncertain and often hostile? It was this: 'Lo, I am
with you always, even unto the end of the world.' On these words I staked everything and they never
failed."
590. Wilberforce was a diminutive edition of a man and never enjoyed good health. For twenty
years he was under doctor's orders and had to take drugs to keep body and soul together. Yet he stopped the
British slave trade. Boswell once went to hear him speak and said afterward: "I saw what seemed a mere
shrimp and mounted upon the platform, but as I listened, he grew and grew till the shrimp became a
whale."
The most stimulating successes in history have come from persons who, facing some kind of
limitations and handicaps, succeeded in spite of all.
591. Nearly two hundred years ago there lived in England a man whose name was William
Wilberforce. God seemed to say to him, "I want you to free all the slaves in the British Empire!" Humanly
speaking, Wilberforce could not do it. He was a cripple, and a hunchback. His body was so twisted that a
writer of that day said he looked like a human corkscrew. The majority of the leaders did not want the
British Empire to stop the slave trade. Wilberforce believed that nothing was impossible with God. He
believed he could do all things in Christ's strength. On the day of his funeral, when his worn-out body was
put beneath the flagstones of Westminister Abbey, the British Parliament passed a law that every slave who
lived beneath the British flag be freed.
592. Scars are the price which every believer pays for his loyalty to Christ.
593. In the Name of Jesus, O God, we demand the answer! We insist, O God, that Thou honour
Thy Holy Name & Thy Holy Word Thou hast given unto Thy Prophet, O God! We command Thee, O God,
to fulfil Thy Word, Lord, to fulfil the Word of Thy Prophet, O God, to honour Thy name & the name of
Jesus Christ, that Thou wouldst help us that seek Thy help, O God, & deliver us from these attacks of the
Evil One!--Dad
594. The Spartan mothers used to counsel their sons: "If your sword be too short, add a step to it."
595. "Strong are walls around me,
That hold me all the day;
But they who thus have bound me
Cannot keep God away:
My very dungeon walls are dear
Because the God I love is here.
"They know, who thus oppress me,
'Tis hard to be alone;
But know not One can bless me
Who comes through bars and stone.
He makes my dungeon's darkness bright
And fills my bosom with delight."
--Madam Guyon
596. Billy Sunday, the baseball evangelist and reformer, never spared himself nor those he wanted
to help in the vigor of his attacks on sin. He thundered against evil from the Gay Nineties through the Great
Depression. He preached Christ as the only answer to man's needs until his death in 1935.
"I'm against sin," he said. "I'll kick it as long as I've got a foot, and I'll fight it as long as I've got a
fist. I'll butt it as long as I've got a head. I'll bite it as long as I've got a tooth. When I'm old and fistless and
footless and toothless, I'll gum it till I go home to Glory and it goes home to perdition!"
597. Martin Luther was often very graphic in his description of the activities of the Devil. Asked
one time how he overcame the Devil, he replied, "Well, when he comes knocking upon the door of my
heart, and asks 'Who lives here?' the dear Lord Jesus goes to the door and says, "Martin Luther used to live
here but he has moved out. Now I live here.' The Devil seeing the nail-prints in the hands, and the pierced
side, takes flight immediately."
598. Days immediately after Dunkirk were darkest for the modern world. In supreme disaster, all
seemed irrevocably lost and the invasion of England loomed imminent. England lay prostrate. Forty-seven
warships had been sunk in the operations off Norway after Dunkirk. When the evacuation was completed,
half the British destroyers were in the shipyards for repairs while the Royal Air Force had lost forty per cent
of its bomber strength. Britain was on the brink of famine and her armies were without arms or equipment.
They had left in France 50,000 vehicles.
Churchill spoke for the defenseless islanders, "We shall defend our island whatever the cost may
be; we shall fight on the beaches; we shall fight in the fields; we shall fight in the streets; and we shall fight
in the hill. We shall never surrender and if this island were subjugated and starving, our empire on the seas
would carry on the struggle until in God's good time the New World with all its power and might steps forth
to the rescue and liberation of the old."
599. David is a man of war! David is a man of power! David is a man of force! David is a man of
violence, & I hate the Enemy with a perfect hatred! We have the power to resist all the devils in one
continent with just the name of Jesus! Yet some of you are afraid of one little old evil spirit. The Devil says
"Boo!" & you run! How can you expect to conquer a whole continent of evil spirits when you're afraid of
one little spirit in one person!--Dad
600. The call to Christian commitment is not basically a call to enjoy happiness but to endure
hardness.
601. Pliny, Roman Governor in Asia Minor in the early Second Century, was so puzzled about the
Christians brought before him for trial that he wrote his famous letter to the Emperor Trajan asking for his
advise. This was the kind of thing he found himself up against:
A certain unknown Christian was brought before him, and Pliny, finding little fault in him,
proceeded to threaten him, "I will banish thee," he said.
"Thou canst not," was the reply, "for all the world is my Father's house."
"Then I will slay thee," said the Governor.
"Thou canst not," answered the Christian, "for my life is hid with Christ in God."
"I will take away thy possessions," continued Pliny.
"Thou canst not, for my treasure is in heaven."
"I will drive thee away from man & thou shalt have no friend left," was the final threat.
And the calm reply once more was, "Thou canst not, for I have an unseen Friend from Whom thou
art not able to separate me."
What was a poor, harassed Roman Governor, with all the powers of life and death, torture and the
stake at his disposal, to do with people like that?
603. When it comes to the Devil, WORDS are sort of like bullets or death rays & they just blast
the Devil! Every word just zaps him. They're a part of our offensive weaponry, the Word. You need to wield
it out loud so that at least YOU can hear it, & then that helps to occupy your mind & it helps to confirm
your own faith!--Dad
604. No duty can be performed without wrestling. The Christian needs his sword as well as his
trowel.
607. "All power is given unto Me in Heaven & in Earth!" The spirits are subject unto us! God hath
not given us a spirit of fear, but of power & of Love, & of a sound mind! Perfect Love casts out all fear! In
nothing be terrified by your adversary, the Devil! I resist you, Satan, in Jesus' name! We're commanded to
resist the Enemy & he will flee from us! Get thee behind me, Satan! Greater is He that is in me than he that
is in the World! When the Enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of God will raise up a standard against
him! We must give no place to the Enemy! Whatsoever is bound on Earth shall be bound in Heaven &
whatsoever is loosed on Earth, shall be loosed in Heaven!--Dad
613. I love to fight the Enemy!--Like a strong man that loves to run a race, & a strong man that
rejoiceth & shouteth by reason of wine, & like a knight that loves the fray & arouseth himself to fight the
Enemy! It is so ridiculous to think that the house of Baalzelbub can fight the house of David!--That the lord
of the flies can fight the Lord of the Living! The flies only eat the dead, the dung, & the dying, & are killed
by the living! I love to fight for the cause of David in the Name of Jesus! Be strong in the Lord & in the
power of His might! Hallelujah! We haven't even begun to fight yet!--Dad
614. Sometimes, when nothing goes just right,
And worry reigns supreme,
When heartache fills the eyes with mist,
And all things useless seem,
There's just one thing can drive away
The tears that scald and blind--
Someone to slip a strong arm 'round
And whisper, "Never mind."
