Archives: Episodes

Crossing the Delaware

Everything’s easy after it’s done;
Every battle’s a “cinch” that’s won;
Every problem is clear that’s solved—
The earth was round when it revolved!
But Washington stood amid grave doubt
With enemy forces camped about;
He could not know how he would fare
Till after he’d crossed the Delaware.

Though the river was full of ice
He did not think about it twice,
But started across in the dead of night,
The enemy waiting to open the fight.
Likely feeling pretty blue,
Being human, same as you,
But he was brave amid despair,
And Washington crossed the Delaware!

So when you’re with trouble beset,
And your spirits are soaking wet,
When all the sky with clouds is black
Don’t lie down upon your back
And look at them. Just do the thing;
Though you are choked, still try to sing.
If times are dark, believe them fair,
And you will cross the Delaware!

—Joseph Morris.

Alternate Reading: Job 29:11-25.

Home

The beauty of the home is order,
The blessing of the home is contentment,
The glory of the home is hospitality,
The crown of the home is godliness.

—Anon.

If You Want A Thing Bad Enough

If you want a thing bad enough
To go out and fight for it,
Work day and night for it,
Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for it,
If only desire of it
Makes you quite mad enough
Never to tire of it,
Makes you hold all other things tawdry and cheap for it,
If life seems all empty and useless without it,
And all that you scheme and you dream is about it,
If gladly you’ll sweat for it,
Fret for it,
Plan for it,
Lose all your terror of God or man for it,
If you’ll simply go after that thing that you want,
With all your capacity,
Strength and sagacity,
Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,
If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt,
Nor sickness nor pain
Of body or brain
Can turn you away from the thing that you want,
If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,
You’ll get it!

—Berton Bealey.

Alternate Reading: John 4:1-42.

The Truth-Seeker Meets Truth

While Jesus was in Jerusalem, during the Passover Festival, many came to trust in him, when they saw the signs of his mission that he was giving. But Jesus did not trust himself to them, since he could read every heart and because he did not need that others should tell him what men were; for he could of himself read what was in men.

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who was a leading man among the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night, and said to him:

“Rabbi, we know that you are a Teacher come from God; for no one could give such signs as you are giving, unless God were with him.”

“In truth I tell you,” exclaimed Jesus, “unless a man is re-born, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

“How can a man,” asked Nicodemus, “be born when he is old? Can he be born a second time?”

“In truth I tell you,” answered Jesus, “unless a man owes his birth to Water and Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. All that owes its birth to human nature is human, and all that owes its birth to the Spirit is spiritual. Do not wonder at my telling you that you all need to be re-born. The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes, or where it goes; it is the same with every one that owes his birth to the Spirit.”

—John.

Live To-Day

Prepare to live by all means, but for heaven’s sake do not forget to live. You will never have a better chance than you have at present. You may think you will have, but you are mistaken.

—Arnold Bennett.

The Habit of Decision

Men who have left their mark upon the world have been men of great and prompt decision. They have been men who do something—and do it at once. Success rides upon the hour of decision.

—O. S. Marden.

Indecision brings its own delays,
And days are lost lamenting o’er lost days.
Are you in earnest? Seise this very minute:
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

—William Shakespeare.

The Prayer of a Great Minister

Father, I will not ask for wealth or fame,
Though they once would have joyed my carnal sense:
I shudder not to bear a hated name,
Wanting all wealth, myself my sole defense.
But give me, Lord, eyes to behold the truth;
A seeing sense that knows the eternal right;
A heart with pity filled, and gentlest ruth;
A manly faith that makes all darkness light:
Give me the power to labor for mankind;
Make me the mouth of such as cannot speak;
Eyes let me be to groping men, and blind;
A conscience to the base; and to the weak
Let me be hands and feet; and to the foolish, mind;
And lead still further on such as Thy kingdom seek.

—Theodore Parker.

Alternate Reading: Ruth 1:1-18.

Jesus at a Wedding

There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and Jesus’ mother was there. Jesus himself, too, with his disciples, was invited to the wedding. And, when the wine ran short, his mother said to him: “They have no wine left.”

“What do you want with me?” answered Jesus. “My time has not come yet.”

His mother said to the servants: “Do whatever he tells you.”

There were standing there six stone water-jars, in accordance with the Jewish rule of “purification,” each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

Jesus said to the servants: “Fill the water-jars with water”; and, when they had filled them to the brim, he added:

“Now take some out, and carry it to the Master of the Feast.”

The servants did so. And, when the Master of the Feast had tasted the water which had now become wine, not knowing where it had come from—although the servants who had taken out the water knew—he called the bridegroom and said to him:

“Every one puts good wine on the table first, and inferior wine afterwards, when his guests have drunk freely; but you have kept back the good wine till now!”

This, the first sign of his mission, Jesus gave at Cana in Galilee, and by it revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum—he, his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; but they stayed there only a few days.

Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem

Then, as the Jewish Passover was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the Temple Courts he found people who were selling bullocks, sheep, and pigeons, and the money-changers at their counters. So he made a whip of cords, and drove them all out of the Temple Courts, and the sheep and bullocks as well; he scattered the money of the money-changers, and overturned their tables, and said to the pigeon-dealers:

“Take these things away. Do not turn my Father’s House into a market-house.”

—John.

The First Disciples of Jesus

The next day, when John was standing with two of his disciples, he looked at Jesus as he passed and exclaimed:

“There is the Lamb of God!”

The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. But Jesus turned round, and saw them following.

“What are you looking for?” he asked.

“Rabbi,” they answered (or, as we should say, Teacher), “where are you staying?”

“Come, and you shall see,” he replied.

