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RELATED INDEX TOPICS: Answered Prayer, Communion with God, Contentment, Doubt,
Positiveness, Peace, Testimonies of Faith.
1. An old Scotsman operated a little rowboat for transporting passengers. One day a passenger
noticed that the good old man had carved on one oar the word "Faith," & on the other oar the word
"Works." Curiosity led him to ask the meaning of this. The old man, being a well-balanced Christian & glad
of the opportunity for testimony, said, "I will show you."
So saying, he dropped one oar & plied the other called Works, & they just went around in circles.
Then he dropped that oar & began to ply the oar called Faith, & the little boat just went around in circles
again--this time the other way around, but still in a circle.
After this demonstration the old man picked up Faith & Works, & plying both oars together, sped
swiftly over the water, explaining to his inquiring passenger, "You see, that is the way it is in the Christian
life. Dead works without faith are useless, & 'faith without works is dead' also, getting you nowhere. But
faith & works pulling together make for safety, progress, & blessing."
2. Let us not rebel against delay. We must not steal tomorrow out of God's hands. God is never too
late. He is always right on time.
3. When Hudson Taylor, the famous missionary, first went to China, it was in a sailing vessel. Very
close to the shore of cannibal islands the ship was becalmed, & it was slowly drifting shoreward unable to
go about & the savages were eagerly anticipating a feast.
The captain came to Mr. Taylor & besought him to pray for the help of God. "I will," said Taylor,
"provided you set your sails to catch the breeze." The captain declined to make himself a laughing stock by
unfurling in a dead calm. Taylor said, "I will not undertake to pray for the vessel unless you will prepare the
sails." And it was done.
While engaged in prayer, there was a knock at the door of his stateroom. "Who is there?"
The captain's voice responded, "Are you still praying for wind?"
"Yes."
"Well," said the captain, "you'd better stop praying, for we have more wind than we can manage."
4. Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, & receives the impossible.
5. Faith is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, & bear the intolerable.
6. Faith is idle when circumstances are right, only when they are adverse is one's faith in God
exercised. Faith, like muscle, grows strong & supple with exercise.
7. Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.
10. In 1856, David Livingstone faced a grave peril in Africa. He was passing through the wild
country of the native chief Mburuma. The chief was hostile & had been seeking to rouse the countryside
against the man's expedition. Reports had been that he was seen creeping toward the camp!
Alone in his tent, Livingstone opened his Bible & read the Promise on which he had staked his life
so often. Then he wrote in his diary,
"January 14, 1856. Evening. Felt much turmoil of spirit in prospect of having all my plans for
welfare of this great region knocked on the head by savages tomorrow. But Jesus said, 'All power is given
unto Me in Heaven & in Earth. Go ye therefore & teach all nations ... & lo I am with you alway, even unto
the end of the world.'
"This is the word of a Gentleman of the most strict & sacred honour, so that's the end of fear. I will
not cross furtively tonight as I intended. Nay, verily, I shall take observations for latitude & longitude
tonight, though they may be the last, I feel quiet & calm now, thank God!"
11. A coloured church congregation had met to pray for rain to release a long dry spell. The
preacher looked severely at his flock & said, "Brothers & sisters, you'll knows why we is here. Now what I
wants to know is--where is yo' umbrellas?"
12. A little faith will bring your soul to Heaven; a great faith will bring Heaven to your soul.
14. Faith does the same against the Devil as unbelief does against God.
15. A little lad was keeping his sheep one Sunday morning. The bells were ringing for church, &
the people were going over the field, when the little fellow began to think that he, too, would like to pray to
God. But what could he say? He had never learned a prayer. So he knelt down & commenced the alphabet--
A, B, C, & so on to Z.
A gentleman happening to pass on the other side of the hedge heard the lad's voice, &, looking
through the bushes, saw the little fellow kneeling with folded hands & closed eyes, saying, "A, B, C."
"What are you doing, my little man?" "Please, sir, I was praying." "But what are you saying your
letters for?"
"Why, I didn't know any prayer, only I felt that I wanted God to take care of me & help me to care
for the sheep; so I thought if I said all I knew, he would put it together & spell all I want."
"Bless your heart, my little man, He will, He will, He will. When the heart speaks right, the lips
can't say wrong."
16. Hannah Whithall Smith tells about a man sliding down a rope into a well. He supposed the
rope to be of ample length, but to his dismay he reached the end of it without touching the bottom of the
well with his feet. He tried in vain to climb up the rope, & dared not let go for fear of being dashed to
pieces. He held on as long as he could, & when utterly exhausted let the rope slip from his grasp. He fell--
just three inches!
18. The southern tip of Africa used to be called "Cape of Tempests." Its swirling seas &
continuously adverse weather conditions caused sailors great anxiety & took many lives. But a certain
Portuguese, determined to find a safer route through those seas to the renowned Land of Cathay, discovered
a safer passage round this promontory. And the area was renamed the "Cape of Good Hope."
21. In a cellar in Cologne, Germany after WW2 were found these words on the wall:
I BELIEVE ...
22. I learned to swim in boyhood, but it was only this summer that I achieved complete mastery of
myself in the water. For 30 years I had assumed that I must constantly struggle to keep from sinking.
One day an expert swimmer watched me for a few minutes & then cried: "Stop fighting the water
& trust it to hold you up. Use your strength & get somewhere."
Under his direction, a few moments sufficed to convince me he was right. I lay flat in the water
without moving hands or feet & to my delight, it held me up. Then I struck out, using my strength to forge
ahead. What a revelation! Why did not someone tell me that years ago?
So many constantly struggle to be Christians, when if they would only trust Christ they would be
kept.
23. George W. Boschke was the famous engineer who built the gigantic sea wall to protect
Galveston, Texas, from the horrible floods which had brought disaster to the city. He built his sea wall with
a sure confidence of a thoroughgoing engineer & master workman. From Galveston he went to Oregon to
build railroads in an undeveloped section of the state. Boschke was in a camp 40 miles away from the
nearest railroad when an exhausted messenger rode in & handed a telegram to his assistant. The message
said that the Galveston sea wall had been washed away by a second furious hurricane. The assistant was in
consternation & dreaded to hand the telegram to his chief. Boschke read the telegram, smiled, handed it
back & said, "This telegram is a black lie. I built that wall to stand."
He turned away & went about his work. It turned out that the message was based on a false report.
True, there had been a hurricane as severe as that which had flooded the city before, but Boschke's sea wall
had not been moved. It stood firm. "I built that wall to stand," said Boschke & went smiling about his work
amid rumours of disaster.
24. The minister's sermon concerned the relationship between fact & faith. "That you are sitting
before me in this church," he said, "is fact. That I am standing, speaking from this pulpit, is fact. But it is
only faith that makes me believe anyone is listening!"
25. The greatest victories are the victories of faith. It is not so much what we can do that counts,
but what we can trust God to do.
26. The steps of faith fall on the seeming void & find rock beneath.
29. Dwight L. Moody's favourite verse was Isaiah 12:2: "I will trust, & not be afraid." He used to
say: "You can travel first class or second class to Heaven. Second class is, 'What time I am afraid, I will
trust.' First class is, 'I will trust, & not be afraid.' That is the better way. Why not buy a first-class ticket?"
30. Bishop Bashford, in one of his Episcopal tours in China, was one night compelled to sleep
outdoors, under the trees, the hotel keeper warning him about marauders. Being watchful & wakeful
awhile, he thought of the words of the Psalmist, & then said to the Lord, "There is no use both of us being
wake," so he slept the sleep of the just.
31. A poor woman, in an Eastern city, made complaint to the Sultan that while she slept her all was
taken by thieves. "Wherefore did you sleep?" asked the Sultan.
"My Lord," was the response, "I slept because I thought you were ever awake."
The Sultan, pleased with her simple faith in his care of his people, restored to her more than she
had lost. How calmly may the Christian both lie down & sleep, knowing that his God is ever guarding him,
for He slumbers not, neither is weary of watching.
32. One day a man went running & puffing into the railroad station to catch a train, but missed it.
He looked at his watch & said, "Watch, I had a lot of faith in you."
A friend overheard him & said, "Don't you know that faith without works is dead?"
33. Faith ends where worry begins, & worry ends where faith begins.
34. Faith is what made the little girl take an umbrella to a prayer meeting called especially to pray
for rain. Grownups wore sun glasses.
36. The local parks commission had been ordered to remove the trees from a certain street which
was to be widened. As they were about to begin, the foreman & his men noticed a robin's nest in one of the
trees & the mother robin sitting on the nest. The foreman ordered the men to leave the tree until later.
Returning, they found the nest occupied by little wide-mouthed robins. Again they left the tree.
When they returned at a later date they found the nest empty. The family had grown & flown away. But
something at the bottom of the nest caught the eye of one of the workmen--a soiled little white card. When
he had separated it from the mud & sticks, he found that it was a small Sunday school card & on it the
words, "We trust in the Lord our God."
38. I once saw a man in an insane asylum whose chief trouble was his fear that he wouldn't get his
next meal. As soon as one meal was out of the way, he began to worry about the next. Most of his time &
strength were spent in that worry. But that man was in an insane asylum. As long as we are out of one we
ought to act more reasonable.
40. He does not believe that does not live according to his belief.
42. Faith & obedience are bound up in the same bundle. He that obeys God, trusts God; & he that
trusts God, obeys God.
43. Walking by faith means being prepared to trust where we are not permitted to see.
44. Faith is in the spiritual realm what money is in the commercial realm.
45. A six-year-old went into a bank & asked to see the president. A courteous clerk showed her
into his private office. She explained that her girls' club was raising money for a new club house & would
he please contribute?
The banker laid a dollar & a dime on the desk & said, "Take your choice, Miss."
She picked up the dime & said, "My mother always taught me to take the smallest piece." Picking
up the dollar bill also, she added: "But so I won't lose this dime, I'll take this piece of paper to wrap it up
in."
46. Faith enables us so to rejoice in the Lord that our infirmities become platforms for the display
of His grace.
47. All God's giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on
God being with them.
48. The larger faith we bring, the larger measure we carry from Christ.
49. Before faith & obedience become acts of man they are gifts of God.
51. F - orsaking
A - ll
I
T - ake
H - im
54. When Abraham went out, he was not sure of his destiny, but he was sure of his company.
55. Faith follows God implicitly, albeit with trembling on occasion; while sight calculates,
considers, cautions & cringes.
