CRY FOR JUSTICE

An elderly lady was found lying on her husband's grave...waiting for DEATH to come.
It sounds dramatic but in reality it is very tragic and heart breaking to know how grown up children leave their old parents to fend for themselves.This lady struggled to bring up her three sons- giving them all she and her husband could within their limited means.She even built a house where all of them lived together- the three sons got married - held good jobs - and should have lived happily - but that was not to be - the wives did not agree with the old lady and her husband and ill-treated them .The old man died in grief - then started the lady's plight- the sons threw her of the house on one rainy night - no where to go - she went to the graveyard and lay there- not knowing what to do- she lay there for three days and three nights without food or water.She was spotted by her neighbour who informed the cops.The neighbour moved court. The verdict came after three years. The three sons were sentenced for three years of imprisonment-and the court took control over the house and returned it to the old lady - what was really heart breaking was when the lady heard of the sentence she broke down and cried for the forgivness of her children -which was not to be!
I WONDER HOW CAN CHILDREN TREAT THEIR PARENTS IN THIS MANNER- HOW CAN THEY FORGET that they too have children -what if they be treated likewise? For History repeats itself--friends your views on this ........?

A blotted life is not necessarily a useless life

A friend once showed John Ruskin a costly handkerchief on which a blot of ink had been made."Nothing can be done with it now,"said the owner;"it is absolutely worthless!"Ruskin made no remark,but took the handkerchief with him.After a time he sent it back,to the great surprise of his friend,who could scarely recognize it.Ruskin had made a design in India ink using the blot as a basis and making the handkerchief more valuable than ever.
Likewise. a blotted life is not necessarily a useless life.Mistakes are made in life-but can be rectified if given the opportunity-your views on this,please.

Can you resist or do you yeild to temptation?

If you apply a magnet to the end of a needle that moves freely on its pivot,the needle affected by the strong attraction,approaches the magnet as if it loved it.Reverse the order,apply the magnet now to the other pole and the magnet and the needle shrinks away trembling as if it did not love but hated it.So it is with temptation.

One man rushes into the arms of vice another recoils from it in horror.According to the nature it addresses is holy or unholy,temptation attracts or repels,is loved or hated.
What do you do when you are tempted?

Look back..into that dark cave!

It is God's way to begin "small".He once started to save the world.We might have supposed that in revealing the terror of His majesty and the beauty of His love He would rend the heavens and so astonish the world that they would only be beginning to forget about it now after two thousand years but He did not.He started with a Baby in a cow-stable.He could scarcely have made a smaller beginning.Lookback.Look into that dark cave.A flickering torch casts huge shadows of long-horned oxen on the rough-hewn walls.There is no sound but the low crunching of the cattle as they munch their hay.
There in the midst of them is the young mother,forgetting for the moment her discouragement and discomfort and sickness.For there in her arms lies the Babe,her baby boy and about his face still plays the light of heaven,from which he came and the unclouded purity of its skies still lingers in his eyes.
O little Babe of the stable,who would dream that thou art a King?Who would imagine that from that throne of thy sweet mother's arms thy power would reach down along the ages,overturning kingdoms,establishing empires,changing the world and even today so many proud nations should own thee as their supreme Lord and King-that thou,O gracious Babe,shouldst be enthroned in so many faithful hearts,who would gladly lay down their lives and all they hold most dear for thy name's sake?Friends, who can say that He or His Father did not exist?

God begins with a Babe............

God begins with a Babe.More than a century ago men were following with bated breath the march of Napoleon and waiting with feverish impatience for the latest news of the wars.And all the while in their own homes babies were being born.But who could think about "babies"?Everybody was thinking about" battles ." In one year lying midway between
Trafalgar and Waterloo there stole into the world a host of heroes! During that one year Gladstone was born in Liverpool,Alfred Tennyson was born at the Somersby Rectory
and Oliver Holmes made his first appearance in Massachusetts. On the very day of that same year Charles Darwin made his debut at Shrewbury and Abraham Lincoln drew his first breath in Old Kentucky.Music was enriched by the advent of Felix Mendelssohn at Hamburg,while within the same year Samuel Morley was born at Homerton,Edward FitzGerald in Woodbridge and Frances Kemble in London.
We fancy that God can only manage His world by big battalions abroad,when all the while He is doing it by little babies at home.When a wrong wants righting,or a truth wants presenting or a continent wants an opening,God sends a baby into the world to do it.That was why,long,long ago,a Babe was born at Bethlehem.How Great is He ...isnt He?

