Your Children to Whom You Must Relinquish All February 28, 1971
“Could I climb to the highest place in Athens,” said Socrates, “I would lift up my voice and proclaim: “Fellow citizens, why do ye turn and scrape every stone to gather...
You Are the Window… October 10, 1971
There is a remarkable sentence from George Bernard Shaw: “Better keep yourself clean and bright,” he said. “You are the window through which you must see the world.”1 As we...
Words as Hard as Cannon Balls September 12, 1971
Sir Walter Scott suggested a subject in a well phrased couplet: “Thoughts from the tongue that slowly part, Glance quick as lightening through the heart.”1 Whether slowly or quickly,...
When You Reach September September 19, 1971
There is something glorious yet sobering about the swift passing seasons⎯spring, summer, fall⎯and winter follows⎯and there is much we’ve done, much we might have done, much we should have done...
What We Say of Each Other August 22, 1971
Pascal said many things worth citing, among them this⎯which we hope is not as true as some of the other things he said: “…I hold it to be a fact,” he said, ” that if all persons...
What We Give Our Children June 27, 1971
There is a sentence from an unnamed source which says, “We have been so anxious to give our children what we didn’t have that we have neglected to give them what we did have.”1...
Two Kinds of Pollution January 24, 1971
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”1 Then later this follows in the account of the creation: “And God saw everything that he had mad, and, behold, it was very...
Two Fools Quarrelling March 21, 1971
Thomas Fuller said something in a short and meaningful sentence that pertains to loved ones, families, friends, and to all relationships of life: “The world is too narrow for two fools a...
To Those Who Keep Things Going September 5, 1971
There are many heroic, hardworking people who do much of the work of the world – who keep things going, who hold homes and families together, and somehow do what has to be done. Yet there are many...
Think Not, the Husband Gained, That All Is Done August 15, 1971
There is ever and always this matter of marriage⎯a subject that suggests quoting an old couplet: “…think not, the husband gained, that all is done: Think not the wife gained, that all is done;...
There Is Something About Children… April 4, 1971
There is something about children that softens our hearts, and searches our soulsinnocent, honest, teachable, trustingthe children of all the world, worldwidethose of whom our Savior said,...
Theirs That Commit Them…theirs That Permit Them March 7, 1971
There is this from Thomas Fuller that is worth some further thought: “The first faults are theirs that commit them; The second theirs that permit them.”1 We have cited before the...
The Tyranny of Fashion March 14, 1971
“Every generation laughs at the old fashions,” said Henry Thoreau, “but follows religiously the new.”1 This brings us to what could be called the tyranny of fashion ⎯...
The Process of Prevention May 23, 1971
There is much to said concerning the process of prevention, but in general it should be said that is less costly to prevent than it is to try to mend or correct or cure–to prevent disease, to...
The Greatest Waste in the World June 6, 1971
We remember two sentences recently read. One from an unnamed source says, “The future is that time when you’ll wish you’d done what you aren’t doing now.”1 The second...
The Desire to Be Appreciated January 17, 1971
“The deepest hunger in human beings,” said William James, “is the desire to be appreciated.”1 A wife, a mother, can put up with faults and imperfections ⎯ with inadequate...
The Courage to Reconsider May 2, 1971
“There is no dishonor in rethinking a problem,” wrote an acute observer, “but there is disaster in pursuing a wrong course.”1 But often pride oar perverseness, or...
Speaking Things Which They Ought Not June 13, 1971
Among the many human faults and failing there is one that seems peculiarly persistent, and that is gossiping – whispering, spreading rumors which travel like a wind-swept fire from ear to ear, and...
Some Sudden, Sobering Fact to Face February 7, 1971
A “life to live! We all want to do our best with it. We all want to make the most of it,” wrote one earnest searching person. “The question is not how much time have we? —for in...
So Let Us Live to Live Forever April 11, 1971
As we search and ponder the purpose and problems of life, all of us sooner or later face the question of the length of life, and of a personal, everlasting life. This question somehow lingers...