615. There are gems of wonderous brightness oftimes lying at our feet
And we pass them walking thoughtless down the busy, crowded street;
IF WE KNEW, our pace would slacken, we would step more oft with care
Lest our careless feet be treading to the earth some jewel rare.
If we knew what hearts are aching for the comforts we might bring,
If we knew what souls are yearning for the sunshine we could fling,
If we knew what feet are weary walking pathways roughly laid,
We would quickly hasten forward stretching forth our hands to aid.
616.There is one characteristic of the Devil we ought to emulate--his persistence & stick-to-
itiveness.
618. When Charles G. Finney was asked how he could believe in a Devil, he retorted: "Why don't
you try opposing him sometime & you'll find out whether he exists or not."
619. When you flee temptation be sure you don't leave a forwarding address.
620. While Charles Spurgeon was still a boy preacher, he was warned about a certain quarrelsome
woman and told that she intended to give him a tongue-lashing. "All right," he replied, "but that's a game
that two can play." Not long afterward she met him and assailed him with a flood of abuse. He smiled and
said, "Yes, thank you, I am quite well. I hope you are the same."
Then came another burst of vituperation, pitched in a higher key to which he replied, still smiling,
"Yes, it does look rather as if it might rain. I think I had better be getting on."
"Bless the man!" she exclaimed. "He's as deaf as a post. What's the use of storming at him!" And
so her railing ceased and were never again attempted.
621. History is full of men who triumphed over handicaps. POPE was a hopeless invalid, unable to
stand without the aid of a cruel brace. CERVANTES stuttered but he became a public speaker of
remarkable power. Look at the two sickly, puny children with scarcely a chance for maturity who turned
out to be CHOPIN and THEODORE ROOSEVELT. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, hunchback and statesman;
EDISON, deaf and perfecting the phonograph; MILTON, blind and writing England's greatest poem;
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, crippled by infantile paralysis and becoming President of the United
States--all of them were victors over handicaps.
622. There is a couple in tiny Rock Grove, Illinois, who are indispensable. Joe and Leva Schofield
operate the Rock Grove Farmer's Mutual Telephone Company and have the switchboard right in their two-
story frame home. They take turns at the switchboard and know each of their 220 customers by voice. Rock
Grove folks never use telephone numbers when they place a call. They just say, "Get me John Jones" or
whoever they want to call.
Joe Schofield is a top-notch scout-master. His troop has produced eight Eagle Scouts, unusual
because most small communities turn out only one Eagle Scout every decade or so.
And of course Joe takes them on hikes when he demonstrates camping techniques, lore of the
outdoors, compass reading, handicrafts and so on.
The middle-aged couple also make brooms and weave rugs in their spare time. They produce
attractive billfolds, belts, and purses. Joe specializes in antique furniture refinishing.
Joe and Leva are both active members of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Rock Grove. Both say their
faith has helped them more than anything else in finding a meaningful life.
Joe and Leva are blind.
623. As my Mother used to say, the Devil knocks on your door and you go to the door & throw it
wide open & say, "Come in Mr. Devil, come in Mrs. Devil & all the little devils, here are some chairs! Now
sit down, & all you doubts sit down & talk to me & let's have a nice visit, let's hear all that you have to
say!"--When at the first knock & you saw who it was, you should have slammed the door in his face so
quick it would've cut his nose off! You shouldn't have listened to the first doubt or the first lie!--Dad
624. You can save yourself a lot of trouble by not borrowing any.
626. When I was a little boy & the big bullies threatened to beat me up, I'd say, "You gotta catch
me first!"--And I'd start runnin' as fast as I could for my house! So you just say to the ol' Devil, "You gotta
catch me first!"--And run!--Dad
627. "The Devil doesn't start shooting till you go over the top!"--Which is an illustration of the old
WW 1 trench warfare. Not until you came out of your trench & started attacking his territory does the
enemy really let go & let you have it with all his big guns!--Dad
630. During a public "reception," a farmer from one of the border counties of Virginia told
President Lincoln, that the Union soldiers, in passing his farm, had helped themselves not only to hay, but
to his horse, and he hoped the President would urge the proper officer to consider his claim immediately.
Mr. Lincoln said that this reminded him of an old acquaintance of his, "Jack" Chase, a lumberman
on the Illinois, a steady, sober man and the best raftsman on the river. It was quite a trick to take the logs
over the rapids; but he was skilful with a raft and always kept her straight in the channel. Finally a steamer
was put on, and Jack was made captain of her. He always used to take the wheel, going through the rapids.
One day, when the boat was plunging and wallowing along the boiling current, and Jack's utmost vigilance
was being exercised to keep her in the narrow channel, a boy pulled his coat-tail and hailed him with:
"Say, Mr. Captain! I wish you would just stop your boat a minute--I've lost my apple overboard!"
632. It's common knowledge that men who have struggled valiantly all their lives & have
something to live for & fight for, it's kept them alive! But that when forced to retire they had not much left
to live for or fight for & they kind of lost their fight & their fighting spirit & their will to live & they just
died. Take the Presidents of the United States for example, very few of them have lived very many years
beyond their retirement or defeat from the job. Nearly all the Presidents of the U.S. died shortly after being
in office. It's a killer job & it's only that fighting spirit that usually keeps them alive. Then when they lose
the job & thereby lose that spirit, it often kills them.
As MacArthur said, "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away." And like him, when he lost his
job he just faded away. It's the job that keeps them alive, & the grace of the strength that God gives them to
keep it! When they lose it they have very little reason to keep on living, so they just sort of fade away &
soon die after retirement. So beware!--When you stop fighting, when you leave the game, when you sit
down & decide to take it easy, you'll die!--Dad
633. The use of the surprise attack is why the commando raids of WWII were so successful!--Tiny
raids against tremendous strongholds of the enemy on the coast of Norway & Germany! One tiny little
boatload of men & explosives in the fog of dark & night, would cross the North Sea, then suddenly without
notice, without warning, sneaking right past the enemy's line of defense, would blow up some of his major
installations--power plants, fortifications, bunkers, big guns, even battle ships, which they'd sink right in
the port's mouth, bottling up his fleet--all this damage inflicted by a mere handful of men against almost
innumerable numerical odds of the enemy in manpower & fire power--all because they were quick,
unexpected, surprising, sudden attacks, taking the initiative & the offensive, choosing the time & the place
& the enemy knew not where or when, so he could never be prepared!--And they were extremely
successful! It caused him to have to spread out his forces & be prepared to defend himself in so many
places at one time that he weakened his whole operation!