56. Faith never fears that it will overdraw its account at the Bank of Heaven.
57. Some people think they need faith as big as a mountain to remove a mustard seed.
58. A friend tells of overhearing two little girls, playmates, who were counting over their pennies.
One said, "I have five pennies."
The other said, "I have ten."
"No," said the first little girl, "you have just five cents, the same as I."
"But," the second child quickly replied, "my father said that when he came home tonight, he would
give me five cents, & so I have ten cents." The child's faith gave her proof of that which she did not as yet
see, & she counted it as being already hers, because it had been already promised by her father.
59. A story is told that once the passengers of a vessel steaming along the St. Lawrence River were
very angry because, in spite of the fact that heavy fog was encircling the boat, full speed ahead was
maintained. At last they went to the first mate, & complained, "Oh, don't be afraid!" the mate replied, with
a smile. "The fog lies low, & the captain is high above it, & can see where we are going."
Are you tempted to complain of the way your Great Captain is leading you? Believe that He can
see the end of the way. Then, declare, "Thou, Lord ... makest me dwell in safety."
60. A man was compelled one night to cross a wide, frozen river. Notwithstanding the assurances
of those who were thoroughly familiar with the region & repeatedly crossed on the solid ice, the traveler
feared to undertake the trip, but finally began to crawl his way over. When near the middle of the frozen
stream he was startled by a sound in the distance, & caught sight of a Negro driving a heavy team of horses
pulling a great load of pig iron; yet there was not the least sign of a crack in the ice.
Will the Word of God hold? Some fear to trust it. Why, man, it can't fail!
63. Faith is fostered by prayer, is fortified by the study of the Word, & is fulfilled by our yielding
moment by moment to the Lord Jesus Himself.
64. Belief is a truth held in the mind. Faith is a fire in the heart.
68. A little fellow in the slum section of a large city was induced to attend a mission Sunday
School, & by-&-by became a faithful little Christian. He seemed quite settled in his Christian faith, but
someone, surely in a thoughtless mood, tried to test or shake his simple faith in God, asking him, "If God
loves you, why does He not take better care of you? Why doesn't He tell someone to bring you shoes & a
warm coat & better food?" This little fellow thought a moment, then with tears starting in his eyes, said, "I
guess He does tell somebody, but somebody forgets."
69. Looking through binoculars in the Alps, a group of scientists saw a healthy specimen of a rare
plant which they wanted. It was located, however, on a valley floor. Although they had ropes & climbing
equipment, the cliffs appeared too steep for anyone of their weight. Just then a young lad with his dog came
bounding down the path. They stopped him with this proposition: For a certain amount of money they
would tie a strong rope around his waist, lower him to the valley floor, & draw him up again when he had
uprooted the plant. He considered a moment, then without a word returned the way he had come. In a few
minutes, however, he again appeared, leading by the hand a burly Swiss mountaineer. "All right,
gentlemen," he said, "I will get your plant. But my father will hold the rope."
70. Some men remind me of a poor immigrant who was discovered walking on the tracks of a
railroad in New Jersey. On his back he carried a huge bulk & as he trudged on, tired & halt, he resembled
Bunyan's pilgrim with his burden. In passing a station an agent ordered him off the track, reminding him he
was liable to arrest for trespassing. The man demurred & produced a railroad ticket good for passage from
Jersey City to Scranton. The agent looked at him in amazement, & asked why he was walking when he
might ride.
The stranger replied that he thought the ticket gave him only the privilege of walking over the
road. His right was explained to him, & the tired man with delight boarded the first train for his destination.
Surely the angels must look with wonderment at the thousands who trudge along, anxious &
careworn, bearing life's burdens without Divine help & future hope.
Ah, how many of God's children, through distrust & disbelief, fail to "possess their possessions!"
72. Believers are not hired servants, supporting themselves by their own work, but children
maintained at their Father's expense.
73. Believe your beliefs & doubt your doubts; do not make the mistake of doubting your beliefs &
believing your doubts.
75. Some people are always telegraphing to Heaven for God to send a cargo of blessings to them;
but they are not at the wharfside to unload the cargo when it comes.
77. Would it not be better to leave tomorrow with God? That is what is troubling man; tomorrow's
burdens, tomorrow's duties. Martin Luther, in his autobiography says:
"I have one preacher that I love better than any other on Earth; it is my little tame robin, who
preaches to me daily. I put crumbs upon my window sill, especially at night. He hops onto the window sill
when he wants his supply, & takes as much as he desires to satisfy his need. From thence he always hops to
a little tree close by & lifts up his voice to God & sings his carols of praise & gratitude, tucks his little head
under his wing & goes fast to sleep, & leaves tomorrow to look after itself. He is the best preacher that I
have on Earth."
78. A skillful surgeon recently undertook the responsibility of performing a serious operation on
the eyes of an Eastern monarch which proved highly successful. After the king's recovery the problem of
presenting his account puzzled the doctor, for he was dubious as to what figure would correctly estimate the
value of the result achieved; as in Eastern countries it is a serious wrong to charge the king more or less
than the actual value. Taking a blank billhead the doctor wrote across it: "The king can do no wrong," &
respectfully submitted it to the monarch. His answer was a letter enclosing a sum far beyond his highest
hopes. When we know not what to pray for, let us leave it to our Heavenly King Who doeth all things well.
79. Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is
humanly possible. Faith begins where man's power ends.
81. Religious faith is not a final goal to be reached, but a highway to be travelled.
84. Faith that is sure of God is the only faith there is.
85. Oliver Cromwell's secretary was dispatched to the continent on some important business. He
stayed one night at a seaport town, & tossed on his bed, unable to sleep.
According to an old custom, a servant slept in his room, & on this occasion slept soundly enough.
The secretary at length awakened the man who asked how it was that his master could not rest.
"I am so afraid something will go wrong with the embassage," was the reply.
"Master," said the valet, "may I ask a question or two?"
"To be sure."
"Did God rule the world before we were born?"
"Most assuredly He did."
"And will He rule it after we are dead?"
"Certainly He will."
"Then, master, why not let Him rule the present, too?"
The secretary's faith was stirred, peace was the result, & in a few minutes both he & his servant
were in sound asleep.
87. Mother gazed in consternation at the seemingly expanding bump on Bobby's head. Bobby, six
years old, had just come home from school. "How did you get such a bump? Who hit you?" inquired the
anxious mother. "Were you fighting the other children?" Then said the mother, "Come here, let me put cold
compresses on it right away!!"
Backing toward his bedroom door, little Bobby pleaded, "Jus' a minute, please. I want to talk to
Jesus!" His private session over, he went cheerfully to play. But a few moments later, his mother called him
for the application of the aforementioned cold compresses. Whereupon, Bobby questioned, "Aw, Mommy,
why don't you give Jesus a chance?"
89. A wise man once said that enthusiasm is nothing but faith with a tin can tied to its tail.
90. The World will not be convinced of your faith by the sourness of your face.
91. Before a person sets out to test his faith by trying to move a mountain, he should begin with a
molehill & work up.
92. If we would venture more upon the naked promise of God, we should enter a world of wonders
to which as yet we are strangers.
93. During an earthquake, a few years ago, the inhabitants of a small village were very much
alarmed.
One old woman, whom they all knew, was surprisingly calm & joyous.
At length, one of them said to her, "Mother, are you not afraid?"
"No, I rejoice to know that I have a God Who can shake the world!"
94. For many years the mother of Tom Carter prayed that God would save her boy & make a
preacher out of him. Her boy was a wicked sinner. He landed in prison, but the mother still prayed for him,
believing that God would answer her prayers. One day she received a telegram from the prison, saying that
her son was dead.
The mother was stunned for a few minutes. Then she went to her room. There she prayed with her
open Bible before her. She said to the Lord, "O God, I have believed the promises Thou didst give me in
Thy Word. I have believed that I would live to see Tom saved & preaching the Gospel. Now, a telegram
says he is dead. Lord, which is true, this telegram or Thy Word?"
She rose from her knees & wired the prison: "There must be some mistake. My boy is not dead."
And there WAS a mistake. Tom Carter was alive! Not long afterward he was saved. When he was released
from prison, he became a mighty soul-winner & preacher.
95. Faith gives us the courage to face the present with confidence & the future with expectancy.
96. Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, & receives from God the impossible.
97. We may not know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future.
98. A person's faith is not judged by what he says about it, but by what he does about it.
99. Faith is to the soul what a mainspring is to a watch.
100. The greatness of our fears shows us the littleness of our faith.
102. It is sickly faith that is shaken because some frail human being goes wrong.
105. It is related of Alexander the Great, that, on one occasion a courtier asked him for some
financial aid. That great leader told him to go to his treasurer & ask for whatever amount he wanted. A little
later, the treasurer appeared & told Alexander the man had asked for an enormous sum, & that he hesitated
to pay out so much. "Give him what he asks for," replied the great conqueror; "he has treated me like a
KING in his asking, & I shall be like a king in my giving!"
Greatly grieved must be our God because of the smallness of our requests of Him!
106. Theodore Monod was once telling a little friend about Christ healing blind Bartimaeus, "And
what," said he to the boy, "would you have asked from Jesus if you had been blind?"
"Oh," said the child, with glowing face & kindling eyes, "I should have asked Him for a nice little
dog with a collar & chain, to lead me about."
How often do we ask for the blind man's dog instead of the seeing man's eyes?
109. Faith gives us the courage to face the present with confidence, & the future with expectancy.
111. There are a thousand ways of pleasing God, but not one without faith.
112. If your faith cannot move mountains, it ought to at least climb them.
113. Believe that life is worth living & your belief will help create the fact.
114. John W. Knight, was a Methodist circuit rider. Before his conversion, he was a notorious,
blatant atheist. When God saved him his life was totally changed. It is said that, wherever he went, a revival
of "the old-time religion" broke out. Bishop Pierce, in his biography of "Uncle Knight," tells some
interesting stories of him. The following incident shows the old circuit rider's faith. A destroying drought
had cast its sear mantle over a countryside. Crops were withering & lying in the parched fields. "Uncle
Knight" & others wended their way to the little Crawford Church in Putnam County, Georgia, to pray for
rain. "Uncle Knight," however, was the ONLY one who took an umbrella with him to the prayer meeting.
