A Step at a Time   February 20, 1949

Most men resist sudden change. But there are ways in which tremendous changes can come, almost without our being aware of it. By small steps we may arrive at the same destination, which if we had...

A Step at a Time   June 30, 1957

A Still and Quiet Conscience   February 28, 1960

We would turn for a moment or two to the question of a quiet conscience, which is in a sense, simply self-respect, the real respect that comes with being free from the inward accusation that surely...

A Straight Line…   October 31, 1954

We recall once more the mathematical maxim that “a straight line is the shortest distance between two points.” In a day when so many people find themselves paying a price for forgetting...

A Summation: Qualities of Character   March 27, 1960

These qualities of character⎯faith, courage, kindness, sincerity, loyalty⎯all seem in a sense to add up to a simple word⎯a word which doesn’t include them all, but without which all else would...

A Thoughtful, Thankful Season   November 18, 1962

Our thoughts turn again to a thoughtful, thankful season, with gratitude for what the good earth has done in providing plenty, and for the goodness of God to whom we owe it all. Life is sustained...

A Time for Moving Forward   December 1, 1963

We often need an inner searching, of ourselves⎯our lives, our habits, and a searching of our surroundings, with frank and thoughtful appraisal of our own performance. “‘Tis greatly wise...

A Time for Remembering   May 11, 1947

Looking forward from our youth and looking back after youth has passed present two vastly different pictures. As parents we see the future in our children. But as children we see the future in...

A Time to Every Purpose   April 23, 1950

Many centuries ago it was said: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that...

A Too Comfortable Complacency…   October 25, 1964

It is safe to rely on the old assumption often cited, that what we don’t know won’t hurt us—that what we don’t see or sense won’t hurt us. It is possible to be hurt without...

A Turning to Friends and Family   August 4, 1957

Sometimes we may become weary of the sameness of our surroundings and feel that we should like to get away from familiar people and places. But often this is only for a brief time. Often the best...

A Where One Door Shuts, Another Ope   December 27, 1959

There is a maximum quoted Don Quixote which says: “Where one door shuts, another opens, …” We come to an end, and find a beginning. Often we worry about arriving at an end, with too...

A Woman Set Apart…   May 9, 1954

In one account of the courtship of Elizabeth Barrett she replied to the poet Robert Browning, that she should not marry because of her physical frailty; that if she should, as she poignantly put it,...

A Word Called Compassion…   May 4, 1969

There is a word in our language that is called compassion _ a sense of sympathy, a sense of fellowship in feeling, a sense of others’ suffering _ and it puts us in mind of some lines from...

A Word to Fathers--and About Them   June 18, 1961

“Looking back,” Roger W. Babson said of his father, “…I cannot help thinking how utterly wasteful of advice children are…. We usually are either too busy or too proud to ask for...

About Mothers…   May 10, 1953

One could search and ponder long without finding anything new to say concerning mothers. But need there be anything new—but only some things that should again be said. Appreciation, praise, and love...

Abstinence and Moderation   August 1, 1965

“Abstinence is as easy to me,” said Samuel Johnson, “as temperance would be difficult.” Moderation is a word that has a very acceptable sound, and we might fall into the...

Academic Freedom   September 8, 1946

WE KNOW that in the halls of learning there must be freedom to speak the truth_freedom for the discovery of new truth, freedom for the acceptance of new truth, and also (sometimes overlooked)...

Acting in Anger   May 2, 1965

Uncontrolled anger is an outcropping of character. “Men must not turn into bees (that put their lives into their sting) . . .” said Sir Francis Bacon. “To contain anger from...

Advice and How to Give It   December 3, 1961

There is a point of importance in all personal relationships, and that is the how of things as well as the what⎯how things are said and done. Consider, for example, giving advice, which is among the...