--Because the enemy never knows what you're going to do next! He doesn't know what kind of a
shenanigan you're going to pull next, & you've put him on the defensive! He rocks & reels from sudden
blow after sudden blow, so that he has no time to organise an attack on you, he's too busy defending
himself! In this way, tiny guerrilla forces & commando units can keep an entire numerically superior
conventional army at bay, & an army continually on the defensive will never get anywhere!
There's no such thing as a war which is not won or lost! You're either winning or losing! And if
you're not winning it, you're losing it, as the U.S. did in Vietnam, all because of their defensive warfare--
their containment policy & their refusal to attack the enemy's main strongholds & bases, & their sitting
there most of the time & letting him attack them!--Dad
634. My Grandmother used to say about temptations & evil thoughts, "You can't keep the birds
from flying over your head nor those thoughts from going through your mind. It's the voice of the Devil.
But you can sure keep them from building a nest in your hair!"--In other words, you can keep them from
roosting there & entertaining them full time & letting them take over. You just have to keep resisting &
fighting until they see you're not going to surrender or give up, & they give up, & go away & leave.--Dad
635. You may not always get results the first time, Beloved, but don't quit trying! Keep screaming,
keep yelling, keep pounding away! Keep fighting for your rights & for what you think is right & what you
want to get done, & eventually a constant dropping sometimes wears away the stone, & by your
importunity--like the old lady in the Bible who kept pestering the judge until she finally got what she
wanted just to get rid of her (Luke 18:2-5)--you may finally convince somebody & a few more & a few
more until finally there's such a demand that the System will just have to yield & make some slight
changes.--Dad
636. "Sticks & stones can break my bones, but words can never harm me!" Well, that's not always
true, but usually it should be true. You shouldn't let these little words & little lies & little names the Devil
cooks up for you bother you. Take it on the chin or on the cheek, then maybe on the other cheek, but then
sock'm back!--Dad
637. As my brother said once as he was trying to climb out of bed, after being prayed for, & my
mother was trying to make him stay in bed, "I'm having enough trouble fighting the Devil, without fighting
you too!--Dad
638. I'll never forget when I was a kid about 12 delivering handbills, & I had to go into a certain
yard to get to a house in the rear, & out from the back yard came this huge Great Dane, barking & growling
furiously & coming at me full speed, leaping & bounding, & I thought, "This is it!" But I knew I didn't dare
turn my back on him, or he would bite me for sure, yet, on the other hand, he was a little too big for me to
face, & I was invading his territory! He was just too big for me!
So I thank God I remembered to cry out to the Lord, & I did something that I've even tried since
then with people!--I suddenly jutted my hand out toward him & I yelled, "I rebuke you in Jesus' Name!--
And did he put on the brakes!--He skidded to a stop & looked absolutely startled!--And turned tail & ran!
So it not only pays to face your fears & to acknowledge them--even confess them--but to take a
positive stand against them, especially in the power & Spirit of the Lord with the promises from His
Word!--Dad
639. Lord we're just fulfilling Thy Word & we're doing what you told us to do. We're obeying,
we're believing, we're laying on hands, we're praying prayers of faith, Lord, fulfilling Thy Word! We're
claiming Thy Promises that You have promised that we have quoted, & now the rest is up to You, Lord,
YOU have to fulfil them & do the job.
Cleanse this Thy Son, Lord, from every disease & any foul thing the Enemy has tried to lay upon
him! Rebuke this infection, in Jesus' name, & deliver him & drive it out & away! We command you, Satan,
to take your hands off this body of this son of God & deliver him completely in the name of Jesus! We
claim it, Lord! Fulfil Thy Word, keep Thy promise! In Jesus' name we ask that he gets over it completely, in
Jesus' name!
He's Thy child, busy for Thee, he needs his strength, he needs his health, Lord, he needs his
fellowship with others, so we do ask Thee to give him faith for complete deliverance, in Jesus' name. Purify
& cleanse like You cleansed the lepers, Lord! If You could do that, You can cleanse this, in Jesus' name.
PTL! We know You can give complete deliverance, Lord, & protect also Thy Family, Lord.--Dad
640. There are no losers with Jesus & no winners with the Devil.
642. On the battlefront! Every moment's a moment of action, every moment is a moment of both
suspense & danger & excitement & we don't know what's going to happen next!
643. A real soldier likes the battle like an athlete likes the athletic trial. He likes the fight, he likes
to be right there on the battlefront, he likes the excitement, he likes the exhilarating thrill of victory!--Dad
644. Once I worked for one of the greatest saints of God I have ever known, Dr. A. U. Michelson,
this nation's most famous missionary to the Jews, himself a converted Jewish judge, & founder of the
World's first Hebrew-Christian Synagogue & a Gospel program for Jews, which is still heard on hundreds
of stations around the World--a man undoubtedly with thousands of souls to his credit & a glorious reward!
I never knew a humbler, sweeter, more compassionate, more loving, more hardworking man, &
yet he was pitifully club-footed, & hobbled around all of his life on crutches, in constant suffering. Maybe
this is one reason he had such pity on others. We comfort others with the comfort with which we ourselves
are comforted! How can we be more than conquerors?--By being good losers!--And even praising God in
our affliction!--Dad
645. One poor lady was really suffering after her operation & felt so low & lonely & asked the
nurse to please stay a while & hold her hand, but she just laughingly took it & then rushed off right away
again. The Lord spoke to my heart to go over there instead of the nurse. It was three days after the
operation & I had only been out of bed a couple of times.
So it was with staggering steps that I managed to make my way across the room to her bed & sit
down & hold her hand. It really touched her heart since she knew it took an effort on my part to do so. I sat
there for a while talking to her before returning to bed & she never forgot it, so that before going home I
was able to pray with her to receive the Lord. "We comfort others with the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God." (2Cor.1:4)
I was able to comfort another lady before her operation with the same verses that had been a
comfort to me & she also asked Jesus to come into her heart! After her operation she said that she had been
thinking of me, how I had said I would be praying for her. Even though I was a complete stranger to her, I
had been closer to her in a hard situation than even her relatives, because I brought her the Lord. (That is
one thing I experienced when I was going through the worst part; in a situation like that everything else
loses value but two things: the Lord & His Word & our loving Family.)
646.When Sergeant York in World War 1 was asked why he, a conscientious objector to war, had
destroyed a group of enemy machine-gunners & captured over 600 soldiers single-handed, he replied: "The
Lord told me it was better to destroy a FEW to save HUNDREDS!"
647. I believe Satan to exist for two reasons: First, the Bible says so; & second, I've done business
with him.
It is one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.