On bended knees the old man began to pray as follows: "O, Lord, we need rain. O, Lord, we need much
rain. O, Lord, we don't want any drizzly-drazzly rain. We want a gully-washer!" God, as He always does,
honoured the simple faith of the old circuit rider, & the people soon knew the answer to the ancient
question, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?"
115. Some years ago, two men, a bargeman & a collier, were in a boat above the rapids of a
cataract, & found themselves unable to manage it, being carried so swiftly down the current that they must
both inevitably be borne down & dashed to pieces. One was saved by grasping a rope that was thrown to
him. The same instant that the rope came into his hand, a log floated by the other man. The thoughtless &
confused bargeman, instead of seizing the rope, laid hold on the log. It was a fatal mistake; they were both
in imminent peril; but the one was drawn to shore, because he had a connection with the people on the land,
while the other, clinging to the loose, floating log, was borne irresistibly along, & never heard of
afterwards.
Faith has a saving connection with Christ. Faith is on the shore, holding the rope, &, as we lay
hold of it with the hand of our confidence, He pulls us to the shore; but our good works, having no
connection with Christ, are drifted along down to the gulf of fell despair.
116. Faith is the daring of the soul to go farther than it can see.
117. Your faith gets a real test when you find yourself face to face with a need with nothing less
than a $20 bill in your wallet.
118. Faith is the wind that blows the sail of our ship of hope toward the desired destination.
119. When you become wrinkled with care & worry, it's time to have your FAITH lifted.
120. Canst thou take the barren soil
And with all thy pains & toil
Make lilies grow?
Thou canst not. O helpless man,
Have faith in God--He can.
124. Both faith & fear sail into the harbour of your mind, but only faith should be allowed to
anchor.
125. Faith is something like electricity. You can't see it, but you can see the light.
129. Faith helps us walk fearlessly, run confidently, & live victoriously.
130. Did you ever wonder about the Trinity? John Wesley said: "Bring me a worm that can
comprehend a man, & then I will show you a man that can comprehend the triune of God!"
Never try to arouse faith from within. You cannot stir up faith from the depths of your heart. Leave
your heart, & look into the face of Christ.
132. "Dreadfully tarnished," exclaimed a woman as she showed a massive piece of family silver to
a friend. "I cannot keep it bright unless I use it!"
To which the friend replied, "That is just the way with faith. You cannot keep faith bright unless
you use it!"
133. An aged Indian, half naked & famished, wandered into one of our Western settlements,
begging for food to keep him from starving. While eagerly devouring the bread bestowed by the hand of
charity, a bright coloured ribbon, from which was suspended a small dirty pouch, was seen around his neck.
On being questioned, he said it was a charm given him in his younger days; & opening it, displayed a
faded, greasy paper, which he handed to the investigator for inspection. It proved to be a regular discharge
from the Federal Army, entitling him to a pension for life & signed by General Washington himself.
134. Faith is the magic formula that supplies starch to the spine.
135. Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is.
136. It's difficult, if not impossible, to have faith in God if a man has too much faith in himself.
138. At times we may not know where God is, but we can be confident that He knows where we
are.
141. Augustine was once walking by the sea shore. He was greatly perplexed about the doctrine of
the Trinity. He observed a little boy with a sea shell running to the water, filling it & then pouring it into a
hole which he had made in the sand. "What are you doing, my little man?" asked Augustine.
"Oh," said he, "I am trying to put the ocean in this hole!"
Augustine learned his lesson, & as he walked away, he said, "That is what I am trying to do. I see
it now. Standing on the shores of time I am trying to get into this little finite mind of mine things which are
infinite." Let us be content to let God know some things which we cannot know.
144. One morning Mary said to her grandmother, whose only companion she was, "Granny, what
shall we do this morning? We have nothing for breakfast."
"We will light the fire & put on the kettle & set the table, & tell our Heavenly Father. Even if He
turns stones into bread we will have our breakfast," answered her grandmother. Soon came a knock at the
door.
It was a little old man. "Have you got such a thing as an old grindstone you could sell me?" he
said. Granny had, & he bought it for ten shillings.
"Let us kneel down again," said Granny, "and give thanks, then you can run to the shop & buy
some food for breakfast, Mary."
So the Lord did turn a stone into bread.
145. Don't worry about your mistakes. Some of the dullest people don't make any.
146. I believe that in any setting, the tendency to place personal feeling above the Scriptures is
always an insult to God.
149. There is no need to nervously pace the deck of the ship of life when the Great Pilot is at the
wheel.
150. The story is told that during the great Plague in London, several centuries ago, the stricken
people were dying by thousands, & all roads leading out were crowded with fugitives. A Negro was helping
pack a carriage that stood at a door on Craven Street, Strang. His master was abandoning his town house
for his country home. The Negro said to another, "Since my lord leaves London for fear of the plague, his
God must live in the country, I suppose." This was not sarcasm, for he had but recently come from Africa,
where the gods are supposed to have local shrines & jurisdictions.
The nobleman, who overheard the remark, was struck by it. "That ignorant fellow has taught me
something that I had well-nigh forgotten," he said to himself. "My God is truly everywhere. He can keep
me safe in town as well as in the country. Lord, pardon my mistrust." He remained in London & applied
himself to caring for some of the stricken ones, many of whom were utterly alone & helpless, deserted by
their relatives & neighbours. The God that Lord Craven trusted preserved him, & the plague did not come
nigh his dwelling.
151. Captain Johnson was serving his men as chaplain on an island in the South Pacific. He
prepared to go on a bombing raid on Japanese-occupied islands several hundred miles away. The mission
was a complete success. On the homeward course the plane began to lose altitude & the engines seemed to
fade out. But God had provided an island, & a safe landing was made. Later they learned that the enemy
was just one-half mile in each direction, yet their landing had not been discovered.
The staff sergeant came & said, "Chaplain, you have been telling us for months of the need of
praying & believing God to answer in time of trouble, & that He does it right away. Now it is your chance
to prove what you have been preaching. We're out of gas, base is several hundred miles away ... & almost
surrounded by Japanese." Johnson began to pray & lay hold of the promises & believed that God would
work a miracle. All afternoon he was on his knees. Night came & the crew slept on the ground. Johnson
continued to pray. About 2 a.m. the staff sergeant was strangely aroused &, walking to the water's edge,
discovered a metal float, which had drifted up on the beach--a barge on which were 50 barrels of high
octane gasoline.
In a few hours the crew reached their home base safely. An investigation revealed that the skipper
of a U.S. tanker, finding his ship in sub-infested waters, had his gasoline cargo removed so as to minimise
the danger of a torpedo hit. Barrels were placed on barges & put adrift 600 miles from where Johnson & the
plane crew were forced down. God had navigated one of these barges through wind & current & beached it
50 steps from the stranded men.
152. It is faith alone that justifies, but faith that justifies can never be alone.
155. Hope for the best, be prepared for the worst, & take what comes with a grin.
157. My six daughters sometimes gather around me, telling me how they need shoes, money for
music lessons & for many other things. Sometimes I have been compelled to say, "Go easy! I am not made
out of money. We will just have to get what we can afford & go without the rest." But I never read in God's
Word where He ever told anybody, "Go easy! I don't have very much. I have already strained Myself giving
to others. I cannot give as much as you ask." No, no!
One of our greatest sins about praying is that we do not ask for enough. We do not take what God
is willing to give. … God forgive us our little, stingy, unbelieving prayers!
159. "Trust & OK", was the way one boy sang the Gospel song.
160. Every tomorrow has two handles. We may take hold of it by the handle of anxiety, or we can
take hold of it by the handle of faith.
162. Like farmers we need to learn that we can't sow & reap the same day.
163. Canadian medical circles report that worry seems to increase chances of infectious disease, in
that it weakens the body's ability to fight off germs.
A recent study of cases of streptococcal infection, according to Dr. Robert Haggerty, revealed that
one out of four cases occurred after prolonged trauma & anxiety.
Death, divorce, failure in school or at work, serious illness in the family etc., are some of the
situations listed as providing fertile ground for germs.
164. It just may be that our hospitals would have fewer pedestrian patients if there were more
patient pedestrians.
165. Patience is the greatest of all shock absorbers. About the only thing you can get in a hurry is
trouble.
166. Once David Ben-Gurion, Premier of Israel, was told that a certain desert development
problem was insoluble. Even quantities of water would not provide the solution. The experts said so, & that
seemed to be that. The Premier, however, took a more forceful approach. "Let's look for another set of
experts," he suggested. The work went on.
169. When my Mother was dying, she nearly killed herself trying to have faith. It was not until
through the Word of God & the Revelation of God, that she received faith from God, that she had the faith!
Trying to have faith nearly killed her! She was worn out with the effort! Trying to have faith is a work of
the flesh! Accepting faith through His Word is a work of God's Grace, like Salvation.--Dad
170. Many people want an affidavit from God proving that He really exists.
173. Roy McClain tells of a beggar who stopped a lawyer on the street in a large southern city &
asked him for a quarter. Taking a long, hard look into the man's unshaven face, the attorney asked. "Don't I
know you from somewhere?"
"You should," came the reply. "I'm your former classmate. Remember, second floor, old Main
Hall?"
"Why, Sam, of course I know you!" Without further question the lawyer wrote a cheque for $100.
"Here, take this & get a new start. I don't care what's happened in the past, it's the future that counts." And
with that he hurried on.
Tears welled up in the man's eyes as he walked to a bank nearby. Stopping at the door, he saw
through the glass the well-dressed tellers & the spotlessly clean interior. Then he looked at his filthy rags.
"They won't take this from me. They'll swear that I forged it," he muttered as he turned away.
The next day the two men met again. "Why Sam, what did you do with my cheque? Gamble it
away? Drink it up?"
"No," said the beggar as he pulled it out of his dirty shirt pocket & told why he hadn't cashed it.
"Listen, friend," said the lawyer. "What makes that cheque good is not your clothes or appearance,
but my signature. Go on, cash it!"
174. I guess you're just going to have to trust the Lord: It's come to that! As the lady asked during
the storm, "Oh Captain, what are we going to do?"
