COURAGE
~ Bible
Reader Unruffled By Bandit
Foster Walker
accidentally strolled into the scene of a holdup at a store in Memphis,
Tenn., and heard the gunman order him to surrender his money or
“I’ll shoot you.”
“You just go
ahead and shoot,” Walker said. “I just got through reading my Bible,
and I’ve already said my prayers.”
The robber was
dumbfounded and Walker, a man in his sixties, walked away.
—Gospel Herald
~Hated But
Happy Young Girl
Ye shall be
hated of all men for my name’s sake (Matt. 10:22). The Russian
newspaper published by the Young Communist League once printed a letter
from Nina K., a sixteen-year-old girl, quoting her as saying, “I am a
young Communist League member. I am a normal girl, but at the same time
I am unusual. I’m a Baptist! Frankly, I do not consider myself a
member of the Young Communist League. I have Komsomol members pass me
without greeting. Let them look on me with contempt. My brothers and
sisters in God treat me very well. I believe them and I believe God.”
The paper captioned the letter “The One Who Has Gone Astray.”
—Tom M. Olson
~High Noon In
Judge’s Courtroom
Prayer may
have been banned in the nation’s public-school classrooms, thanks to
professional atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, but not in the Detroit
courtroom of county judge Frederick Byrd. He’s been holding noon
Bible-study sessions in his courtroom for twenty years, and he says he
won’t stop now, despite a written warning from Mrs. O’Hair. She told
the judge his noonday practices were “wholly illegal and
unconstitutional, being an unpermissible admixture of state and
church.”
Mrs. O’Hair
will have to sue, declares Byrd. “I’m calling her bluff. These
services have been going on since long before I became a judge, and I
see no reason to end them.”
—Christianity Today
~ Pastor
Says: “Shoot Away”
During the
pastorate of Henry Ward Beecher in Indianapolis he preached a series of
sermons upon drunkenness and gambling, incidentally scoring the men of
the community who profited by these sins. During the ensuing week he was
accosted on the street by a would-be assailant, pistol in hand, who
demanded a retraction of some utterance of the preceding Sunday.
“Take it
back, right here!” he demanded with an oath, “or I will shoot you on
the spot!”
“Shoot
away!” was the preacher’s response as he walked calmly away, hurling
over his shoulder this parting remark:
“I don’t
believe you can hit the mark as well as I did!”
—Gospel Herald
~To Quisling:
“Take It Off”
When the
Germans had taken Norway, Bishop Bergrav of the Lutheran Church was also
taken prisoner. One day the puppet Quisling said to Bishop Bergrav: “I
would like to take your head off!”
“Here I
am,” replied Bergrav, “take it off!” But the traitor, Quisling,
feared the people of Norway and refused to do it.
After the war,
Norway with other nations, was also freed, and Quisling paid the
penalty. It took courage for Bergrav to challenge the godless leaders in
their reign of terror.
—Christian Victory
~ Only One
Thing Pained Chrysostom
When the great
Chrysostom was arrested by the Roman Emperor, the latter sought to make
the Greek Christian recant, but without success. So the emperor
discussed with his advisers what could be done to the prisoner. “Shall
I put him in a dungeon?” the Emperor asked.
“No,” one
of his counselors replied, “for he will be glad to go. He longs for
the quietness wherein he can delight in the mercies of his God.”
“Then he
shall be executed!” said the Emperor.
“No,” was
the answer, “for he will also be glad to die. He declares that in the
event of death he will be in the presence of his Lord.”
“What shall
we do then?” the ruler asked.
“There is
only one thing that will give Chrysostom pain,” the counselor said.
“To cause Chrysostom to suffer, make him sin. He is afraid of nothing
except sin.”
—Baptist Standard
~The General
Took His Stand
Frederick the
Great was a scoffer, but his great general, Von Zealand, was a
Christian. One day at a gathering, the king was making coarse jokes
about Jesus Christ and the whole place was ringing with guffaws.
Von Zealand
arose stiffly and said, “Sire, you know I have not feared death. I
have fought and won 38 battles for you. I am an old man; I shall soon
have to go into the presence of One Greater than thou, the mighty God
who saved me from my sin, the Lord Jesus Christ whom you are blaspheming
against. I salute thee, sire, as an old man, who loves his Savior, on
the edge of eternity.”
With trembling
voice, Frederick replied: “General Von Zealand. I beg your pardon. I
beg your pardon! I beg your pardon !”
The company
silently dispersed.
—Sunday
~Wanted:
Hundred Men
John Wesley
said, “Give me a hundred men who fear nothing but sin, and desire
nothing but God, and I will shake the world. I care not a straw whether
they be clergymen or laymen; and such alone will overthrow the kingdom
of Satan and build up the Kingdom of God on earth.”
—The Preacher’s Magazine
~Not Fearing
The World
One of the
reformers being told, “All the world are against you,” replied,
“Then I am against all the world.” The record on the tomb of John
Knox is, “Here lies the man who never feared the face of clay.”
—Foster
~Secret Of
Fearlessness
Of the
memorials in Westminster Abbey there is not one that gives a nobler
thought than that inscribed on the monument to Lord Lawrence—simply
his name, with the date of his death, and these words: “He feared man
so little because he feared God so much.”
~ Stand With
The Right
Never be
afraid to stand with the minority which is right, for the minority which
is right will one day be the majority; always be afraid to stand with
the majority which is wrong, for the majority which is wrong will one
day be the minority.
—William Jennings Bryan
~A Prayer For
The President
In 1953 a
columnist of the Chicago News by the name of Harris, a man who acquired
a large reader following by his frank and often caustic comments, wrote
what he called A PRAYER FOR THE PRESIDENT:
“O
Lord … give him the courage, not of his convictions, but of Your
commandments.”
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