649. The gruff, blustery, colourful, dramatic, outspoken but highly successful General Patton is
credited to have once said, "It is not the duty of every good soldier to die for his country, but to see to it that
the other damned bastard dies for his country!" If you HAVE to go die for your country, well, fine, but it's
better to get out there & live for your country & conquer the World!--Dad
650. They say they can tell you're getting old when you start living in the past, instead of the
future! At that rate, we have quite a few oldsters around who are still bragging about past glories, when
they ought to be forging fiercely into the future & letting the dead bury the dead. They also say you can tell
how old people are by the way they quit struggling! At that rate, neither my Mother, Father or Grandfather
ever grew old, 'cause they were all doing battle to the very end, "There's no discharge in this war!"
(Ecc.8:8)--No actual retirement! Nobody ever arrives to where they can start coasting on or boasting of past
achievements! If you're not out there with the youngest of them in the thick of the battle, you're a has-
been!--Dad
651. One day Bob was given definite instruction by his mother not to go in swimming in the
nearby pond. Shortly afterward, Bob was to pass the pond enroute to the ball park. He took along with him
his bathing suit, just in case he was tempted! This was making provision for the flesh! How different it was
with the aged Negro who said, "When I pass a watermelon patch, I can't keep my mouth from 'watering,'
but I CAN RUN!"
652. You need to declare you faith & just fling it in the face of the Devil! Just throw fiery darts of
Scripture at him out loud in prayer & praise!--Dad
653. Say it! Do it! Hear it! See it! Speak it! Quote all the Scriptures you can think of about the
Word, the mouth, the tongue, speaking, confessing! It's extremely important! It's a part of your witness,
your testimony! It's your words, & they can save, they can heal, they can resist the Devil, especially if
they're the Lord's Words! But you've got to use our OWN words to say them!--Dad
655. Psychologists say that if you put a frog into a pail of hot water he will jump out, but if you
put him in a pail of cool water and then gradually heat it up, the frog will permit himself to be cooked.
Apparently he is unable to decide when the water is so hot as to be unbearable. When sudden heinous
temptations rear their ugly heads, most people instinctively shrink back; but the thing that causes many to
get away from God is the almost imperceptible day-by-day drifting. The best protection is to get out of the
pot when the water even begins to get warm.
657. At the close of the first day of the battle of Shiloh, a day of severe Union reverses, Gen. Grant
was met by his much discouraged chief of staff, McPherson, who said: "Things look bad, General. We have
lost half our artillery and a third of the infantry. Our line is broken, and we are pushed back nearly to the
river." Grant made no reply, and McPherson asked impatiently what he intended to do. "Do? Why, reform
the lines and attack at daybreak. Won't they be surprised?"
Surprised they were, and routed before nine o'clock. Every man that succeeds meets just such
crises, and must avert disaster with a prompt reforming of lines and early attack.
658. Keep your mind & your mouth & your ears so busy they don't even have time to listen to the
Devil or even feel his pain. Whatever you do, keep your mouth busy & your ears busy & your mind busy &
your heart busy praying & praising & quoting & singing & talking in tongues so the Devil hasn't got a
chance to get a word or a pain in edgewise! Just out-talk him, drown him out because you can't be thinking
about two things at once.--Dad
659. In the interesting life of A. McLay of Cardiff, the following is given as typical of his
testimony.
'On one occasion the dining-room of a hotel was full of business men taking lunch, including a
person well known as an inveterate blasphemer and specialist in all that is unsavoury. A. McLay was also
of the company, and was silently partaking of his meal. Opportunity was taken by the foul-mouthed infidel
to break forth into a prolonged harangue in which exceptionally vile things were said about the Lord Jesus
Christ. The atmosphere became tense, whilst the effect was electrical. No one responded, & there was a
dead silence. Presently, and probably to break the spell, someone said, "Mr. McLay, haven't you anything to
say to all this?"
The company almost breathlessly awaited the reply. It came gently and with restrained emotion.
He said, "Well, gentlemen, with yourselves I have been obliged to listen to these blasphemous and
scurrilous remarks, and I have been thinking of what I could say. May I put it in a few words this way?
Many of you know me intimately; you know my wife. You know her worth and what I owe to her; you
agree that I could not well exaggerate the felicity of our home life. You realise what my feelings would be,
dared anyone utter scandal regarding her. Yet this man in his ignorance and blindness presumes to speak
these untrue words against the One Who is infinitely more to me than the closest earthly friend, One Who
has died for me, which no on else could have done. My reply is that I declare my heart's allegiance to my
Lord Jesus Christ, crucified for sinners, now made both Lord and Christ at the right hand of the throne of
God."
"There was such character behind those words and such grace, that these men rose as one man and
with gusto shouted, "Hurrah, Mr. McLay!" Someone called for "three cheers for Jesus Christ!'"
(1Pet. 2.7; Rev.5.9,10)
660. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." (1Cor.16:13)
662. I had a dream that I was able to witness to my brother who had died in a parachute accident
four years ago. In the dream he received Jesus & that is a real miracle as he was an atheist while alive!
Afterwards while praying we got "This is the day of Salvation," which was so encouraging as I have been
praying for him a lot since his death.--Luke & Lovelight
663. We rebuke the Devil, in Jesus' name! We claim power over Satan in the name of Jesus Christ!
Get thee behind us, Satan! Flee from us! Depart from this property & this place & stop throwing those
lightning bolts until we get done with God's business here! In Jesus' name, we ask it for Thy glory, Lord
Jesus Christ! Show Thy power, Thy mighty power, over the Devil, Lord, & chase him away from this place
& our electrical system & this equipment! We ask Thee, in Jesus name to rebuke him & resist him! You
promised that if we'd resist the Enemy he'd flee from you. When the Enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit
of God will raise a standard against him. Hallelujah! TYJ! "So shall I defend these thy children as I have
defended their father!"
We have a mighty, wonderful God! He's more powerful than the Devil! The Devil IS powerful--
he's the Prince of the power of the air, God's Word says. (Eph.2:2) God has given him dominion over the
atmosphere & the storms & the clouds & the lightning bolts & the thunder, but God has dominion over
HIM & can CONTROL him & stop the storm in a moment, & stop the thunder & the lightning bolts!
--Dad
664. An old Negro preacher, wearied of the many complaints he heard about the temptations
placed in the paths of members of his congregation by Satan: "Folks is all de time making out dat Satan is
runnin' after them fo' to tempt them. De truth is, dere is so many people pulling at the Debil's coattails, he
ain't got de time to chase nobody."
665. One time when we were living on the East Coast of Sri Lanka, my wife and I took our 3
children by canoe to a small coral island about 100 yards off shore! Only a few square meters of the coral
actually stuck out of water, and on this we landed the canoe! The children were able to look through masks
at some of the amazingly beautiful tropical fish and fabulously coloured corals which were abundant in the
clear blue water all around!