CRITICISM ---HOW TO AVOID

On reaching home one evening,tired and somewhat dispirited,my little girl brouhgt me her copy-book which she had just completed. It ws her first and the young face reddened with a beautiful and honest flush,for she knew as she turned over the pages some little word of praise and cheer would reward her hard attempt.
The pages were very neatly written and I told her what pleasure it was to see how careful she had been. Presently we came to a page on which were two small blots. As she turned the page the little hand was laid upon them and looking up into my face with an artlessness that was beautiful,she said, " Papa, don't see the blots!"Ofcourse I did't see them,but I bent down and kissed the little forehead and was thankful for the lesson I had learned.

How precious it would be if, amid all the nameless strifes and discords that so fret and chafe us, we could just lay the finger on the sullied page of human lives and not "see the blots "!

When littlenesses and meannesses and petty oppositions annoy and vex us, if we would only look away from these to some brighter pages !

HIS HANDIWORK

I have a little sheet of paper in my house on which there is a faint representation of a hyacinth.I have many other pictures far more beautiful,but I regard this as the most exquisite of them all.My mother had painted it.I never see it but I think and feel her hand rested on it.
Suppose you had such aconception of God that you never saw a flower,or a tree,that you did not think,"My Father made it,"What a beautiful world this would seem to you!"
God Revealed in His Handiwork-don't you think so?

INSPIRATION OF LOVE

A father who was blind always attended the cricket matches of the school in which his son played.The boy was a first rate batsman and was the captain of the school and although the father never saw his son play,he seemed to gain pleasure at being present.Suddenly the father died and the day after his funeral an important cricket match took place at school.
Owing to the father's recent bereavement,it was thought that the son would not choose to play.But he did, to the astonishment of all and he was seen to bat with the greatest eagerness and with an unwonted seriousness of purpose. Being asked by one of his copanions,when the match was over,why he played with such care and why he played at all,he answered, " You see this is the first time that my father would see me play and I wanted to do my best, because I was concious that his eyes were on me."

LOVE SHOULD BE EXPRESSED

I WENT INTO A FLOWER SHOP AND SELECTED A FEW FLOWERS,SAYING, " THEY ARE MY WIFE'S FAVOURITES." THE LADY AT THE COUNTER EXPRESSED SYMPATHY AT THE ILLNESS OF MY WIFE.
" ILL !" I EXCLAIMED. " MY WIFE IS AS WELL AS YOU ARE."
THE LADY APOLOGIZED,SAYING: " I BEG YOUR PARDON FOR MY MISTAKE; BUT, TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH,HUSBANDS DON'T USUALLY BUY FLOWERS FOR THEIR WIVES UNLESS THE WIVES ARE ILL OR DEAD."
GRATITUDE LIKE LOVE,OUGHT TO EXPRESS ITSELF MORE FREQUENTLY.

SUFFERINGS OF THE ENVIOUS

An incident is related in Greek history of a young man who so distinguised himself in sports that his fellow citizens raised a statue of him to perpetutate his victory.This statue so excited the spirit of envy in the heart of another young man who was defeated ,that one night this man went out under the cover of darkness to destroy it.After prolonged effort he succeeded in moving it from its pedestal,but in the process it fell on him and crushed him to death.
This is the effect of envy and indeed of all sins,upon the sinner.By envy and malevolence we may wound others,but in the process we slay ourselves. Socrates taught that no evil man can harm a good man;that all mortal wounds to charecter are self-inflicted.We may suffer,being innocent but the suffering will not affect the soul unless we allow the poison of hate to corrupt us

LOVE SHOULD BE EXPRESSED

I WENT INTO A FLOWER SHOP AND SELECTED A FEW FLOWERS,SAYING, " THEY ARE MY WIFE'S FAVOURITES." THE LADY AT THE COUNTER EXPRESSED SYMPATHY AT THE ILLNESS OF MY WIFE.
" ILL !" I EXCLAIMED. " MY WIFE IS AS WELL AS YOU ARE."
THE LADY APOLOGIZED,SAYING: " I BEG YOUR PARDON FOR MY MISTAKE; BUT, TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH,HUSBANDS DON'T USUALLY BUY FLOWERS FOR THEIR WIVES UNLESS THE WIVES ARE ILL OR DEAD."
GRATITUDE LIKE LOVE,OUGHT TO EXPRESS ITSELF MORE FREQUENTLY.