He said, "I guess we'll just have to trust the Lord." She said, "Oh my God! Has it come to that?"
--Dad
175. Hope springs eternal in the human heart, but with some the spring is getting very weak.
177. Faith bolstered up with the prop of the Promises cannot fail.
178. When Spurgeon was riding home one evening after a heavy day's work & feeling very
wearied & depressed, the verse--"My grace is sufficient for thee" came to him. He immediately compared
himself to a little fish in the Thames, apprehensive lest, drinking so many pints of water in the river each
day, it might drink the Thames dry, & hearing Father Thames say to it, "Drink away, little fish, my stream is
sufficient for thee."
Then he thought of a little mouse in the granaries of Joseph in Egypt, afraid lest it might--by daily
consumption of the corn it needed--exhaust the supplies & starve to death: When Joseph came along &,
sensing its fear, said, "Cheer up, little mouse, my granaries are sufficient for thee."
179. Some of you seem so fearful that God isn't able that you're like the guy that was crossing the
ice-frozen Ohio river on his hands & knees, fearful that he was going to break through & drown, when all
of a sudden he saw a double team of horses coming pulling a load of pig iron confidently over the very ice
on which he was so hesitantly crawling! Let me tell you: God can take it! He can handle any load you want
to give Him--both barrels!--Dad
180. Faith makes invisible things visible, absent things present, & things that are very far off to be
very near to the soul.
182. Nothing but faith will ever rectify the mistakes of reason on divine things.
185. We are not to think that, where we see no possibility, God sees none.
186. God's ways are behind the scenes, & He moves all the scenes He is behind.
187. Abraham's steps of faith--He left all for God, left all with God, found all in God & yielded all
to God.--Heb.11:8-10; 16-17; Rom.4:12.
188. In order to clarify what faith involved, C.H. Spurgeon used to employ this illustration.
Suppose there is a fire on the third floor of a house, & a child is trapped in a room there. A huge, strong
man stands on the ground beneath the window where the child's face appears, & he calls "Jump! Drop into
my arms." "It is a part of faith," Spurgeon would say, "to know that there is a man there; still another part of
faith to believe him to be a strong man; but the essence of faith lies in trusting him fully & dropping into
his arms." Thus it is with the sinner & Christ.
189. This is the defence for the living saint & the dying saint. In olden days, when a warrior
carried a shield almost as big as himself, those who recovered the slain after a battle would often use their
shields that had been their protection in the battle as their biers to carry them to the burial.--Eph.6:16
190. The sunbird--one of the tiniest of birds, a native of India--builds a pendant nest, hanging it by
four frail threads, generally from a spray of valaris. It is a delicate work of art, with its roof & tiny porch,
which a splash of water or a child's touch might destroy. Amy Carmichael tells how she saw a little sunbird
building such a nest just before the monsoon season, & felt that for once bird wisdom had failed; for how
could such a delicate structure, in such an exposed situation, weather the winds & the torrential rains? The
monsoon broke, & from her window she watched the nest swaying with the branches in the wind. Then she
perceived that the nest had been so placed that the leaves immediately above it formed little gutters which
carried the water away from the nest. There sat the sunbird, with its tiny head resting on her little porch, &
whenever a drop of water fell on her long, curved beak, she sucked it in as if it were nectar. The storms
raged furiously, but the sunbird sat, quiet & unafraid, hatching her tiny eggs.
We have a more substantial rest for head & heart than the sunbird's porch! We have the promises
of God! Are they not enough, however terrifying the storm?
"Like a bird that found its nest,
So my soul has found its rest
In the centre of the Will of God."
191. At a noon hour recently a minister was walking along Madison Square, New York, where a
number of street meetings can always be found in session. He came across a group of extraordinary size, to
which a speaker, mounted on a box, was airing his religious views. He was shouting at the top of his voice:
"There is no God!--And there never was a God! I dare anyone here to stand up on this box & prove that
there's a God!"
The speaker flung the taunt at the crowd: "God hasn't a friend among you!"
A fresh young voice rang out: "YES, HE HAS!" A young lad elbowing his way through the centre
of the throng was welcomed by his challenger & asked to state his proofs.
The young lad, throwing back his head & straightening his shoulders, began: "This man here says
that there ain't no God. He tells an untruth! I know there IS a God! He says that God hasn't a friend in this
crowd. He tells an untruth! I am a friend of God! He says that no one can prove that there is a God, Again,
he tells an untruth, and I can prove it. God is in here right now," he said as he put his hand on his heart; "HE
LIVES! He lives in ME! I hear His voice saying to me right now, 'Don't let that man put such lies over on
this crowd!'"
It was truly a dramatic scene! In one solitary moment the leadership had passed from this blatant
unbeliever to the boy of faith & vision! The infidel orator was unable to recapture his crowd.
193. A successor of George Muller said a striking thing about "little faith" & "great faith". In a
recent letter from George Allen, founder & director of the Bolivian Indian Mission, he told of a visit that he
& his late wife made to the Muller Orphan Homes in Bristol. When Mrs. Allan, looking at the five large
buildings, said, "Dr. Burton, it must take a lot of faith to keep all this going", Dr. Burton said, "Mrs. Allan,
little faith in a strong plank will carry me over the stream; great faith in a rotten plank will land me in it."
196. George Matheson, the great Scottish preacher, who when he was told by a famous oculist that
he was going blind, wrote these lovely words,
"O love that will not let me go!
I rest my weary soul on thee."
Also,
"O joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee:
I trace the rainbow through the rain;"
-- listen to these lines from his pen:
"There are times when things look very dark to me -- so dark that I have to wait even for hope. A
long-deferred fulfillment carries its own pain, but to wait for hope, to see no glimmer of a prospect & yet
refuse to despair; to have nothing but night before the casement & yet to keep the casement open for
possible stars; to have a vacant place in my heart & yet to allow that place to be filled by no inferior
presence -- that is the grandest patience in the universe. It is Job in the tempest; it is Abraham on the road to
Moriah; it is Moses in the desert of Midian; it is the Son of man in the Garden of Gethsemane."
It takes a real faith to trace the rainbow through the rain; but it takes the storm cloud to make the
rainbow, & George Matheson learned to have a child-like trust, & his testimony has blessed millions
throughout this generation.
203. You're not trusting God utterly as long as you're leaning on something else!--Like that story
the old Coloured preacher told: He said, "When you wants an answer to prayer, you're always looking
around for something for God to start on, a little bit of something to help God out! The Lord made the
World, didn't He? He hung it on nothin', didn't He? He made it out of nothin', didn't He? Pretty good old
World, isn't it? Hangs pretty good! What makes you think God has to have something to start on?--That
you've gotta help God out somehow by supplying Him with some kind of means to start on, or medicine or
whatever!"
Why don't you just trust the Lord & forget all that other crap!--Dad
206. Many people believe their doubts & doubt their beliefs.
208. Simple faith honours God & God honours simple faith.
213. And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: "Give me a light, that I may tread
safely into the unknown!"
And he replied: "Go out into the darkness & put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to
you better than light & safer than a known way."
So, I went forth, & finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me toward the
hills & the breaking of day in the lone East. So, heart, be still! What need our little life, our human life, to
know,
If God hath comprehension? In all the dizzy strife of things both high & low, God hideth His
intention.
--M. Louise Haskins
218. A Christian labourer, working in a communist country, had been arrested & imprisoned.
Shortly after his arrest, he was taken out of his cell & led to an interrogation room of the secret police.
There he found, sitting at a table, an officer of the secret police & a doctor. On the table lay an
open Bible. The Christian prisoner was ordered to sit down & the interrogation began. He was asked:
"Do you believe that this book is the Word of God?"
"Yes," he answered.
The officer of the secret police then asked him to read a certain verse. It was Mark 16:18. The
Christian read: "And if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them."
"Do you also believe this portion of the Bible?" the officer asked.
"Yes," answered the Christian.
The officer then put a glass full of liquid on the table & explained: "In this glass is a deadly
poison. If the book is true, as you maintain it is, it will not hurt you. To show you that we're not joking,
look at this."
The officer brought in a big dog & made him drink some of the liquid. In a few moments the dog
was lying stiff & dead on the ground. The officer looked at the Christian & said:
"Do you maintain that this Book you call the 'Word of God' is true?"
"Yes," answered the Christian again. "It is the Word of God. It is true."
"Then drink this glass!" screamed the communist officer as the doctor was watching.
The Christian knew that this was the supreme test. He asked for permission to pray before
drinking, which they allowed. He kneeled down before the table, took the glass in his hands, & prayed for
his family--that they should remain unshakable in the faith. He prayed for the communist officer & the
doctor--that they might find God & become Christians too. And, ending the prayer, he said:
"Oh Lord, You see how they defied You. I am ready to die. But I believe Thy Word, that says that
nothing shall happen to me. If Your plans are different, I am ready to meet You. My life is in Your hand--as
Thou wilt. THY WILL BE DONE!"
Having said this, he lifted up the glass & drank it all at once. The police officer & the doctor were
surprised. They didn't believe he would do it, thinking he would back out of it. They were now expecting to
see him drop dead like the dog did. But moments were becoming minutes. The minutes seemed like hours.
A complete silence was in the room. Everyone was waiting for the unavoidable death. After some long
minutes, the doctor finally moved. He took the Christian's arm & checked his pulse. It was normal. He
looked for other symptoms. There were none.
At the height of surprise, he carried on his examination without managing to find any evidence of
harm. And as the examination went on, he was more & more surprised. He finally dropped himself into the
armchair, &, after thinking for awhile, reached into his pocket, took out his Party card, tore it in half &
threw it on the floor. Then, picking up the Bible he said:
"From today on, I want to believe this Book. It must be true! I too am ready to believe in this
Christ Who did such a miracle before my eyes!"
220. During a time of great scarcity of food & poverty among the people, the government of a
certain country decided to open "soup-kitchens" where the poor could obtain a daily provision of nutritive
vegetable soup free of cost. Many availed themselves of the free supply. One day at the beginning of the
soup-kitchen arrangement, two women emerged from neighbouring houses, one carrying a very large
vessel & the other a small jug. The latter said to the former, "You don't think you'll get that filled, do you?"