It was late afternoon and the huge red sun was already beginning to dip down over the horizon of
the sea, so we began to load the children into the canoe to get back safely to the beach before dark!
However, the water around the coral rock was now a good deal more choppy than when we had
landed, and due to the shallowness of the water and the sharpness of the coral, it was not easy to get
everyone on board with the canoe swaying this way and that, and the two younger children were getting a
little bit frightened!
All of a sudden, literally it seemed from nowhere, a swimmer appeared in the water beside us! He
got up onto the rock, and calmly held the back of the boat steady while we all clambered safely inside! I
remember studying his face and it was radiant with a sort of heavenly glow of peace and strength and quiet
assurance! His face was much like the face of Jesus, as pictured in our Komix, except with shorter hair! It's
a thrilling and unique sensation when you're pretty sure you're staring face to face with an angel!
Then with a kindly smile and a wave he pushed us off from the rock, and we started back towards
the shore! After paddling for about 10 seconds I thought, "I'm going to turn around right now, and if he
really was an angel I have a feeling that he will have disappeared!"--So I did! And he HAD! He was
GONE! Not only had he vanished from the rock but neither was there any trace of him swimming in the
water anywhere around!
Night falls so swiftly in the Tropics and by the time we arrived back at the beach it was almost
dark! There was NO other way for him to swim back to the shore except by the way that we had come! We
watched for at least half-an-hour but he never set foot on that beach!
This convinced us that we had indeed had a close encounter with a guardian angel whom the Lord
had sent to help in our time of need!
666. At one point during the early days of the Family in India, there were 28 of us living in a small
two bedroom ground floor flat in Bombay! As you can imagine living conditions were very crowded and
there was no storage place for our belongings, which we had to keep stacked on the porch outside our front
door! The porch was protected from intruders by a very thin wire screen. In the screen was a gate which we
would keep locked up at night, as well as the front door!
Our home was situated within a small compound, on the other side of which lived a couple of old
spinsters who were sisters! Their favourite way to pass the time was to sit out on the balcony of their
second floor flat and watch the World go by!
One morning, as we were on our way out of the gate to go litnessing, the two sisters hailed us from
their balcony!
"Which one of you was out sleeping on the porch last night?" one of them asked.
"NONE of us," we replied. "We always sleep inside the flat and lock the front door!"
"But someone WAS sleeping out there guarding your belongings!" the old lady insisted! "You see,
my sister and I found it hard to get to sleep last night, so at about 2 a.m. we sat out on our balcony to catch
a breath of the fresh night air!"
"Yes!" the other sister excitedly continued, "And while we were both watching a robber sneaked
over the compound wall and began to cut the wire on your screened porch, trying to get inside! But
suddenly a man got up from where he had been sleeping on the floor by your luggage and chased the
robber away! He was terrified and ran off into the night! Then the man laid back down again on the floor of
the porch where he was guarding your luggage!"
We all praised God for this miracle of His angelic protection--and felt the goosebumps all over!
667. Anyone who is discouraged at the lack of results being yielded by his efforts should take heart
with the point of view of the country lad who hailed the city fisherman by the creek and asked, "How many
fish yer got, Mister?"
"None yet," he was told.
"That ain't bad," replied the boy, "there was a feller fished here for two weeks and he didn't get any
more than you got in half an hour."
668. When Thomas Hart Benton's house in Washington was burned Benton left Congress and
came to the ruin of his house. As he looked at it he said, "It makes dying easier. There is so much less to
leave."
672. The Christian belongs to a better Kingdom than any earthly kingdom. When a man is born
again, he becomes a citizen of Heaven. All Heaven is interested in the success of the Christian. God gave
His Son to redeem man. He gives His Grace to save and keep him. Angels rejoice when any sinner is saved.
All Heaven stands back of the child of God. The Lord will do more for His own than any earthly power can
do for any of its subjects.
674. Charles Wesley was conducting one of his many open-air meetings, this one near Killyleagh,
Ireland. During the course of his preaching, a number of persons who took exception to his views assaulted
him. Unable to withstand the mob, Wesley fled for his life.
He took refuge in a farmhouse nearby. Jane Moore, a kind-hearted wife of a farmer, hid the
panting evangelist in the milkhouse. She was barely in time, because at that moment some of Wesley's
assailants rushed up.
Mrs. Moore tried to divert their attention by preparing refreshments. Fearful that they might search
the premises and discover the harried evangelist, she went to the milkhouse on the pretext of getting a cold
drink for her visitors.
"Quickly," she bade him, "get through the rear window, and hide under the hedge." He clambered
through the window and found a little brook flowing beside the hedge, forming a pool with overhanging
branches that afforded a pleasant and safe retreat.
While waiting for the vindictive Irishmen to give up the search and leave, Wesley pulled a pencil
and paper from his pocket and wrote out the immortal hymn, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul."
Dr. George Duffield, author of "Stand up for Jesus," another of our famous songs, once said of
Wesley's hymn, "If there is anything in Christian experience of joy and sorrow, of affliction and prosperity,
of life and death--that hymn truly is the hymn of the ages."
675. When the novelist, Dr. A.J. Cronin, was a practicing physician in a small Welsh mining
community, he worked with a remarkable nurse. For more than twenty years Oliven Davies had served the
people with competence, patience, and cheerfulness. Her friend, the doctor, resented the inadequate salary
with which her selfless work was rewarded.
"Late one night after a particularly strenuous case, I ventured to protest to her as we drank a cup of
tea together. 'Nurse,' I said, 'why don't you make them pay you more? It's ridiculous that you should work
for so little.' She raised her eyebrows slightly. But she smiled, 'I have enough to get along.' 'No really,' I
protested and persisted, 'you ought to have an extra pound a week at least. God knows you're worth it.'
There was a pause. Her smile remained but her gaze held a gravity, an intensity, that startled me.
'Doctor!' she said, 'if God knows I'm worth it, that's all that matters!'"
676. God loves to smile most upon His people when the World frowns most.
678. Seek Christ, & you will find Him, & with Him everything else thrown in.
679. One of the early founders of the Rothschild House, in his younger days borrowed a small
amount of money from a friend to help him start in business. Without security to give, he got it on the
ground of his need. He went to a distant part of Germany, and many years rolled on. After nearly half a
century, when the name of the family and the firm had become world-wide, his old benefactor did not even
know it was the same youth he had once befriended. But one day, when he was an old man and his health
had broken, his fortune gone and his family dependent upon him, and the darkest shadows gathering about
his life, he received a letter from the Rothschild House in Frankfurt, summoning him to the bank for an
important interview. As he entered the private office of the great banker, he was greeted with a welcome he
had little expected. After the old acquaintance had been renewed, the great banker went to his desk and
took out a draft for an enormous amount of money, amounting to some hundred thousand dollars, handed it
to his old friend, and said, "I have sent for you to pay you the dividends on the stock you entrusted to my
banking nearly fifty years ago." Astounded, the friend refused to take the money, saying that he had no such
claim, and could not accept such a gift. "It is not a gift," said the banker, "it is simply the actual profit on
the money you gave me, wisely turned over a great many times, until it has actually accumulated this
compound interest ..." As A.B. Simpson said, "There is a day coming when the trust that we have
committed to His keeping will be returned to us a millionfold more. We shall find what a good investor of
our treasures God is."
