I admire Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) as a poet. Her depth of feeling, keen insights, and spiritual sensitivities win my admiration. While she could be introspective and overly serious, she periodically displayed a lighthearted, playful mood, as...
The Isle of Man is situated between England and Ireland. This island, with a population of 84,000, has a temperate oceanic climate. Its highest recorded temperature is eighty-four degrees. Thomas Wilson (1663-1755) arrived at the Isle of Man with...
Emily Malbone Morgan (1862-1937) and Adelyn Howard were the best of friends growing up in Hartford, Connecticut. They climbed apple trees, shared attic treasures, and attended the same Episcopal church. Adelyn moved away to a new home at a...
Bill Wilson was ruining a promising career on Wall Street with his problem drinking. He became a Christian through the influence of the Oxford Group and resolved with Christ's help to abstain from alcohol. During a business trip to Ohio, he became...
He was the originator of the modern department store in the late 1800's. We're not talking about a big box store here. His flagship store in downtown Philadelphia featured the largest organ in the world shipped from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair...
People gathered for worship one evening in 1906 in a Presbyterian church in Philadelphia. There was opportunity for people in the service to testify to their faith in Christ and share experiences of how they came to believe in him. One woman spoke...
I came across an old prayer by Benjamin Jenks (1676-1724) and decided to find out more about him. My history books made only a passing mention of him. I could find plenty of material on a certified personal trainer and a travel blogger with the...
The Vikings terrorized Europe for the better part of three centuries. When an exiled king came to the Corbie monastery in Northern France seeking missionary help, Anskar (801-865) volunteered. His fellow monks tried to dissuade him from going. And...
Biographies typically focus on the life of interesting people rather than their deaths. Not so with the four gospels. They give extensive treatment to Jesus' arrest, trial, death, and resurrection. One-third of their written record is devoted to...
George Fox (1900-1943) lied about his age to enlist in the army during World War I. He served in the ambulance corps in France and suffered a spinal injury during a bombing raid, for which he was awarded a Purple Star. After the war, he returned...
It was a typical hot, muggy day in Washington, DC., when President Lincoln called the 37th Congress into emergency session on Tuesday, July 4, 1861. Confederate troops were advancing toward the capital, and many feared an assault was imminent....
The Catacomb of Callixtus in Rome was used as an underground burial chamber for Christians during the third century AD. It was also a place where they congregated for worship to avoid detection since Roman soldiers considered it haunted and stayed...
The geese went to church each Sunday. They listened attentively to the sermon preached from a huge pulpit, where the old Gander exhorted his flock that the Creator intended a greater purpose for them. They were given wings to enable them to fly....
Most of the singing in churches during the late Middle Ages was done by clergy and trained choirs, while the congregation sang only on rare occasions. One contribution of the Reformation was the recovery of congregational singing. The reformers...
Among the artifacts at the Smithsonian African American Museum is Absalom Jones' (1747-1818) sermon from January 1, 1808. Congress had just passed the Act to Prohibit the Importation of Slaves, making it illegal to transport people of color to the...
Bill sat at his kitchen table drinking gin on a dreary November evening in 1934. The telephone rang. It was his good friend and drinking buddy Ebby who wanted to visit him. Ebby ended the call by telling Bill he was now sober. Bill knew how bad it...
The Lord's Prayer, sometimes called the "Our Father" prayer, is the most widely known Christian prayer in the world. It's all of fifty-three words or sixty-six if you prefer the longer ending. By comparison, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is...
Resilience is a by-product of faith. It's the ability to see beyond present pain and trouble to trust God for the future. As I consider the life of Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821), her resilient faith wins my respect. Her mother died when she was...