Showing 451 to 475 of 538 results
451. The Returned Dollar
Illustration
Michael P. Green
In 1924, Liberty magazine sent out a hundred letters to people selected at random throughout the U.S. Each letter contained a one-dollar bill and explained that it was an adjustment of an error that the addressees had complained of—which they had actually never done. Of the hundred recipients, only twenty-seven returned the dollar and said it was a mistake. In 1971, Liberty conducted the same tes...
452. The Rope Swing Faith
Illustration
Michael P. Green
Faith is a little boy who ties a rope swing onto a tiny sapling’s branch. Then, noticing that the seat of the swing rests on the ground, he goes to get the garden hose and begins to water the sapling.
453. The Sacrifice of A Son
Illustration
Michael P. Green
A legend is told about the days of the Great Depression. A Missouri man named John Griffith was the controller of a great railroad drawbridge across the Mississippi River. One day in the summer of 1937 he decided to take his eight-year-old son, Greg, with him to work. At noon, John Griffith put the bridge up to allow ships to pass and sat on the observation deck with his son to eat lunch. Time pas...
454. The Shadow of Death
Illustration
Michael P. Green
Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse told of the occasion when his first wife had died. He, with his children, had been to the funeral service for her. As he was driving his motherless children home, they were naturally overcome with grief at the parting. Dr. Barnhouse said that he was trying to think of some word of comfort that he could give them. Just then, a huge moving van passed them. As it passed, the...
455. The Shiny Foil Trap
Illustration
Michael P. Green
An old method for catching raccoons is to place a piece of foil inside a small barred box that is staked to the ground. When a raccoon comes by, he reaches his paw into the box to get the foil. But, once he has grasped the foil, his paw changes shape and will not fit back through the bars on the box. Many times a raccoon would rather give up his freedom and perhaps his life—just for the sake of a ...
456. The Slow Delusion
Illustration
Michael P. Green
A story is told of a man who, resisting the cost of oats he fed his mule, decided to gradually substitute sawdust in its diet. Everything went fine for a while—but by the time the mule was satisfied with sawdust, he died. The same is true spiritually. The changeover from truth to error is sometimes a slow process, and the people don’t always know the difference. But, before you know it, they are ...
457. The Smoke Signal
Illustration
Michael P. Green
Long ago, in the days of sailing ships, a terrible storm arose and a ship was lost in a deserted area. Only one crewman survived, washed up on a small uninhabited island. In his desperation, the castaway daily prayed to God for help and deliverance from his lonely existence. Each day he looked for a passing ship and saw nothing. Eventually he managed to build a crude hut, in which he stored the fe...
458. The Speed of Rumors
Illustration
Michael P. Green
Some time ago, Dr. Albert H. Cantril, a professor at Princeton University, conducted a series of experiments to demonstrate how quickly rumors spread. He called six students to his office and in strict confidence informed them that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were planning to attend a certain university dance. Within a week, this completely fictitious story had reached nearly every student on ...
459. The Stinger Is Gone
Illustration
Michael P. Green
A boy and his father were traveling in a car when a bee flew through the open window. The boy was so highly allergic to bee stings that both he and his father knew that his life was in danger. As the boy frantically jumped around and tried to avoid the agitated bee, the father calmly reached out and grabbed the bee. When he opened his hand, the bee began to fly again, terrorizing the boy once more...
460. The Strength of the Tea
Illustration
Michael P. Green
Consider the difference between a strong and a weak cup of tea. The same ingredients—water and tea—are used for both. The difference is that the strong cup of tea results from the tea leaves’ immersion in the water longer, allowing the water more time to get into the tea and the tea into the water. The longer the steeping process, the stronger the cup of tea. In the same way, the length of time w...
461. The Substitute
Illustration
Michael P. Green
During the Civil War, a company of irregulars known as “bushwhackers” was arrested by the Union soldiers. Because they were guerrilla fighters and not in uniform, they were sentenced to be shot. A courageous young boy in the Union Army touched his commanding officer on the arm and pleaded, “Won’t you allow me to take the place of one of the men you have just condemned? I know him well—he has a la...
462. The Thorns of the Tree I Planted
Illustration
Michael P. Green
Lord Byron, a brilliant poet, spent his life in a mad search for pleasure. Moderns would say, “He tried to live it up.” Then in despair he wrote: The thorns I have reaped are of the tree I planted. They have torn me and I bleed. I should have known what fruit would spring from such a tree.