680. A small boy sat quietly in a seat of the day coach on a train running between two of the
Western cities in the United States. It was a hot, dusty day, very uncomfortable for traveling, and that
particular ride was perhaps the most uninteresting day's journey in the whole land. But the little fellow sat
patiently watching the fields and the fences hurrying by, until a motherly old lady, leaning forward, asked
sympathetically, "Aren't you tired of the long ride, dear, and the dust and the heat?"
The lad looked up brightly, and replied, with a smile, "Yes, ma'am, a little. But I don't mind it
much, because my father is going to meet me when I get to the end of it." What a beautiful thought it is that
when life seems wearisome and monotonous, as it sometimes does, we can look forward hopefully and
trustingly, and like the lonely little lad, not "mind it much" because our Father, too, will be waiting to meet
us at our journey's end! Father will meet us at the end of the journey -- thank God!
683. The soul hardly ever realises it, but whether he is a believer or not, his loneliness is really a
homesickness for God.
684. Poverty is a friend to prayer.--George Swinnock
686. All real evil is averted from the people of God, or is so controlled as in the end to do them
good.--William S. Plumer
687. Though we may have little of this world's goods we have much for which to praise God. A
woman was dying in the poorhouse. The doctor bent over her and heard her whisper, "Praise the Lord."
"Why, auntie," he said, "how can you praise God when you are dying in a poorhouse?"
"Oh, doctor," she replied, "it's wonderful to go from the poorhouse to a mansion in the skies!"
691. We turn to God when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking
them.
693. There is no such thing as chance or accident; the words merely signify our ignorance of some
real & immediate cause.
694. The calm which puts us to sleep may be more fatal than a storm which keeps us wide awake.
695. Life is like a mirror--we get the best results when we smile.
697. Sir Walter Scott once said, "Give me my imagination and I can be happy in a prison." Sir
Walter Raleigh on the death of Queen Elizabeth came into disfavor in court and was imprisoned in the
Tower of London for thirteen years. But they could not shut up or chain his active mind and spirit. He
wrote a remarkable history of the world which was considered a classic in the century that followed.
They shut up John Bunyan in Bedford jail that he might not preach the gospel. His tireless soul
refused to be enchained. He wrote what was for centuries the most popular book written in the English
language, "Pilgrim's Progress". Paul himself, when a prisoner at Rome and chafing because he could not go
and preach to the churches, wrote letters which have immortalized his name and have been carrying his
message to all generations since.
698. When a man is determined, what can stop him?" Cripple him and you have a SIR WALTER
SCOTT; put him in a prison cell and you have JOHN BUNYAN; bury him in the snows of Valley Forge
any you have a GEORGE WASHINGTON. Have him born in abject poverty and you have a LINCOLN.
Load him with bitter racial prejudice and you have a DISRAELI.
Afflict him with asthma until as a boy he lies choking in his father's arms and you have a
THEODORE ROOSEVELT; stab him with rheumatic pains until for years he cannot sleep without an
opiate and you have a STEINMETZ; put him in a grease pit of a locomotive roundhouse and you have a
WALTER CHRYSLER; make him a second fiddle in an obscure South American orchestra and you have a
TOSCANINI.
699. Life's most difficult problem is to keep clean of debt, dirt, & the Devil all at the same time.
700. If God now seems far away, who make the first move?
701. Security is not the absence of danger, but the presence of God, no matter what the danger.
702. Prosperity is a great mercy, but adversity is a greater one, if it brings us to Christ.
705. George Matheson who, engaged to be married, learned he would soon be totally blind. His
fiancé said, "I cannot marry a blind man." He left her with his dreams shattered. He thought of taking his
life, but instead took hold of himself as he wrote the moving hymn, "O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go."
O Love that wilt not let me go.
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
Which reminds us that D. L. Moody once made this confession: "I have more trouble with myself
than any other person."
708. God would never permit evil if He could not bring good out of it.
709. A man can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough for the next
six months or take sufficient air into his lungs at one time to sustain life for a week. We must draw upon
God's boundless store of grace from day to day as we need it.
710. The following sentences ring like jewels of gold falling down stairways of pearl. From these
we get a glimpse of Helen Keller's happy heart:
"Is it not true that my life, with all its limitations, touches at many points the life of the World
Beautiful? Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I may be in
therein to be content. Sometimes, it is true, a sense of isolation enfolds me like a cold mist as I sit alone and
wait at life's shut gate. Beyond there is light and music and sweet companionships, but I may not
enter...Silence sits immense upon my soul. Then comes Hope with a smile and whispers, 'There is joy in
self-forgetfulness.' So I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun, the music in others' ears my symphony,
the smile on others' lips my happiness."
711. An Atlantic liner was caught in a storm. For two days the wind raged. Passengers were
frightened. At last an anxious passenger climbed by great effort to where he could see the pilot. Coming
back down among the passengers, he spread the glad tidings of peace. Said he, "We are all right. The ship
will make port; for I have seen the pilot, and he is smiling." With the great Pilot directing our life we can
smile on through every storm and smiling, be at peace.
712. God never imposes a duty without giving time to do it.--John Ruskin
713. God dries up the channels, that you may be compelled to plunge into an infinite ocean of
happiness.
714. It is doubtful if God can bless a man greatly without hurting him deeply.
715. A beautiful heart more than offsets the handicap of a homely face.
719. Laughter is the remedy for many little ills. It can cure more quickly than the doctor's tiny
pills.
720. The average man can stand adversity better than prosperity.
721. When things get rough, remember: It's the rubbing that brings out the shine.
722. Character, like sweet herbs, should give off its finest fragrance when pressed.
723. There are two ways of meeting difficulties: Alter the difficulties, or alter yourself to meet
them.
724. The City National Bank of Binghamton, N.Y., sent flowers to the management of the
Binghamton Savings Bank congratulating the latter institution upon the opening of its new facilities. But,
unfortunately, the card accompanying the flowers read: "Deepest Sympathy."
Later, the florist who made the mistake called the bank to apologize. What really worried him, he
added, was the other bouquet, intended for a funeral, and carrying the message intended for the
bank--"Congratulations on your new location."
728. There is no more dangerous moment in our lives than that which follows a great victory.
730. The more terrible the storm, the more necessary the anchor.
731. Not long ago I saw a little bird lying still and cold on the ground. I thought to myself, I barely
missed seeing God, for He has just been here to a funeral.
