parables and pearls
(AS FEATURED OVER THE BIOLA HOUR)
the condemned man it seems h a d climbed up into the belfry where she clung with desperation to the great clapper. It was her own body, painful as it was to her, which kept a sound from being heard. When it was dis covered what she had done because of her love for the soldier, she was brought before Cromwell. In tears she showed him her bruised body and bleed ing hands. The prime minister’s heart was so touched that he promised, “Your lover shall live because of your sacrifice.” What a picture this is of our spiritual condition! Because of sin, we are rebels against God, under the sentence of death. The one who loves us more than life, the Lord Jesus Christ, has intervened on our behalf. We, too, are saved, but only at the ex pense of His blessed sacrifice. Have you accepted this pardon full and free? “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us . . . ’” (I Thess. 5:9-10). * * * The human spirit fails unless the Holy Spirit fills. * * * SIGNS OF THE TIMES As concerned Christians and also citizens of this God-blessed land, we should rightly be exercised over some of the alarming trends in our nation’s judicial system. The laws seem to pro tect the criminal instead of showing any interest in punishment of wrong doers. The R eader ’ s D ig est recently pointed out that our Swpreme Court unfortunately has appeared to hand down decisions favoring the guilty. The magazine cited as an example a situa tion in a Washington, D.C., federal court where Judge George L. Hart faced the jury, shaking his finger angrily at forty-one-year-old James L.
WHAT IS A HOME? The walls of the home are not built of wood, brick, or stone, but of truth and loyalty. Unpleasant sounds, the friction of living, the clash of person alities, these are not deadened by Persian rugs or polished floors, but by conciliation, concession, and self- control. The house is not a structure where bodies meet, but a hearthstone upon which flames mingle, separate, flames of souls which the more per fectly they unite, the more clearly they shine, and the straighter they rise to ward Christ in heaven. Your house is your fortress in a warring world where a woman’s hand buckles on your armor in the morning and soothes your fa tigued mind at night. The beauty of the house is harmony. The security of the house is loyalty. The joy of a house is love. The plenty of a house is chil dren. The rule of the house is service. The comfort of a house is in contented spirits. The maker of a house, of a real human house, is the Lord Himself, the same who made the stars and es tablished the world. “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it” (Psalm 127:1); “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 3:10). * * * God never puts anyone in a place which is too small in which for him to grow. * * * THE SILENCE OF SACRIFICE Oliver Cromwell, prime minister of England, had decreed the death sent ence for a soldier who had failed on his watch. He was to die at the sounding of the evening curfew bell. But, for some reason, that night the bell didn’t toll. Perhaps you’ve heard of the in cident which has since been immortal ized in poetry and song. The fiancee of
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