In the late 1800's, St. Paul's School in London was considered quite prestigious. Even so, a mother, thinking of entering her son, wrote to Frederick Walker, the high Master, wondering about the social standing of the boys he'd be with. Walker replied, "Madam, so long as your son behaves himself and the fees are paid, no...

For many, many years the largest church building in the world was St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. But a few years ago, the then-president of the Ivory Coast built a larger basilica. It seats 7,000 people although Sunday attendance is seldom more than 200 and often as few as 50. The reason that there are so few worshipers is...

If you are in the historic district of Charleston, South Carolina, a little after seven o'clock in the morning you will see a 75-year-old man with a plastic grocery bag. If you follow him for his two-mile walk you will see him picking up the trash the people have littered the streets with the night before. You will find it hard to believe that...

In the choir stalls of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna you can see carved the letters A E I O U. Indeed you can see them in many places in the Austrian Capital. They stand for a Latin phrase which means "Austria Is Destined To Rule the World." Today Austria is a pleasant little country, beautiful and prosperous, but not a power...

After the Civil War, much of the South lay in ruins. People who owned mansions in once proud cities found themselves unable to bear the cost of restoring their homes. They said they were too poor to paint and too proud to whitewash. Pride does often get in the way of what needs to be done. Sometimes, it even gets in...

Who would believe that a butterfly can fly for 2,000 miles to escape the winter? If it had not been documented that the Monarch butterfly does indeed do that people would have said that the very idea was ridiculous. But it has been documented and it is true. If you told someone that a little caterpillar would become a lovely...

At the intersection of Meeting Street and Broad Street in Charleston, South Carolina, is the famous four corners of Law. On one corner is the City Hall, representing City laws. On the next corner is the County Courthouse, representing State laws. On the third corner is the Federal Building, representing Federal laws. On the...

When our Lord said that even the hairs of your head were numbered, He probably did not mean to be taken literally. The number of hairs varies from person to person. A dark haired person has about 100,000 hairs. Some people have none. And such trivial matters are of little concern to God. Surely Jesus was saying that...

When Ivo Andric was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1961, the committee cited his epic novel The Bridge on the Drina as reason enough for the award. The Bridge on the Drina is historical fiction. It traces the history of what we once knew as Yugoslavia and the various civilizations that have risen and fallen there. The ...

When Connie Mack organized the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team in 1901, people made fun of them. John McGraw, who managed the New York Giants, called them "The White Elephants." Mack knew how to respond. He made the white elephant the team logo. You will see it still today on the left sleeve of the uniform of...