Passing The Test

In an issue of Moody Monthly, George Sweeting wrote about the desperate need for honesty
in our culture.
He referred to Dr. Madison Sarratt, who taught mathematics at Vanderbilt University for many years.

Before giving a test, the professor would admonish his class something like this:
"Today I am giving two examinations - one in trigonometry and the other in honesty.
I hope you will pass them both.
If you must fail one, fail trigonometry.
There are many good people in the world who can't pass trig, but there are no good people
in the world who cannot pass the examination of honesty."

How Much Worry?

A glass of worry please!

According to the National Bureau of Standards, a dense fog covering seven city blocks to a depth
of 100 feet is composed of something less than one glass of water.

That is, all the fog covering seven city blocks 100 feet deep could be, if it were gotten all together,
held in a single drinking glass; it would not quite fill it.
This can be compared to the things we worry about.

If we could see into the future and if we could see our problems in their true light,
they wouldn't blind us to the world -- to living itself -- but instead could be relegated to their true size
and place.

And if all the things most people worry about were reduced to their true size,
you could probably stick them all into a water glass, too.

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Importance Of Little Things

The saintly Horatius Bonar, realized that the little things can either make or break the Christian.

He wrote, "A holy life is made up of a multitude of small things.
It is the little things of the hour and not the great things of the age that fill up a life like that
of the apostles Paul or John, or David Brainerd, or Henry Martyn.

Little words, not eloquent speeches or sermons; little deeds, not miracles or battles,
or one great heroic effort or martyrdom, make up the true Christian life.

It's the little constant sunbeam, not the lightning -- the waters of Siloam that go softly
in their meek mission of refreshment, not'the waters of the rivers great and many rushing down
in torrent, noise, and force, that are the true symbols of a holy life."

Bonar then warned against the "little evils, little sins, little inconsistencies,
little weaknesses, little foibles, little indulgences of self and of the flesh,
little acts of indolence or indecision, or slovenliness or cowardice,
little equivocations or aberrations from high integrity,
little bits of little indifferences to the feelings or wishes of others,
little outbreaks of temper, or crossness, or selfishness or vanity.

Little things are powerful!Little things can bless or blight!

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Integrity’s Worth

Integrity worth more than paper!
In 1789 an uncertain George Washington is urged to seek the presidency by Governor Morris,
a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention.
Morris writes Washington:

 "No constitution is the same on paper and in life.
The exercise of authority depends upon personal character.
Your cool steady temper is indispensably necessary to give a firm and manly tone to the new overnment."

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Keeping Your Word

March 11, 1942, was a dark, desperate day at Corregidor.
The Pacific theater of war was threatening and bleak.
One island after another had been buffeted into submission.
The enemy was now marching into the Philippines as confident and methodical as the star band
in the Rose Bowl parade.
 Surrender was inevitable!

The brilliant and bold soldier, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, had only three words for his comrades
as he stepped into the escape boat destined for Australia: “I shall return!”

Upon arriving nine days later in the port of Adelaide, the sixty-two-year-old military statesman closed
his remarks with this sentence: “I came through and I shall return.”

A little over 2 1/2 years later -- October 20, 1944, to be exact -- he stood once again on Philippine soil
after landing safely at Leyte Island.

This is what he said: “This is the voice of freedom, General MacArthur speaking.
People of the Philippines: I have returned!”
 
MacArthur kept his word. His word was as good as his bond.

Regardless of the odds against him,  including the pressures and power of enemy strategy,
he was bound and determined to make his promise good.

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Love Makes Difference

A woman went to a  psychologist, and informed him that she intended to divorce her husband.
"I want to hurt him all I can," she declared firmly.

"Well, in that case," said the psychologist.
"I advise you to start showering him with compliments.
When you have become indispensable to him, and when he thinks you love him devotedly,
then start the divorce action. That is the way to hurt him."

Some months later, the wife returned to report that all was going well.
She had followed the psychologist's advice.

"Good," said the psychologist, "Now is the time to file for divorce."

"Divorce!" The woman said indignantly, "Never. I love my husband dearly!"

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