"Well! I am taking this in hopes of having it filled," came the reply, "but if they don't fill it to the
brim, there's no harm in taking it." Arriving at the kitchen, the woman with the small jug had first turn, &
her jug was filled to the brim. Then she waited, & to her surprise, her neighbour's very large vessel was also
filled to the brim. Each obtained according to her capacity.--"Ask & ye shall receive," said the Lord Jesus.--
Psa.81:10; Eph.3:19-21.
223. Faith is not an achievement; it is a gift. Yet it comes only through the hearing & study of the
Word.--Martin Luther
224. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Not faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for" & the word translated
substance in this verse is the Greek word hupostasis. When they translated the New Testament from the
Greek nearly 400 years ago they were still puzzled by this word hupostasis, as it seemed to be some kind of
business terminology not normally used in classical Greek literature. All they knew was that it meant
something fairly substantial, so they translated it as substance.
But just a few years ago archaeologists uncovered the remains of an old inn in northern Israel.
There they found a small iron chest containing the valuable papers of some Roman noblewoman who had
owned lands & property in Israel.--And almost every paper had this title in big letters across the top:
"HUPOSTASIS"! They were all TITLE DEEDS to her properties! This Roman woman had perhaps never
seen her properties in Israel, but she knew they were HERS & she could PROVE her ownership because
she had the Title Deeds.
Someone promised to give me a car once, & they sent the Title Deed to me by mail. Though I'd
never seen the car & never driven it, I knew it was MINE because I had the Title in my hand! So faith is
WHAT?--The Title Deed! "Now faith is the Title Deed to things hoped for."--Heb.11:1. If you've asked the
Lord for something but haven't seen the answer yet, don't worry. If you have real faith, then you've got the
Title to it in your hands & your name is written on it! It's YOURS & you WILL see it eventually!--Dad
225. What is faith? It's like a BANK ACCOUNT: The money is there in the Bank of Heaven in
your name.--But you will never get a penny of it unless you go to the Bank & sign the cheque by faith &
DRAW on your account. So faith is your "drawing power", it draws God's blessings from the Bank of
Heaven!
Faith is also like a baby sucking milk from its mother's breast: When he nurses, the baby
deliberately creates a vacuum--an emptiness--inside his mouth, & that vacuum, that suction, pulls the milk
out. When you pray, you have to create a vacuum inside your heart: "Lord, here is this empty space. You fill
it!" God likes to fill every vacuum, every place you open up your heart. Wherever you create a space for
Him, His Spirit will flow in in all its power!
God's Spirit is also like radio waves: Everywhere in the air around us right now are radio
broadcasts. But until you flip the switch & turn on your radio--in a sense, create a vacuum in your
receiver--you'll never hear anything! You have to make contact by opening an electrical circuit, a channel.--
And prayer works on exactly the same principle!--Dad
226. Remember the story about Elisha & the Shunanmite woman? (2Kings 4:8-37) She had no son
& the Prophet prayed that she'd have one.
One day when the boy was about 12, he died of sunstroke out in the field. So immediately, by
faith, his mother ran to find the Prophet.
She came & he greeted her & said, "Is it well with thee?"
She said, "It is well."
He said, "Is it well with the boy?"
She said, "It is well." Was she lying? She had such faith that even though the boy was dead, she
had the faith that he was in God's hands & it was well with him. Dead or alive it was well & she had the
faith that the Prophet would be able to come & bring him back to life! She told him what had happened &
asked the Prophet to come & pray for him.
So Elisha came & he laid himself down on the boy's body, just the way they do nowadays in the
matter of the "kiss of life," etc., to warm him like they do for people in shock. I don't know whether he
actually did any artificial respiration, but I think it even says he put "his mouth upon his mouth, his body on
his body"--& prayed for him, of course--& the boy sneezed seven times & woke from the dead!--Rose from
the dead! So was she lying when she said, "It is well with the boy?"--Dad
229. "Trust" is the word used in the Old Testament: "Faith" is the equivalent in the New
Testament. "Belief" is the precursor of both. Belief has to do with the head, trust & faith with the heart.
John G. Paton was making a translation of the Scriptures into the language spoken in the country
where he was a missionary, & searched long for a word for "Faith." The natives had no word for "believe."
One day, while working on his translation, a native entered his room &, tired out, flung himself down on
one chair, resting his feet on another chair & remarking how good it was to "lean his whole weight" on the
chairs. Dr. Paton noted the word he had used for "lean his whole weight." He had his word for "believe."--
Acts 16:31; Rom.10:9,10.
230. The missionary's son, nearly five years of age, had been born & brought up in India, & had
seen no near relatives except his parents. One day he said to his mother, "I love my Grandpa."
"How can that be, my son?" replied his mother. "You have never seen him & how can you love
him?"
"But," said the child, "doesn't he send us letters, & doesn't he send presents for my birthday & at
Christmas, & aren't we going on the big steamship soon to see him?"
"Whom, having not seen, we love; in Whom, though now we see Him not, yet believing, we
rejoice with joy unspeakable & full of glory."--Heb.11:1; 1Pet.1:8.
231. While in India I was on my way to a convention. With several of the national brethren I
arrived at the bank of a stream which seemed to be fairly deep. There was a plank over which I might cross
to the other side, but I hesitated. "Why do you hesitate?" they asked. "You simply have to walk across the
plank & in a few seconds you will be on the other side. This is the only stream that has to be crossed to get
to the Convention."
Still I hesitated & replied, "Yes, but I do not think the plank is strong enough to bear my weight."
"No need for any fears on that score," said they. "Hundreds have already crossed in safety before
you came."
"Yes, I replied, "that may be so, but I'm taller & heavier than those I have seen going across, &
what is sufficient for them might not bear my weight." To prove the strength of the plank, two well-built,
hefty fellows walked across together.
"Look," they said, "two of us are heavier than you, & the plank took us both together."
"All right," said I, "I'll venture." So, very slowly & hesitantly, I made my way across as they stood
watching me with amused smiles.
When I reached the other side, they said, "Didn't we tell you you would be quite safe? Why didn't
you take our word for it & trust the plank in the first place?"
"Yes," I explained to them, "you see it was not the strength of my faith that took me safely across,
for my faith, as you know, was very weak. But it was the strength of the plank, the object in which you
advised me to put my trust."--John 4:42; Acts 16:31; 2Tim.1:12.
233. What is the life of saving faith, when once begun, but a continual leaning on an unseen
Saviour's Word?
234. In the Gospels, Jesus often rebukes weak faith, but never rejects it.
239. Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.--Henry Ford
240. You don't know what faith you have until it is tested.
241. No one can give faith unless he has faith. It is the persuaded who persuade.
243. One Christian lady, close to death & in great pain, decided to trust the Lord & not take her
prescribed painkiller, morphine. After several convulsions she got up & wrote a note saying, "I want you to
know that I feel like I'm dying.--But if I do, I want you to know that I never touched the morphine." THAT
was a decision of FAITH. Only those with great faith can say as Job did, "Though He slay me, yet will I
trust Him." It's known as "the stand of faith", like Martin Luther took when ordered to deny his writings.
He said, "Here I stand. I can do no other."--In other words, "Even if God doesn't defend me or protect me,
I'm willing to DIE for this truth, I'm so sure of it."
--Dad
244. We need not live on the marsh & in the mists. The slopes & ridges invite us! Help us to live a
mountain-top life!
247. You heard about the guy who said, "They told me don't worry, things could be worse. So I
quit worrying, & sure enough, things got worse!" Well, if you always expect the worst you won't be
disappointed. But, of course, then you'll miss a lot of fun, because according to your expectations be it unto
you. It says, "According to your faith be it unto you" (Mat.9:29), & faith is expectation.--Dad
249. An Indian fable says that a mouse was in constant distress because of its fear of the cat. A
magician took pity on it & turned it into a cat. Immediately it became afraid of the dog. So the magician
turned it into a dog. Immediately it began to fear the tiger. So the magician turned it into a tiger.
Immediately it began to fear the hunter. Then the magician said, "Be a mouse again, you have only the
heart of a mouse & I cannot help you."
250. The word "worry" is derived from an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning to strangle or to choke.
How well-named the emotion it has been demonstrated again & again in persons who have lost their
effectiveness due to the stultifying effect of anxiety & apprehension. A certain well-controlled carefreeness
may well be an asset. Normal sensible concern is an important attribute of the mature person. But worry
frustrates one's best functioning.
252. Let thy hope of Heaven master thy fear of death. Why shouldest thou be afraid to die, who
hopes to live by dying?
253. God can secure us from fear, either by removing the thing feared, or by subduing the fear of
the thing.
254. We need not look upon those enemies with fear whom God looks upon with contempt.
259. The late Dr. Peter Marshall, Chaplain of the United States Senate prayed this prayer at the
opening of the Senate:
"Help us to do our very best this day & be content with today's troubles, so that we shall not
borrow the troubles of tomorrow. Save us from the sin of worrying, lest stomach ulcers be the badge of our
lack of faith. Amen."
260. Francis C. Ellis tells about a businessman who drew up what he called a "Worry Chart," in
which he kept a record of his worries. He discovered that 40% of them were about things that probably
would never happen; 30% concerned past decisions that he could not now unmake; 12% dealt with other
people's criticism of him; & 10% were worries about his health. He concluded that only 8% of them were
really legitimate.
263. If you stood alone, it would be presumption to hope. Because you are not alone, it is offence
to tremble.
264. It is only the fear of God that can deliver us from the fear of man.
265. Just as obedience to the Lord is an indication of our love for Him, so is it also a proof of our
fear of God.
266. A French soldier in WW1 carried with him this little receipt for worry:
"Of two things, one is certain. Either you are at the front, or you are behind the lines. If you are at
the front, of two things one is certain. Either you are exposed to danger, or you are in a safe place. If you
are exposed to danger, of two things one is certain. Either you are wounded, or you are not wounded. If you
are wounded, of two things one is certain. Either you recover, or you die. If you recover, there is no need to
worry. If you die, you can't worry. SO WHY WORRY?"
267. A Chicago physician reports that he had to abandon the use of dogs in an ulcer research
program. The dogs refused to get tense & worry, & worry & tension are prominently listed as suspected
causes of ulcers.
If you inflict an ulcer upon a dog by artificial methods, says the Chicago doctor, he will sit down
& placidly cure himself by refusing to be bothered about anything.
