It's a story about a poor Scrub Lady and a Millionaire who, in the author's words, was "a self-made man who worshipeth his maker." This Millionaire walked past the Scrub Lady often but never noticed her, "for his head was high in the air, and he...
It was a warm, sunny morning in July 1801. They arranged to meet under the shade of elm trees on the lawn of Yale College. The college president, Timothy Dwight, requested the meeting with Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864), a former student at the...
Joseph Henry Gilmore (1834-1918) was a young, newly ordained pastor who was asked to substitute for the pastor at a midweek service at First Baptist Church in Philadelphia. The year was 1862, during the darkest days of the Civil War. Gilmore...
Emotions are fickle. Feelings are like waves; they come and go. F. B. Meyer (1847-1929) made popular the slogan “Fact! Faith! Feeling!” in his preaching and writing. The point of the motto is the order. First, the facts about Christ. Second, the...
Her pastor saw real talent in her poetry. Robert Lowry, pastor of Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York urged Anne Hawks (1836-1918) to try her hand at writing hymns. When Anne sent Robert a copy of her simple five-stanza hymn, he...
The Museum of the Bible in DC has more than 600 Bibles in its collection. One Bible on display is a rare 1872 Aitken's Bible, sometimes called Congress' Bible. Less than 30 copies are still in existence. Although Robert Aitken's (1734-1802) Bible...
"Chronological snobbery" was a term coined by Owen Barfield in the 1920s and made popular in the writings of C.S. Lewis in the 1950s. The phrase communicates our modern prediction to regard the past as intrinsically inferior to the present. New is...
It’s hard to say goodbye. You may recall the immortal words Juliet spoke to Romeo, “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” Or consider the endearing line from Winnie the Pooh, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” Pastor...
News outlets are all over the story that belief in God is on the wane in America. There is no shortage of testimonials on social media of people who have walked away from God and given up on faith. Surely, unanswered prayer has something to do with...
She was, of her own admission, a shy and awkward child. She lived in a house along Main Street in Stockbridge, Mass, which Norman Rockwell painted into "Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas." She said of herself, "I wasn't one of those children who...
It must rank as one of the most imaginative cover letters ever written. Robert Pirosh quit his job as a copy editor in NY to look for work as a Hollywood screenwriter in 1934. He sent the following letter to studio executives and producers, “I like...
What is the second best-selling Christian book of all time? The all-time best seller is a no-brainer—the Bible. The runner-up best-seller is likely one you don’t know and haven’t read. It’s Thomas a Kempis’ (1380-1471) devotional classic, The...
It was his first Sunday at Old Pine Street Church in Philadelphia. The congregation voted by a strong majority to call George Duffield (1732-1790) to be its pastor in 1771. A large crowd gathered to hear his inaugural sermon, but the old guard...
I'm searching for the right word to introduce Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924). Eccentric? Unconventional? Quirky? He reportedly taught with a pet bat on his shoulders. You get the picture! A recent biographer wondered how he had the capacity for...
The dilemma of unanswered prayer is particularly vexing for us who pray. We who try to be diligent in prayer know the disappointment that attends prayers that seemingly go unanswered. Why doesn't a loved one recover from illness? Why can't family...
Political activist James Foreman asked Pastor Ernest T. Campbell (1923-2010) for permission to read the Black Manifesto in worship the next day at Riverside Church in upper Manhattan. The manifesto called for 500 million dollars in reparation from...
Suicide is on the rise in our country, yet we still don't know how to talk about it. We speculate in hushed tones about the deceased mental state and rush to conclusions, yet we are hard-pressed to know what to say to grieving family members. This...
He described himself as “the worst boy known in Tregynon (a town in Wales) in thirty years.” Thomas Olivers (1725-1799) was orphaned at four and went to live with a great uncle who died a few years later, leaving him a small fortune. Thomas...