732. O Lord Jesus, because being full of foolishness we often sin and have to ask pardon: help us
to forgive as we would be forgiven, neither mentioning old offences committed against us, nor dwelling on
them in thought, nor being influenced by them in heart; but loving each other freely as Thou lovest us, for
Thy Name's sake. Amen.
733. It is said that when the knights of King Arthur's court returned from the field of battle, if they
did not bear in their bodies some scar of the battle, they were thrust forth by the king, with the command,
"Go, get your scar!"
734. How would a person ever know whether his faith was weak or strong unless it has been tried
& tested?
736. God often tries us with a little to see what we would do with a lot.
737. When you're up to your ears in trouble, try using the part that isn't submerged.
738. The triumphal song of life would lose its melody without its minor keys.
739. Love is a fabric which never fades, no matter how often it is washed in the water of adversity
& grief.
740. You can usually determine the calibre of a man by ascertaining the amount of opposition it
takes to discourage him.
741. The heaviest burdens in life are the things that might happen but don't.
742. When God allows a burden to be put upon you, He will put His arms underneath you to help
you carry it.
743. Trees which stand on top of a cliff need to send their roots deep.
744. The chief care of a sick man should be for his soul.
746. Strong people make as many mistakes as weak people. The difference is that strong people
admit them, laugh at them, learn from them. That is how they became strong.
749. For a child of God, death is simply the angel waiting on the threshold of the unseen to disrobe
the soul of its earthly garments, preparatory to its passing into the presence of the King.
752. Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, only more intelligently.
753. Maturity is the ability to rejoice with another who has succeeded when you have failed.
754. Men who try something & fail are infinitely better than those who try nothing & succeed.
755. There is no such thing as failure inside the will of God. There is no such thing as real success
outside the will of God.
757. Trouble is what gives a fellow a chance to discover his strength--or lack of it.
758. The burdens that appear easiest to carry are those borne by others.
760. Some people find happiness by making the most of what they don't have.
761. How a man plays the game shows something of his character. How he loses shows all of it.
762. God's love does not always keep us from trials, but it is a love that always keeps us through
trials.
763. It is far safer to be in the storm with Christ, than to be in still water without Him.
764. When you are down in the mouth, remember Jonah. He came out all right.
765. Trials when very heavy kill little people, but they make great ones.
768. There's no such thing as a little trouble--especially if you're the one that's in it.
769. With God's strength behind you, His love within you, & his arms underneath you, you are
more than sufficient for the days ahead of you.
770. If you have Christ on the inside, you can stand up to any crisis on the outside.
771. It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.
772. One of Henry Ward Beecher's favorite stories was about a young man who was applying for a
job in a New England factory. Asking for the owner, he found himself in the presence of a nervous, fidgety
man who looked hopelessly dyspeptic. "The only vacancy here," he told the applicant, "is a vice-
presidency. The man that takes the job must shoulder all my cares."
"That's a tough job," said the applicant.
"What's the salary?"
"I'll pay you ten thousand a year if you will really take over all my worries."
"Where is the ten thousand coming from?" asked the applicant, suspiciously.
"That my friend," replied the owner, "is your first worry."
774. Things could be worse--suppose your errors were published every day like those of baseball
players?
775. I do not pray for a lighter load, but for a stronger back.
776. I'd rather have lots of chastening from the Lord...& be usable, than to live a life of ease...& be
powerless.
777. If you can see a work which you have begun taken from you & given to another without
feeling bitterness, that is maturity.
778. If you can see others chosen for a job which you are better qualified to do & not feel hurt, that
is maturity.
780. On a little church in Germany stands a stone lamb which has an interesting history: When
some workmen were building the roof, one workman fell to the ground. His companions hastened down
expecting to see him killed. But he was unhurt. A lamb was grazing below when he fell on it, crushing the
lamb. He was so grateful that he made an image of the lamb in stone and placed it on the building as
memorial.
782. A farmer wrote in to the paper & said, "I'm not even a Christian, I don't go to church: I plow
on Sunday, I plant on Sunday, & look at all the great crops I've got! I'm getting along great! My poor
Christian neighbour is having all kinds of trouble. He goes to church on Sunday, & he does not plow &
work on Sunday--& he's a lot worse off than I am!" The wise old newspaper editor wrote back in the letters
column: "God doesn't pay all of His accounts in the Fall!" In other words, "You just wait, Brother!"
786. The Great Wall of China is a gigantic structure which cost an immense amount of money &
labour. When it was finished, it appeared impregnable. But the enemy breached it. Not by breaking it down
or going around it. They did it by bribing the gatekeepers.
787. When Charles Spurgeon lay on his deathbed, he testified to a friend, "My theology now is
found in four little words: 'JESUS died for ME.' I don't say this is all I would preach if I were to be raised
up again, but it is more than enough for me to die upon."
790. LINES WRITTEN AFTER THE DISCOVERY OF THE GERM OF YELLOW FEVER:
793. It is when God appears to have abandoned us that we must abandon ourselves most wholly to
God.
794. If disappointment, trouble, frustration or failure have influenced our decision, we should be
doubly careful before acting on it. Had Paul & Silas allowed their reception in Philippi to sway them in
their guidance Europe might still have been without the Gospel.
796. What we call life is a journey to death. What we call death is the gateway to life.
798. Mr. & Mrs. Lamb--Scottish martyrs of the 16th century. Both were condemned by the
authorities--he to be hanged, she to be tied in a sack & drowned in a pool. The wife on parting said to her
husband: "Husband, be glad we have lived together many joyful days, & this day, on which we are to die,
we ought to esteem the most joyful of all--because now we shall have joy forever. Therefore, I shall not bid
you 'Goodnight,' for we shall meet in Heaven."
799. If a Christian has to change his plans, it is always because God has something better in store.
806. After having been in bed for nearly five years almost totally paralysed, Grandmother cried out
to God & was instantly, miraculously healed! This powerful testimony of God's healing won many souls &
inspired many Christians to have more faith in the Lord. But almost every time before she was to give it,
the Devil would put her through a terrible test: She'd either get terribly sick or break her glasses or fall &
hurt herself or something. She used to say, "The Devil tries to stop me because he FEARS my witness!"