269. The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, & the beginning of true faith is the end of
anxiety.
270. There is a great difference between worry & concern. Worry frets about a problem. Concern
solves the problem.
271. Miss C. Leffinwell, a missionary in China, gave the following account of deliverance from
death by the Boxers:
"There was a lady missionary whom the Boxers told to kneel down & have her head cut off. She
knelt as told, but as she did so, she looked up into the man's face & actually smiled. As she looked at him a
moment, thus smiling, it seemed as if his face began to change & to reflect the smile. He stepped back a
little, & then continued to withdraw, together with his companions, until after a little they all fled, leaving
the ladies alone. As the Boxers were retreating the leader turned & said to her: "You cannot die. You are
immortal." If her face had shown fear, they would have killed her without hesitation. I suppose the smile
seemed supernatural.
She afterward said, "I did not know that I smiled."
272. But what is this fear of the Lord? It is that affectionate reverence, by which the child of God
bends himself humbly & carefully to His Father's law.
273. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, & they that lack the beginning have neither
middle nor end.
275. Those who fear the future are likely to fumble the present.
278. Needy miners & settlers in British Columbia, engaged in stripping abandoned Fort Alcan of
lumber, electrical appliances, & plumbing, made an amazing discovery. While dismantling the jail they
found that the mighty locks were attached to the heavy doors, & two-inch steel bars covered the windows,
but the walls of the prison were only patented wallboard of clay & paper, painted to resemble iron. A good
old h eave against the walls by a man not as strong as a football tackle would have burst the wall out.
Nobody ever tried it because nobody thought it possible. Many Christians are prisoners of fears that are
nothing when pushed against. Satan cannot do anything against a child of God, but he loves to put barriers
of papier-mâché in the path of a believer to make him think that there is no progress in the direction of the
will of the Lord. When by faith we push against it, we will be free.
279. A frenzied mob stormed a building where John Wesley was preaching in Falmouth, England.
Wesley went out & fearlessly confronted the mob, saying, "Here I am. Which one of you has anything to
say against me?" So impressed were they by the quiet courage of the little man that, without knowing what
they did, they made way, & Wesley quietly walked through into the street, where he began to preach.
As he spoke, the crowd became anxious to hear, & presently the very leaders of the mop--the
"captains" of it, as he called them--gathered around him & shouted, "Not a man shall touch him; let him
speak!" Later he wrote in his journal, "I never saw before the hand of God so plainly shown as here."
280. An ocean liner is built so that the captain can, by pressing a button, lower steel doors
separating one watertight bulkhead from another. If the hull is pierced in a disaster, this keeps the ship
afloat. "In the voyage of life," advised Dr. Osler, world-renowned physician, "learn how to make doors
come down & shut out the yesterdays with all their errors & failures. Learn also to lower another door to
shut out the unborn tomorrows so that you can live for this day alone. As you move into the next bulkhead,
close doors that will shut out both the past & the future."
Afraid? Of what?
Afraid to see the Saviour's face?
To hear His welcome, & to trace
The glory gleam from wounds of grace?
Afraid -- of that?
Afraid? Of what?
A flash -- a crash -- a pierced heart;
Darkness -- light-- O Heaven's art!
A wound of His is a counterpart!
Afraid -- of that?
Afraid? Of what?
To enter in Heaven's rest,
And yet to serve the Master blest,
From service good to service best?
Afraid -- of that?
Afraid? Of what?
To do by death what life could not --
Baptise with death a stony plot,
Till souls shall blossom from that spot?
Afraid -- of that?
--E.H. Hamilton
282. The function of fear is to warn us of danger, not to make us afraid to face it.
283. Fear of what is called consequences keeps most of us sober, true, & DULL.
284. When we're afraid we say we're cautious. When others are afraid we say they're cowardly.
285. Fear tends to produce the thing that it's afraid of.
286. Many people are so filled with fear that they go through life running from something that isn't
after them.
290. Folks shouldn't be fearful of tomorrow because when it comes it'll be today.
291. The only thing we have to fear is not doing something about the fear we have.
293. Don't let the future frighten you--you only face it a little at a time.
295. Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!"--And in a way, that's right! You
must rebuke it in Jesus' name & not fear!--Dad
297. Your children are like a reflection of you. They reflect your good points, but they also reflect
your vices & they certainly reflect your fears--they feel & sense your fears. This is why all family
counsellors say, don't discuss family problems before children, because it's apt to cause them to be afraid &
fearful & upset & to fret.--Dad
298. Well, Lord, the Devil's been trying to tell me all my life: "Sooner or later this is gonna get you
or that's gonna get you or something else is gonna get you--your heart's gonna get you or your lung's gonna
get you or your side's gonna get you." I had this pain in my side, Lord, since I was 12 years old, & heart
trouble since I was 12 years old, but none of them ever got me yet & I'm still here.
So the Devil's a liar, Lord, but some of us scare pretty easy. When he says "Boo!" we run! When
he says, "I'm gonna get you!" we believe it & surrender. Oh, Lord, help us to put up a fight, the fight of
faith, the good fight of faith, put on the armour, all of its parts.--Dad
299. An energetic start beats stage fright, too. Florenz Ziegfeld, the great theatrical producer, knew
this. He applied it on opening nights to bring out top performances by his stars who were afflicted with
first-night jitters.
Ziegfeld would stand in the wings beside a star nervously awaiting her cue. When the cue came,
Ziegfeld would give the star an unexpected kick on the posterior, pushing her onto the stage. Surprise
would displace nervous tension, & the star would do her best.
The first seconds of any public appearance are the hardest. Give yourself a swift kick & get under
way.
Discover what you can really do by putting on extra power at the start.
300. One night thing about a college education is that it enables us to worry more intelligently
about things all over the World.
301. An educated man will sit up all night & worry over things a fool never dreamed of.
302. A lot of people who are worrying about the future ought to be preparing for it.
303. Why worry if your hair falls out? Suppose it ached & you had to have it pulled like teeth.
305. When they first brought Leila to me, she was half out of her mind. Dr. Timothy Leary had
given her a dose of LSD that was 25 times stronger than normal, & it had scared her out of her wits &
knocked her clear out of her mind for two whole years! She was just beginning to gradually recover, & half
the time she'd still have blackouts or stop talking right in the middle of a sentence & stare blankly off into
space, wide-eyed with fear.
I thought, "Lord, if I can't do anything but implant the Scripture in her mind where she can't forget
it, & she will think about it, the power of the WORD will deal with the Devil!" So I held her hands &
looked straight into her eyes & said, "Leila, 'perfect love casts out all fear.' Now you say it." Sometimes
she'd just sit there & look at me blankly as if she didn't hear me, but I just kept saying it, & finally she'd
repeat, "Perfect love...casts out...all fear."
I still didn't seem to be getting through to her like I should, so I pulled her up close to me & held
her just like a baby, & told her again & again, "Jesus loves you, Leila. I love you." I quoted the Scriptures
over & over again right in her ear, & slowly she began to repeat them after me. Finally she was able to say
whole phrases. It took about three or four hours, but that night the power of the Enemy in her life was
BROKEN & she was DELIVERED! She was quoting whole verses & her eyes began to shine with light
instead of fear. She just hugged me & wept on my shoulder & the battle was won! The power of the Word
& love & the Holy Spirit had done it!--Dad
306. This is the story of a lady who during the Second World War was living in a country occupied
by the enemy. One day soldiers came to her flat, to find out if she was hiding any Resistance fighters. They
searched, but found no one & went away.
A day or so later there came a knock at her door. Outside stood a man whom she recognised as a
top Resistance leader. She could see that he was desperately tired & at the end of his tether.
"Come in, come in," she said. She opened the door of a small room on the left just behind the front
door. Behind the door there was a chair. "Sit down there, " she said, "& I will get you some coffee."
Thankfully the man sat down, & his hostess hurried off to get the coffee.
But just then there came another loud knock at the door. She opened it to find to her horror that
there were Gestapo men outside.
"Oh, God," she thought--for she believed in God--"help me not to show fear." And to the soldiers
she said, "You have searched my flat already."
"And we're searching it again," they said, pushing their way in.
"Very well," she said. "But you won't find anyone here." The men were watching her narrowly, but
she showed no sign of anxiety. "Here you are," she said, opening the door of the little room behind the front
door. "You see--no one."
After searching the other rooms, the Gestapo men went off. Because she was given the strength
not to be afraid, they never found the Resistance leader who was sitting so quietly on the chair behind the
door in the little room.
308. If you can't help worrying, remember that worrying can't help you either.
309. People who like to worry have a greater & more varied number of things to choose from than
ever before.
310. And there was the poor old man who worried so much about his debts that the hair began to
fall out of his wig.
311. It doesn't make sense to worry about the future. Why open an umbrella before it starts to rain?
312. Once he was the most timorous of men; by practicing self-assurance, he became one of the
boldest; he was the trust-busting, audience-swaying, Big-Stick-wielding President of the United States,
Theodore Roosevelt.
"Having been a rather sickly & awkward boy," he confesses in his autobiography, "I was, as a
young man, at the first both nervous & distrustful of my powers. I had to train myself painfully &
laboriously not merely as regards my body but as regards my soul & spirit."
Fortunately, he has disclosed how he achieved the transformation. "When a boy," he wrote, "I read
a passage in one of Marryat's books [Frederik Marryat, British naval officer and writer (1792-1848)] which
always impressed me. In this passage, the captain of some small British man-of-war is explaining to the
hero how to acquire the quality of fearlessness. He says that at the outset almost every man is frightened
when he goes into action, but that the course to follow is for the man to keep such a grip on himself that he
can act just as if he were not frightened. After this is kept up long enough, it changes from pretense to
reality, & the man does in very fact become fearless by sheer dint of practicing fearlessness when he does
not feel it.
"This was the theory upon which I went. There were all kinds of things of which I was afraid at
first, ranging from grizzly bears to "mean" horses & gunfighters; but by acting as if I were not afraid I
gradually ceased to be afraid. Most men can have the same experience if they choose."
314. One good reason for not worrying is that you won't feel like a fool when things turn out all
right.
315. Worry never accomplishes anything except wrinkles--which gives you another thing to worry
about.
