People use a lot of big words when they speak of Communion.

Missionary Dr. Albert L. Shelton said that the first wedding he performed in Tibet was a memorable one. The bride and groom had never seen each other until they arrived for the ceremony. The groom, a Chinese man, was a little over five feet tall. The bride a Tibetan, was nearly six feet tall. But that was not the important...

Recently The Wall Street Journal carried a story from the small town of Erwin, Tennessee. The local state representative had sponsored several bills and was responsible for naming 23 bridges in the region. At first he named them for local heroes. Then he named some for prominent citizens. Then he named some for his...

The September 2000 issue of Carolina Country magazine reported the story of an unusual funeral home in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The have installed a drive-through viewing window. People can view the body of the deceased without ever getting our of their cars. Of course that misses the point of funeral home...

He had been swindled out of his home in Washington, D.C. and he was homeless, one Sunday he was standing in front of the National Cathedral when then President George Bush and his wife Barbara were going in. "Pray for me," he said to the President. "No," said President Bush. "Come in and pray for your-self." He did, and...

In J. K. Rowling's now famous novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone there is a warning engraved on the doors of the bank: Enter stranger, but take heed - Of what awaits the sin of greed - For those who take, but do not earn - Must pay most dearly in their turn. It is good advice for anyone anytime, but it is...

Our word pittance has come to mean a very tiny gift, but that was not its original meaning. In the Middle Ages the term referred to a very substantial sum, given "out of piety and pity." Often the interest from the fund was used to provide a splendid dinner for the monks in the monastery. But as time went on and inflation took its...

The Finno-Ugrians were the ancient ancestors of both the people of Finland and the people of Hungary. They regarded the wild duck as a sacred animal. This was because they held that the world came into being from a duck egg! An ancient Norse myth says that Adumla the magic cow licked the ice until gradually man...

In the heyday of British rule it used to be said that the sun never set on the British Empire. Because the British flag consists of three crosses, superimposed one on another, the sun also never set on the cross! The British Empire is gone, but it is still true that the sun never sets on the cross. The day begins on the island of...