463. The Three Big Lights
Illustration
Michael P. Green
F. B. Meyer was sailing many years ago to England from northern Ireland. He told the story of how it was night and, as the ship entered the harbor, nothing was to be seen but a confusing array of lights. Dr. Meyer wondered how the captain could hope to navigate into the harbor safely at night in such a confusing jumble of lights, and so he asked him. The captain took him up to the bridge and said,...
464. The Tongue Epitaph
Humor Illustration
Michael P. Green
On a windswept hill in an English country churchyard stands a drab, gray slate tombstone. The faint etchings read: beneath this stone, a lump of clay, lies arabella young, who, on the twenty-fourth of may, began TO HOLD HER TOUNGUE.
465. The Tree's Trials
Illustration
Michael P. Green
There is a story about a traveler in a logging area who watched with curiosity as a lumberjack occasionally jabbed his sharp hook into a log to separate it from the others floating down a mountain stream. When asked why he did this, the logger replied, “These may all look alike to you, but I can recognize that a few of them are quite different. The ones I let pass are from trees that grew in a val...
466. The Trouble Tree
Illustration
Michael P. Green
A carpenter hired to help restore an old farmhouse had just finished up a rough first day on the job. A flat tire had made him lose an hour of work, his electric saw quit, and now his ancient pickup refused to start. As he rode home with a friend, he sat in stony silence. On arriving, as he walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with bot...
467. The True Problem
Illustration
Michael P. Green
Dr. Albert Einstein, in a lecture given in 1948, spoke of the nature of man in relation to the world: “The true problem lies in the hearts and thoughts of men. It is not a physical but an ethical one.… What terrifies us is not the explosive force of the atomic bomb, but the power of the wickedness of the human heart.”
468. The Unbreakable Bridge
Illustration
Michael P. Green
Over 150 years ago when the Union-Pacific railroad was under construction, an elaborate trestle bridge was built over a certain large canyon in the West as part of the plan to connect St. Louis and California. Before it was open for commercial use, the construction engineer wanted to test its strength. He loaded a train with extra cars and equipment to double its normal payload. The train was driv...
469. The Unbreakable Cable
Illustration
Michael P. Green
Habits are like a cable. Each day we do something in a pattern we intertwine one thread with another. As the threads are woven together, a cable is formed. On any particular day, the thread we added was too small to be noticed. But, after many threads have been woven in, we find that together they have become a practically unbreakable cable. So it is with habits. Daily practices over time become ...
470. The Unseen Revealed
Illustration
Michael P. Green
God has clearly revealed his existence to men. Suppose a student were to write on a physics exam that he did not believe in atoms because he could not see them. Would not the professor be justified in failing him? The existence of atoms is clearly undeniable on the basis of their recognized effects. Everyone familiar with Hiroshima knows that atoms exist; they are known from their effect. Likewise...
471. The Upstairs Came Down
Illustration
Michael P. Green
When you think about the blessings of God, remember one child’s description of an elevator: “I got into this little room and the upstairs came down.”
472. The Weaver
Illustration
Michael P. Green
My life is but a weaving between my Lord and me, I cannot choose the colors he worketh steadily. Oft times he weaveth sorrow and I in foolish pride Forget he sees the upper and I the underside. The dark threads are as needful in the weaver’s skillful hand As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern he has planned. Not till the loom is silent and the shuttle cease to fly Shall God unroll th...
473. The Well Filled Bow Low
Illustration
Michael P. Green
The story is told of two brothers who grew up on a farm. One went away to college, earned a law degree, and became a partner in a prominent law firm in the state capital. The other brother stayed on the family farm. One day the lawyer came and visited his brother, the farmer. He asked, “Why don’t you go out and make a name for yourself and hold your head up high in the world like me?” The brother ...
474. There Are No Lazy Ants
Illustration
Michael P. Green
According to John Silling, a Purdue University entomologist, the ant is an exemplary worker. “Basically the ant’s entire life, which can range up to seven years, is spent working,” says Silling. “They gather food, bring it back to the nest, and use it for day-to-day meals as well as to store for the winter.” In addition, the amazing insects can be adept horticulturalists, states the professor. So...
475. There We Will Be
Illustration
Michael P. Green
Tom Howard, one time professor of Theology and Missions at Gordon College, captured something of the way humanity feels in the presence of death in these eloquent words: Like a hen before a cobra, we find ourselves incapable of doing anything at all in the presence of the very thing that seems to call for the most drastic and decisive action. The disquieting thought, that stares at us like a fact...
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