RESIST THE BEGINNINGS OF EVIL

Once a prince was eating,a fly came in through the window and alighted on his food. He could have killed the fly easily,but instead idly watched it and admired its iridescent wings.The next day it came again,this time as a large as a butterfly. " Do not harm it," the prince said to his courtiers; " there is enough food for both of us and see how beautiful its wings have become! " The third day it had grown as large as a bat and the prince became alarmed as he saw it take all his drink. He ordered all windows and doors to be closed so that it might not enter again. The fourth day,it was the size of a hawk; it broke through a window and entered as before,and this time it devoured all the food on the table. " Put iron bars across the windows," he commanded,thoroughly alarmed, " that I may eat and drink and not die." But the next day the attendants heard the twisting of bars and the shattering of glass and then a scream and rushing in they found the prince dead on the floor and marks of the beak and talons of a vulture on the throat of the prince.
At first the prince could have killed the fly but at last the vulture killed him.
In the beginning you may overcome an inclination to do wrong,in the end the inclination becomes so strong that it overcomes you.

KIND AND WISE ANSWER

It was about five minites of time left for the train to start from the downtown station and the suburbanities were hurrying into it,when a man in the garb of a mechanic sat down by the side of a finely dressed passenger in one of the seats in the rear car,took a paper from his pocket and began to read.
" Plenty of empty seats in here yet, aren't there ?"growled the man in fine raiment,moving along grudgingly.
"Yes sir," pleasantly replied the new comer, " but it will be crowded pretty soon and I thought I'd pick out a gentleman for a seatmate while I had a chance."
"Humph!" grunted the other man,uncertain whether to feel complimented or insulted but realizing the hopelessness of trying to make any fitting rejoinder.

TELLING BIG LIES

A minister was walking along the street one day and saw a crowd of boys sitting in a ring, with a small dog in the center. When he came up to them he put the following question :
" What are you doing with the dog?"
One little fellow said,"Whoever tells the biggest lie wins the dog."
"Oh," said the minister,"I am surprised at you boys, for when I was young like you I never ever told a lie."
There was silence for a while, until one of the boys shouted, " Hand him the dog!"
THE MINISTER WON THE DOG !

JUDGMENT OF SELF

An elderly lady friend of mine complained to me when I visited her that her neighbour next-door was a poor house-keeper,her children were dirty,her house was filthy and one was almost disgraced by living near her.
"Just look," she said,"at those clothes she has hung out on the line.See the black streaks up and down those sheets and pillow-cases."
I stepped to the window,raised it,and looked out.
"It appears,my dear," I told her, " that the clothes are perfectly clean; but the streaks that you see are on your window that has not been cleant for long."

IMPORTANCE OF LITTLE THINGS

Traffic was blocked,the loud honking of horns of the impatient motorists could be heard on all sides. A big traffic officer tried working the small lever up and down.Yet the red light would not turn green.A young electrian passing by stopped,removed the front plate of the box and located the trouble in an instant - a disconnected wire.A LITTLE THING.
A large shipyard - anticipating launching of a huge ocean-liner brought thosands of witnesses, including the President and other guests.The big moment came. The special crew of men began to remove the blockings.The crowd held its breath while the nervous young lady held a bottle of water in readiness to christen the big ship.But the ship would not move.It was not until some one discovered and knocked out a small wedge that had jammed in between the plates and blocking - the ship finally slid gracefully down the narrow ways into the water- after the removal, mind you,of a very small wedge- A LITTLE THING AGAIN !

HIPOCRISY

Once there was a snake that was greatly displeased at the horror he seemed to excite in everyone. He was conscious of his innocence and could not understand why everyone ran away freom him,or,if they stopped ,threw sticks and stones at him with cries of anger.He came to the conclusion that it was merely his personal appearance and made up his mind to change his that. Therefore,placing his tail in his mouth and forming himself into a perfect circle,he stiffened himself so thst he appeared perfectly wooden.In this condition he was found by some children ,who pounced upon him with esgerness,ceying out, "Oh, what a pretty green hoop !" Taking a stick they began to trundel the "hoop" giving it a smart blow with the stick at every revolution.
The poor snske endured this torture as long as he could and then took an opportunity to roll off among the bushes and speedily assume his proper shape and slipped into a hole. " I have learnt a lesson'" said the snake,"that however unfortunate one's lot, nothing is to be gained from pretending to be something else."
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HAPPINESS OF MARRIAGE DESTROYED

A woman lived and kept her vow for thirty years.One day her husbnd returned from business in a nervous,excitable mood. She began to tell him about some fo her annoyances,when suddenly he lost his cool and asked her to be quite and not let her voice be heard at all.She was grieved beyond endurance and vowed that he would never ever hear her voice again.He never did nor did anyone else.
She performed her daily dities in silence. If anything had to be said she would write it on a sheet of paper.In spite of penitence,appeals,entreaties,she kept her vow.Before her husband died he begged her to say she had forgiven him- and to say she had forgiven him she wrote on a slate.
She died a few years ago,without a word and was thus taken from the battleground of a thirty years' war of silence.