316. Schedule all your worrying for a specific half hour about the middle of the day--then take a
nap during that period.
317. There is no point in worrying about forgetting things as you grow older because you'll soon
forget what you forgot.
318. Those who live in a worry invite death in a hurry.
319. Perpetual worry will get you to one place ahead of time--the cemetery.
320. The only person who can afford to worry is the one who doesn't need to.
321. Don't worry too much about what lies ahead. Go as far as you can see, & when you get there,
you can see farther.
322. Grandpa & Grandma were too busy scratching for a living to need books on how to stop
worrying.
325. The man who worries about the condition of the World will never run out of things to worry
about.
326. Worry is as wicked as swearing. Swearing is taking God's name in vain; worry is taking God's
Promises in vain.
327. Worry reminds us of a treadmill--it can wear you to a frazzle & you still don't get anywhere.
328. One good rule for living is not to worry about the future until we have learned to manage the
present.
329. The reason worry kills more people than work is that people worry more than they work.
330. People would worry less about what others think of them if they only realised how seldom
they do.
332. Things are really tough when you have so many worries that a new one has to be kept waiting
until you can get around to it.
334. Deep sorrows sometimes prove to be God's masked mercies. The worst sorrows in life are not
its losses, & misfortunes, but its fears.
336. The woods were dark & the night was black
And only an owl could see the track;
But the cheery driver made his way
Through the great pine woods as if it were day.
I asked him, "How do you manage to see?"
The road & the forest are one to me."
"To me as well," he replied, "And I
Can only drive by the path in the sky."
338. Worry is like a good rocking chair--it will give you something to do, but it won't get you
anywhere.
340. Why worry about the future? The present is more than most of us can handle.
341. To worry about what we can't help is useless; to worry about what we can help is stupid.
344. Bishop Taylor Smith used to write the following in autograph books:
The worried cow would have lived till now
If she had saved her breath;
But she feared her hay wouldn't last all day,
And she mooed herself to death. (Luke 12:29-32)
347. Jerome K. Jerome, one of our greatest thinkers & writers, tells:
"One day I had a finger that ached in the joint & I decided promptly that I had arthritis. So I went
over to the public library & got a medical book & looked up arthritis. By the time I got through reading two
pages, I had arthritis in every joint in my hands, & my knees besides. It scared me & I turned the pages &
there was leukemia, & I read everything about it. Before I had finished, I knew I had leukemia. I turned the
page to ulcers & I said, 'So, now I know what causes those pains in my stomach I've wondered about. I've
got ulcers.'
"I turned to pellagra, & I just knew I had pellagra. The only thing I found in that medical book that
I didn't have was housemaid's knee & I wondered why I didn't have that. I went straight to the doctor who
had examined me lots of times & had always told me there wasn't anything wrong. I told him about all of
these things I knew I had.
"The doctor sat there for a long time before he said, '& now that you've diagnosed your case so
well, I'm going to give you a prescription. And you can take it to the drugstore & get it filled." He wrote it
out & folded it up, & I headed for the drugstore. The druggist took the prescription & looked at it. He
frowned & made out like he was scratching his head, then he folded it back up & said, 'You know, I'm
sorry, but I don't have any of this in my drugstore.'
"I said, 'What? Don't you have the biggest drugstore in this part of the city?'
"'Yes,' he said, 'but the things the doctor has prescribed for you don't come in a bottle.' He handed
it back to me & said, 'You take it & read it for yourself.'
"I opened it & this is what it said. 'Walk eight miles every day, come home & eat a beef steak for
supper, & stop reading things you've got no business reading.' It is a dangerous thing to look down at
yourself. You get to feeling sorry for yourself."
349. Worry is saying, "I'm going to handle this problem myself.--Without God."
350. Ungodly fear: That God will allow me to be hurt. Godly fear: That I will do something to
grieve God.
351. Do the thing you fear, & the death of fear is certain.
352. In 1938, a man with a home on the South shore of Long Island ordered himself a long-desired
barometer from Abercrombie & Fitch, the famous New York City sporting goods store.
The barometer arrived on the morning of September 21st, & the owner proudly hung it up on the
back porch. Half-an-hour later he took a peek at his high-priced toy & was irritated to find the needle stuck
at "Hurricane."
Quickly he sat down & wrote an angry letter to Abercrombie & Fitch, demanding a new
barometer. When he returned home from the local post office after mailing the letter, both barometer &
house were missing. September 21, 1938, was the day of the worst hurricane ever to hit Long Island.
353. Thomas Paine on his deathbed expressed the wish that all copies of his most famous work,
Age of Reason, had been thrown in the fire, for "if the Devil has ever had any agency in any work, he has
had it in writing that book."
355. Faith is the assurance that the thing God has said in His Word is true. And that God will act
according to what He has said in His Word.
356. Having gotten all wrinkled up with care & worry, it's a good time to get your faith lifted.
359. Faith makes all things possible & Love makes them easy.
361. The greatness of our fear shows us the littleness of our faith.
362. Faith believes the Word of God for what it cannot see, & is rewarded by seeing what it
believes.
363. Faith is believing what God says simply because it is God Who says it.
368. It was usually the custom of Robert Ingersol, at the close of his lectures, to "prove" the non-
existence of God by taking his watch from his pocket, & arrogantly say, "If there is a God, I defy Him to
strike me dead within the next five minutes!" Standing before the audience, with watch in hand, he could
count off the minutes: "One minute; two minutes; three minutes; four minutes; five minutes!" And, then
with a smirk of satisfaction wreathing his face, he would triumphantly say, "There, I told you there was no
God!"
Hearing of Ingersol's blatant blasphemy, Joseph Parker said, "Does the gentleman from America
think that he can exhaust God's patience in five minutes?"
369. Dr. John G. Paton of the New Hebrides awoke one night to find the natives firing the church
right by his home. Committing himself to God, he went to face the savages. He said, "They yelled in rage
& urged each other to strike the first blow, but the Invisible One restrained them. I stood invulnerable
beneath His invisible shield. At this dread moment a rushing & a roaring sound came from the south like
the noise of muttering thunder. They knew from previous hard experience that it was one of their awful
tornadoes of wind & rain. The mighty roaring of the wind, & the cloud pouring in torrents awed them into
silence. Some began to withdraw from the scene, all lowered their weapons of war, & several, terror-struck,
exclaimed: "That is Jehovah's rain! Truly their Jehovah is fighting for them & helping them. Let us away!"
370. The World is still waiting for the first wise atheist.
372. It amazes me to find an intelligent person who fights against something which he does not at
all believe exists.
373. I can see how it might be possible to look down upon the Earth & be an atheist, but I cannot
conceive how he could look into the heavens & say there is no God.
375. How did the atheist get his idea of that God whom he denies?
377. "Have you, perchance found a diamond pendant? I feel sure I lost it last night in your
theater," asked a woman who did not identify herself to the manager of the theater. "Not yet, madam," said
the manager, "but we will search diligently for it. Please hold the line for a minute while I make inquiry."
Returning a few moments later to the telephone, the manager said, "I have good news for you! The
diamond pendant has been found!" There was no reply, however. "Hello! Hello! Hello!" said the manager
but the woman who made the inquiry about the lost diamond pendant had failed to wait. The manager
endeavored to trace the call, but without success.
Many of God's children are like that woman. They fail to wait on the Lord. His answer to our
prayers will come in His good time. The promise is sure: "Call unto Me, & I will answer thee." (Jer.33:3)
378. No man will say, "There is no God" till he is so hardened in sin that it has become his interest
that there should be none to call him to account.
379. Unless the being of God be presupposed, no tolerable account can be given of the being of
any thing.
380. The footprint of the savage in the sand is sufficient to attest the presence of man to the atheist,
yet he will not recognise God, Whose Hand is impressed upon the entire Universe.
381. There are more atheists in lip than in life.
382. The late Dr. J.H. Jowitt said that he was once in a most pitiful perplexity, & consulted Dr.
Berry of Wolverhampton.
"What would you do if you were in my place?" he entreated.
"I don't know, Jowitt, I am not there, & you are not there yet. When do you have to act?"
"On Friday," Dr. Jowitt replied.
"Then," answered Dr. Berry, "you will find your way perfectly clear on Friday. The Lord will not
fail you."
And sure enough, on Friday all was plain. Give God time, & even when the knife flashes in the air
the ram will be seen caught in the thicket. Give God time, & even when Pharaoh's host is on Israel's heels, a
path through the waters will be suddenly open. Give God time, & when the bed of the brook is dry, Elijah
shall hear the guiding voice.
383. A little fellow, sent to the country one Summer by the Tribune Fresh Air Fund, for the first
time in his life was shown into a bedroom in the farmhouse where he was to be entertained, & told he was
to sleep there. It was like another world to the little fellow, who had always slept in the slums, often in
some dark hallway or in the street. As he surveyed the soft bed with its white spread & pillows, he felt sure
there must be a mistake. However, for a brief moment or two he ventured to throw himself upon the spread
& feel for once in his life he had lain upon a real bed. But fearing that the rightful owner would come in &
find him there, he quietly slipped off & curled himself up on the floor to sleep. In the early morning the
farmer's wife came in to see that all was right. She gave a great exclamation as she saw him curled up under
the bed. It was only by dint of much physical & mental persuasion that she was able to get him under the
sheets & make him believe that it was really for him. Alas, how many of God's children are like that poor
little lad, sleeping under the bed when they might be resting on the soft bosom of His Love & enjoying the
"peace that passeth all understanding."
384. Did you ever raise a radish? You put a small black seed into the black soil, & in a little while
you return to the garden & find the full grown radish. The top is green, the body white & almost
transparent, & the skin a delicate red or pink. What mysterious power reaches out & gathers from the
ground the particles which give it form & size & flavour? Whose is the invisible brush that transfers to the
root, growing in darkness, the hues of the summer sunset? If we were to refuse to eat anything until we
could understand the mystery of its creation we would die of starvation--but mystery, it seems, never
bothers us in the dining room; it is only in the church that it causes us to hesitate.
386. The art of doubting is easy, for it is an ability that is born with us.
388. Nothing is more offensive to God than disbelief of His promise & despair of the performance
of it because of some difficulties that seem to lie in the way.
