Ahead of Circumstance

       In life there are those who keep just ahead of the breaking wave, and others who halt and it engulfs them. Marshall P. Wilder describes in the extract below the skill of the Hawaiian natives with their canoes:

       We donned bathing-suits and took a surf ride. This is the national sport and, being at all times sufficiently thrilling, must be taken in a high surf, a tremendous experience. The boats are long, deep and very narrow canoes, with an outrigger at one side to keep them from tipping.
       Two natives, and they must be skilled, usually operate these canoes. Three or four passengers at a time are taken out, the natives rowing with broad paddles a quarter or half mile from the shore, where they wait for a large wave. With the nicest precision they keep ahead of it, just as it breaks, and are carried smoothly in, poised on its crest. I sat facing the stern, and the experience was something to remember, the swift bird-like swoop of the canoe, with the white, seething wall of water behind it, apparently just about to engulf us. After we were safely on shore again they told us stories of how the wave, if the rowers miscalculate, will break over the canoe, driving it to the bottom.

Prayer Produces Song

       There is a beautiful suggestion of the way prayer soothes our fears, comforts our hearts, cheers the soul, and awakens music and song, in Luke's description, given in the sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, of the experience of Paul and Silas in the dungeon at Philippi. Tho they were wounded and bruised and hungry, and uncomfortable with their chains, they prayed to God in the midnight, and afterward their hearts were so full of joy that they could not help but sing. And it is well to note what they sang. It was not " Hark, from the tombs a doleful sound!" but the other note altogether, "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow." Song flows out of prayer as naturally as a spring gushes out of a mountainside full of treasures of the melted snow.

How Pearls Are Made

        The finding of pearls in some parts of New York State, as well as in many Southern lakes and streams, has brought to notice again the strange way in which pearls are made. A grain of sand is sucked in by these fresh-water clams with their food. Every nine months the clam throws off a milky secretion, which forms a new coating of mother-of-pearl inside the shell: white, blue, or pink. A coating of this substance forms around the intruding grain of sand, which must be a constant annoyance to the clam, and thus in course of time the pearl is formed. So soul-pearls are made by patience under trying circumstances. 

"In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trails.'' 1 Peter 1:6

"Ye are the Light of the World"

"You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden." Matthew 5:14 NKJV

        An English clergyman relates the following incident: "During a voyage to India I sat one dark evening in my cabin feeling thoroughly unwell, as the sea was rising fast and I was but a poor sailor. Suddenly the cry of 'Man overboard!' made me spring to my feet. I heard a trampling overhead, but resolved not to go on deck, lest I should interfere with the crew in their efforts to save the poor man. 'What can I do?' I asked myself, and instantly unhooking my lamp, I held it near the top of my cabin and close to my bull's-eye window, that its light might shine on the sea, and as near the ship as possible. In a half minute's time I heard the joyful cry 'It's all right; he's safe,' upon which I put my lamp in its place. The next day, however, I was told that my little lamp was the sole means of saving the man's life. It was only by the timely light which shone upon him that the knotted rope could be thrown so as to reach him. 'Let your light so shine.'''

• Let Your Light Shine - Matthew 5:14-16
• How to let your light shine bright by Lisa Nichols
• Matthew 5:14-16 - Let Your Light Shine

The Conquest of Fear...

"Courage consists not in hazarding without fear, but being resolutely minded in a just cause. The brave man is not he who feels no fear, for that were stupid and irrational, but he whose noble soul subdues its fear, and bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from." Ferrold.

•  He Calls Us To Be Witnesses (pdf.)
• Peace in the Dark Places
• I Could Not Help Him Die
• Journey To Heaven
  

A Shelter In The Time of Storm

        "I found this hymn in a small paper published in London, called "The Postman." It was said to be a favorite song of the fishermen on the north coast of England, and they were often heard singing it as they approached their harbors in the time of storm. As the hymn was set to a weird minor tune, I decided to compose one that would be more practical, one that could be more easily sung by the people." Sanky

Words by V. J. Charlesworth, Music by Ira D. Sankey

Waiting

Waiting
by John Burroughs

Serene, I fold my hand and wait,
Nor care for wind, or tide, nor sea;
I rave no more'gainst time or fate,
For lo! mine own shall come to me.

I stay my haste, I make delays,
For what avails this eager pace?
I stand amid the eternal ways,
And what is mine shall know my face.

Asleep, awake, by night or day,
The friends I seek are seeking me;
No wind can drive my bark astray,
Nor change the tide of destiny.

What matter if I stand alone?
I wait with joy the coming years;
My heart shall reap where it has sown,
And garner up its fruit of tears.

The waters know their own, and draw
The brook that springs in yonder
heights;
So flows the good with equal law
Unto the soul of pure delights.

The stars come nightly to the sky;
The tidal wave comes to the sea;
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,
Can keep my own away from me.