God’s Providence

-
After the Mutiny, some wounded soldiers were brought home from India in a vessel that was found to have water rising in her hold before the voyage was half finished; and night and day the pumps had to be kept working. The noise of the machinery most sadly inconvenienced the sick men on board; and many times they begged the chief officer to stop the pumps, so that they could rest their shattered nerves. This, of course, he dared not do; but being a God-fearing man, he prayed most earnestly that God would send a stiff gale to hasten them on their way. But only calm weather accompanied them: the calmest weather ever experienced on that voyage by any of the crew. When at last the sad journey was over, and the ship safe in dock, she was examined for the cause of the leak, when it was found that a bad hole had been made in her side below the water line, which was only covered by a sheet of copper held by two rails. Only the calm weather had saved her. The “stiff gale” prayed for must certainly have sent her to the bottom of the sea!

Popular posts from this blog

The Spiritual Skeleton

-
An old fable tells of a man cursed with the power of seeing other human beings, not in the beauty of flesh and blood, but as skeletons gaunt and grisly. Some saints seem to have taken upon themselves this curse. Do you feel that you are the only one who is right with the Lord—that everybody else is a spiritual skeleton because he is not of the same denominational stripe or has not the same scruples of conscience as you? Take him or her into your circle of believers as Paul did, as long as they are calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Read more

Can’t Dispute Facts

-
What does the criticism of others do to our inner self? Take the case of Col. George Washington Goethals. While contending with the manifold problems of geography and climate in the building of the Panama Canal, he had to endure the carping criticism of countless busybodies back home who freely predicted he would never complete his task. But he pressed steadily forward in his work and said nothing. “Aren’t you going to answer your critics?” a subordinate inquired. “In time,” Goethals replied. “How?” The great engineer smiled. “With the canal,” he said.
Read more