389. If a care is too small to be turned into a prayer it is too small to be made into a burden.
390. In Tewin churchyard, a short distance from King's Cross Station, in England, stands a great
four-trunked tree growing out of a grave. Its presence there has given rise to much speculation among the
residents of that section. The grave from which it grows is that of Lady Anne Grimston.
Is the tree a monument to a woman's disbelief or did it happen to grow there merely by chance?
Nobody knows.
Lady Anne Grimston did not believe in life after death. When she lay dying in her palatial home,
she said to a friend, "I shall live again as surely as a tree will grow from my body."
She was buried in a marble tomb. The grave was marked by a large marble slab, & surrounded by
an iron railing. Years later the marble slab was found to be moved a little. Then it cracked, & through the
crack a small tree grew.
The tree continued to grow, tilting the stone & breaking the marble masonry until today it has
surrounded the tomb with its roots, & has torn the railing out of the ground with its massive trunks. The tree
at Lady Anne Grimston's grave is one of the largest in England.
Was it mere chance that caused the tree to grow there? Perhaps God the Almighty took her
challenge.
391. A woman was famed for her sanctity & her beautiful life. When people visited her town, if
they were interested in divine things, they almost always went to see her. One day someone went to see her,
& when he was ushered into her room, he said, "I am so glad to see you; you are the woman of the strong
faith."
"No, sir," she replied.
"But," he said, "everybody tells me what great things you have done."
"No, I am the woman of the weak faith in the strong Saviour," she said. (Luke 17:6; Heb.11:33,34)
392. Thomas wouldn't even believe it when Jesus appeared! "I'm not going to believe it until I can
stick my fingers in the holes!"--Can you imagine a guy with such a morbid curiosity? But the Lord was
merciful & He satisfied him anyhow. So the Lord even has mercy on the Doubting Thomasses. Another
doubter was the man who came to Him requesting a healing & the Lord said, "All things are possible to
him that believeth," & he answered, "Lord, I believe, but help Thou mine unbelief!" (Mark 9:23,24).
So don't condemn all doubters! They're pretty aggravating & quite a nuisance & ask you a Hell of
a lot of questions, & you've got to give them Scripture after Scripture & proof after proof. But that's
important! "Be ready to give an answer to every man that asketh thee" (1Pet.3:15). Some really want to
know!--Dad
393. No alcoholic was ever more in bondage to his habit of drink than many Christians are to their
habit of doubting. In fact many Christians have settled down under their doubts as though they had
contracted an incurable disease.
394. Unbelief in Salvation is far, far more than entertaining an erroneous conception of God's way
of Salvation: it is a species of hatred against Him.
395. Unbelief is not simply an infirmity of fallen human nature, it is a heinous crime.
397. A newspaper cutting referred to a striking story in an anonymous book of memoirs published
not long ago. The writer met the woman who nursed the great agnostic, Professor J.H. Huxley, through his
last illness. She said that as he lay dying the great skeptic suddenly looked up at some sight invisible to
mortal eyes, &, staring a while, whispered at last, "So it is true."
399. The blindness of unbelievers in no way detracts from the clarity of the Gospel; the sun is no
less bright because blind men do not perceive its light.
401. Many people believe their doubts & doubt their beliefs.
402. Unbelief is so deeply rooted in the human heart that when God performs miracles on Earth,
unbelief doubts whether He can perform them in Heaven, & when He does them in Heaven, whether He
can do them on Earth.
405. Don't try to think why you can't. Think how you can.
407. Worry is faith in the negative, trust in the unpleasant, assurance of disaster & belief in defeat.
408. I dare not fret anymore than I dare curse & swear. John Wesley
409. We can never be too much on our guard against unbelief. It is the oldest sin in the World.
411. What do atheists do with their money? Surely they wouldn't carry around anything that says,
"In God We Trust."
412. The atheist can't find God for the same reason that a thief can't find a policeman.
415. Once, while addressing an open-air meeting, an atheist asked Bishop Carpenter if he believed
that Solomon made love to the Queen of Sheba. "When I get to Heaven I will ask him," said the Bishop.
"But supposing," the other persisted, "he is not there?"
"Then you will have to ask him," was the quick retort.
416. When Caesar was advised by his friends to be more cautious as to the security of his person,
& not to walk among the people without arms or anyone to protect him, he replied: "He who lives in the
fear of death, every moment feels its tortures; I will die but once."
417. A French colonel had one day punished a young officer, just arrived from Saint-Cyr, for
showing fear during his first battle. Marshal Foch to whose notice it came, severely reprimanded the
disciplinarian. "Colonel!" said he, "none but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear!"
418. Gerald B. Winrod, who was editor of an American magazine, The Defender, related a
remarkable story about an atheist who had been very bold, blatant & outspoken against God & the Bible.
He had defied God by saying, "If there is a God, my grave will be infested with snakes." At the funeral it
was necessary to remove a snake from the grave before the coffin could be lowered, the sexton saying that
he had killed four big snakes at one time, yet never saw a snake at any other grave.
Mr. Winrod's informant said he would ask a gentleman in Ohio to give him more details, & in due
course he received a further word, together with a picture of the bronze monument of the atheist, Chester
Beddell, who had died in 1908 at the age of 82. The letter said, "Mr. Beddell said while living there was no
God, & he never did believe in one. He did not hesitate to speak of these things. ... He built the monument
years before his death. His statue is of bronze, & in his uplifted right hand there is a scroll with this
inscription, "Universal Mental Liberty." Under his left foot is a scroll representing the Bible, with the
inscription, "Superstition." Before his death he made this remark: "If there is a God, or any truth in the
Bible, let my body be infested with snakes." Since his burial the family lot has been full of snake holes
around the curbing. Snakes can be seen any day you visit the graveyard. Last year 20 of us went out on the
30th of October, & saw three snakes. The neighbours there say the more they kill, the thicker they seem to
be."
Later the opportunity came to Mr. Winrod to make an observation of his own. While engaged in a
conference in Youngstown, he was taken by car to North Benton. He asked an old man if he could tell him
where the Beddell grave was. "Sure, everybody around here knows where Chet Beddell was buried," said
the old-timer. "You can't miss it--big monument in the graveyard. Looking for snakes?"
Later, another man said, "Well, if Beddell did ask for snakes, he sure got'em!"
He & his companions came to the place in question where they saw the monument, the uplifted
scroll, the other scroll under his foot, the stern bronze countenance. They approached the grave, camera in
hand. Was it a hoax, or was it true? One of his companions was the first to see a snake. "Look there," he
shouted. Yes! There it was. They walked round the grave & counted six snakes. His companion killed one.
He photographed one. They also took other photographs. The sexton told them that he killed four that
morning--he had killed as many as 20 snakes in a single day. Finally he said, "I don't know, maybe the Lord
did have something to do with it."
It is a remarkable story, & only one of the many others that could be related of the danger of
putting God out of the life.
--E.Matheson in Gathered Gems. Psa.14:1; 53:1
419. A good sample for an atheist is to serve him a delicious meal & then ask him if he believes
there is a cook.
420. An atheist is the fellow who shakes his fist & defies the God he claims doesn't exist.
421. An atheist hopes the Lord will do nothing to disturb his disbelief.
422. Can we not learn, like tired children, to fall into the everlasting arms & rest, not in what we
know, but in what we trust?
423. The late Mr. Harold St. John, well-known minister of the Word of God, referring to the
skeptic's objection to iron floating & swimming, described his arrival at Southampton Docks to embark for
North Africa. Before him was a colossal mass of iron, the ship on which he had booked his passage, & he
embarked on it. Soon the iron that had been floating in the docks began to swim & in due course he landed
at the port for which he was bound. On his return, having to make the journey very speedily, he went to the
airfield where he saw another tremendous mass of metal. When he went aboard, he found that the metal
could fly.
424. Kepler, the astronomer, was troubled by one of his friends who denied the existence of God &
took the view of the universe which prevails in some circles today, namely, that it came into being of itself
by mechanical methods. Kepler, in order to convince his friend, constructed a model of the sun with the
planets circling round it. When his friend came into the Observatory & saw the beautiful model, he
exclaimed with delight, "How beautiful it is! Who made it?"
And Kepler carelessly answered, "No one made it: It made itself!"
His friend looked at him & said, "Nonsense, tell me who made it."
Kepler then replied, "Friend, you say that this little toy could not make itself. It is but a very weak
imitation of this great universe which, I understood, you believe did make itself."
425. An American cutlery manufacturer wrote: "It takes a girl in our factory two days to learn to
put the 17 parts of a meat chopper together. It may be that these millions of worlds, all balanced so
wonderfully in space--it may be they just happened: It may be, by a million of years of tumbling about,
they finally arranged themselves. I don't know. I am merely a plain manufacturer of cutlery. But this I do
know that you can shake the 17 parts of a meat chopper around in a washtub for the next 17 millions of
years, & you 'll never make a meat chopper." (Gen.1:1; Col.1:16,17; Heb.1:2)
426. If there are any good traits about the atheist, he got them from Christianity.
427. The trouble with being an atheist is you have nobody to talk to when you're alone.
428. It may be hard to believe in God, but it's much harder not to believe in Him.
429. The worst possible moment for an atheist is when he feels grateful & has no one to thank.
430. When the famous minister, Phillips Brooks, was critically ill years ago & not expected to
recover, visitors were not permitted to see him. Bob Ingersoll, the famous agnostic, who didn't know that
visitors were not allowed, called at the hospital & asked to see Dr. Brooks. He was told that visitors were
not permitted, but that they always reported to the patient when friends called. When the sick man was told
that Mr. Ingersoll had called, Dr. Brooks insisted that he be allowed to come in.
When Mr. Ingersoll entered the room, he said: "I appreciate this very much, but why do you see
me, when you deny yourself to your other friends?"
"Well, you see," replied Dr. Brooks, "I feel confident to seeing most of my friends in the next
world, but this is my last chance to see you."
433. A skeptic in London recently in speaking of the Bible, said that it was quite impossible in
these days to believe in any book whose authority was unknown. A Christian asked if the compiler of the
multiplication table was known. "No!" he answered.
"Then, of course, you do not believe in it."
"Oh yes," was the skeptic's reply, "I believe in it because it works well."
"So does the Bible," was the rejoinder. The skeptic had no answer to that.