One time as she was sitting waiting to speak, all of a sudden she felt the paralysis strike again, &
she couldn't move her legs or budge from her chair. She thought, "Lord, what is the matter?" Immediately
the Lord answered her, "It is lying vanities!" (Psa.31:6; Jonah 2:8)--In other words, it was only a LIE of the
DEVIL! He was trying to make her BELIEVE that she was paralysed, but it wasn't really true! So she
rebuked the Devil & just then they called her name & she shot out of her chair & into the pulpit & gave her
testimony in greater power than she had ever done before! Years later she said, "Had I believed & accepted
the Devil's lie, I'd probably be paralysed to this day!"--Dad
807. This story is said to have happened in Russia during the early days after the Communist
Revolution when they were persecuting Christians so badly. They sent a group of 40 Christians out on the
ice of a frozen lake naked to die because they wouldn't deny their faith. The guards told them that if any of
them wanted to save themselves, all they had to do was run back to the guards & renounce their faith. They
all froze & dropped one by one, till finally the last man couldn't take it. He saw all the others dying & he
was left alone, & he turned coward & ran toward the guards screaming that he'd deny his faith.
But suddenly one of the soldiers said, "Here, take my gun, put on my uniform! I'm going out there
to die in your place! I was standing here watching & as each Christian dropped I saw a crown placed on his
head! But just as the hand was coming down from Heaven to place a crown on YOUR head, you RAN! So
here, take my uniform, my gun! I want to take your place! I want that crown!" And he went out on the ice
& died for Christ!--Dad
"Be thou faithful unto death, & I will give thee a crown of life." (Rev.2:10)
809. A youthful Mexican convert who had escaped the bondage of a false religion was listening to
a missionary as she told of her visit to the Tower of London where the crown jewels are kept. She had seen
the famous Kohinoor diamond which adorns the crown of the British King at his coronation. The crown is
set with the most precious gems! They dazzle! They sparkle! They are priceless! Following this description,
the process of polishing these gems was enlarged upon, and the words in Malachi 3 were quoted. Every
word was being absorbed by this earnest, dark-eyed lad. At the close of the service he came to the
missionary saying, "Pray for me that I may endure the polishing and be worthy of being even the smallest
gem in my Saviour's crown. I do not want to wear a cheap crown." A few months later he suffered
martyrdom.
810. A certain daughter of a streetcar conductor had to learn a lesson the hard way. She longed to
be a singer. But her face was her misfortune. She had a large mouth & protruding buck teeth. When she
first sang in public--in a New Jersey night club--she tried to pull down her upper lip to cover her teeth. She
tried to act "glamorous." The results? She made herself ridiculous. She was headed for failure.
However, there was a man in this night club who heard the girl sing & thought she had talent. "See
here," he said bluntly, "I've been watching your performance & I know what it is you're trying to hide.
You're ashamed of your teeth!" The girl was embarrassed, but the man continued, "What of it? Is there any
particular crime in having buck teeth? Don't try to hide them! Open your mouth, & the audience will love
you when they see you're not ashamed. Besides," he said shrewdly, "those teeth you're trying to hide may
make your fortune!"
Cass Daley took his advice & forgot about her teeth. From that time on, she thought only about her
audience. She opened her mouth wide & sang with such gusto & enjoyment that she became a top star in
movies & radio. Other comedians are now trying to copy her!
811. When George Bernard Shaw was asked how he learned to speak so compellingly in public, he
replied: "I did it the same way I learned to skate--by doggedly making a fool of myself until I got used to
it." As a youth, Shaw was one of the most timid persons in London. He often walked up & down the
Embankment for twenty minutes or more before venturing to knock at a door. "Few men," he confessed,
"have suffered more from simple cowardice or have been more horribly ashamed of it."
Finally, he hit upon the best & quickest & surest method ever yet devised to conquer timidity,
cowardice, & fear. He determined to make his weak point his strongest asset. He joined a debating society.
He attended every meeting in London where there was to be a public discussion, & he always arose & took
part in the debate. By throwing his heart into the cause of socialism, & by going out & speaking for that
cause, George Bernard Shaw transformed himself into one of the most confident & brilliant speakers of the
first half of the twentieth century.
813. Victories that are easy are cheap. The victories worth having are those gained in a difficult
struggle.
815. My soul, thou art receiving a music lesson from thy Father. Thou art being educated for the
choir invisible. There are parts in the symphony that none can take but thee. My Father is training thee for
the part the angels cannot sing, & the school is sorrow. In the night He is preparing thy song. In the valley
he is tuning thy voice. In the cloud He is deepening thy chords. In the rains He is sweetening thy melody. In
the cold He is molding thy expression. Despise not the school of sorrow.--George Matheson
816. The ideal environment does not guarantee perfect performance. Remember, Adam was in
Paradise when he fell.
817. God will not give any soldier ammunition who is not willing to go into battle.
818. Sometimes God lets people fail if He knows it will drive them to Him.
819. Albert Durer's pictures representing Satan as a monster with horns and a tail are not true to
the Scriptural representations of the Adversary. Satan is portrayed as 'a roaring lion seeking whom he may
devour' but is often 'transformed as an angel of light.' A Scotsman, seeing Schaefer's painting of the
'Temptation of the Lord', said, pointing to Satan, 'If that chiel cam' tae me in such an ugly shape, I think
he'd hae a teugh job wi' me too.'
(Mat.4.1-11; 2Cor.11.14)
822. Whatever gets your goat gets your attention. Whatever gets your attention gets your time.
Whatever gets your time gets you. Whatever gets you becomes your master. Take care, lest a little thing
horn in and get your goat.
823. I have been reflecting on the inestimable value of "broken things." Broken pitchers gave
ample light for victory (Judges 7:9-21); broken bread was more than enough for all the hungry (Mat.14:19-
21); broken box gave fragrance to all the world (Mark 14:3,9); and broken body is salvation to all who
believe and receive the Saviour (Isaiah 53;5,6,12; 1Cor.11:24). And what cannot the Broken One do with
our broken plans, projects, and hearts?
824. A pastor visited a family whose son had been killed in an automobile accident. The mother
railed out at him: "Where was your God when my boy was killed?"
He quietly said, "The same place He was when His Son was killed."
825. Maybe the Lord lets some people get into trouble because that is the only time they ever think
of Him.
826. Only once in the history of Scotland was the Old Edinburgh castle captured. This is how it
happened. The castle had a weak spot which defenders guarded. But it was thought the steepness of the
castle made it inaccessible, impregnable, so no sentries were put there. An attacking party crept up that
unguarded slope & surprised the garrison into surrender ... here the castle was strong, there it was weak.
That is so often the story of human life. Whenever a man falls, it is usually at the point where he
thinks he is strong.
827. I thank God for my handicaps, for, through them, I have found myself, my work, & my God.
--Helen Keller
828. The soul hardly ever realises it, but whether he is a believer or not, his loneliness is really a
homesickness for God.
830. If Christ is with us, who is against us? You can fight with confidence where you are sure of
victory. With Christ & for Christ victory is certain.--St. Bernard of Clairvaux
839. There is always the hope of tomorrow to brighten the clouds of today,
There's always a corner for turning no matter how weary the way.
So just look ahead to tomorrow & trust that you'll find waiting there,
The sunlight that seemed to be hidden by yesterday's clouds of despair.