So they went, and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was then about four in the afternoon. One of the two, who heard what John said and followed Jesus, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him: “We have found the Messiah!” (a word which means Christ, or Consecrated). Then he brought him to Jesus. Fixing his eyes on him, Jesus said:

“You are Simon, the son of John; you shall be called Kephas” (which means Peter, or rock).

The following day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. He found Philip, and said to him: “Follow me.”

Philip was from Bethsaida, and a fellow-townsman of Andrew and Peter. He found Nathanael and said to him:

“We have found him of whom Moses wrote in the Law, and of whom the Prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, Joseph’s son!”

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” asked Nathanael.

“Come and see,” replied Philip.

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said:

“Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit!”

“I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You shall see greater things than those! In truth I tell you,” he added, “you shall all see Heaven open, and ‘the angels of God ascending and descending’ upon the Son of Man.”

—John.

Saint Stephen’s Day; The Second Christian Martyr

“This man,” they said, “is incessantly saying things against this Holy Place and the Law; indeed we have heard him declare that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this Place, and change the customs handed down to us by Moses.”

All who composed the Council had fixed their eyes on Stephen, and they saw his face looking like the face of an angel.

Stephen’s Defense

Then the High Priest asked him if he admitted this, on which Stephen spoke as follows:

“Brothers and Fathers, listen. It is not in buildings made by hands that the Most High dwells. As the Prophet says—

“‘The sky is a throne for me
And the earth a stool for my feet.
What manner of House will you build me, saith the Lord,
Or what place is there where I may rest?
Was it not my hand that made all there things?’

“You obstinate race, heathen in heart and ears, you are always resisting the holy Spirit; your ancestors did it, and so do you. Which of the Prophets escaped persecution from your ancestors? They actually killed those who told long before of the coming of the Righteous One; of whom you, in your turn, have now become the betrayers and murderers—you who received the Law as transmitted by angels and yet failed to keep it”

Stephen’s Martyrdom

As they listened to this, the Council grew frantic with rage, and gnashed their teeth at Stephen. He, filled as he was with the holy Spirit, fixed his eyes intently on the sky, and saw the Glory of God and Jesus standing at God’s right hand.

“Look,” he said, “I see Heaven open and the Son of Man standing at God’s right hand.”

At this, with a loud shout, they stopped their ears and rushed all together upon him, forced him outside the city, and began to stone him, the witnesses laying their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul. And they continued stoning Stephen, while he appealed to the Master.

“Jesus, Master,” he exclaimed, “receive my spirit.” Falling on his knees, he cried out loudly:

“Master, do not charge them with this sin”; and with these words he fell asleep.

Saul assented to his being put to death.

—Luke.

The Voice of the Sea-Shell

I have seen
A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract
Of inland ground, applying to his ear
The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell;
To which, in silence hushed, his very soul
Listened intensely; and his countenance soon
Brightened with joy: for from within were heard
Murmurings, whereby the monitor expressed
Mysterious union with his native sea.
Even such a shell the universe itself
Is to the ear of faith; and there are times,
I doubt not, when to you it doth impart
Authentic tidings of invisible things;
Of ebb and flow, and ever-during power,
And central peace, subsisting at the heart
Of endless agitation.

—W. S. Landor.

The Heart of the Eternal

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in His justice
Which is more than liberty.
For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of man’s mind,
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.

—F. W. Faber.

The highest perfection of human reason is to know that there is an infinity beyond its reason.

—Blaise Pascal.

Alternate Reading: Luke 4:14-30.

Loyalty of Purpose

The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, ‘mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!

His brow was sad; his eyes beneath,
Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,
And like a silver clarion rung
The accents of that unknown tongue,
Excelsior!

In happy homes he saw the light
Of household fires gleam warm and bright;
Above, the spectral glaciers shone,
And from his lips escaped a groan,
Excelsior!

“Try not the pass!” the old man said;
“Dark lowers the tempest overhead,
The roaring torrent is deep and wide!”
And loud that clarion voice replied,
Excelsior!

“Oh stay,” the maiden said, “and rest
Thy weary head upon this breast!”
A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
But still he answered, with a sigh,
Excelsior!

“Beware the pine-tree’s withered branch!
Beware the awful avalanche!
“This was the peasant’s last good-night,
A voice replied, far up the height,
Excelsior!

At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monks of Saint Bernard
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,
A voice cried through the startled air,
Excelsior!

A traveller, by his faithful hound,
Half-buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice,
That banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!

There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell, like a falling star,
Excelsior!

—Henry W. Longfellow.

Alternate Reading: Philippians 3: 7-14.

The Value of Temptation

Why comes temptation, but for man to meet
And master and make crouch beneath his feet,
And so be pedestaled in triumph?

—Robert Browning.

As the Sandwich Islander believes that the strength and valor of the enemy he kills passes into himself so we gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The Crossways

It is supposed that among the hills of Iceland there are certain cross-roads, from the center of which you can see four churches, one at the end of each road.

If you sit at the crossing of these roads on New Year’s Eve, elves come from every direction and cluster round you, and ask you, with all sorts of blandishments and fair promises, to go with them; but you must continue silent. Then they bring to you rarities and delicacies of every description, gold, silver, and precious stones, meats and wines, of which they beg you to accept; but you must neither move a limb nor accept a single thing they offer you. If you get so far as this without speaking, elf women come to you in the likeness of your mother, your sister, or any other relation, and beg you to come with them, using every art and entreaty; but beware you neither move nor speak. And if you can continue to keep silent and motionless all the night, until you see the first streak of dawn, then start up and cry aloud, “Praise be to God! His daylight filleth the heavens!”

As soon as you have said this, the elves will leave you, and leave with you all the wealth that they have used to entice you, which will now be yours.

—Jon Arnason, of Iceland.

Alternate Reading: Numbers 6: 22-27.