Standard Of Comparison

Years ago in Manchester England there lived a factory worker who had a very responsible job. The whistle that marked the beginning and end of the work day was operated by a clock and it was his job to be sure the clock was accurate. So every day on his way to work he stopped by the window of a clock shop. In the window...

Rules

It is well known that the German people have always been a highly regimented culture. The idea of Ordnung, a sense of order, permeates German society. And that is a worthy trait. It may, however, have now run amok. Recently the newspaper Bild Zeitung reported that in Germany today there are 4,874 laws, 84,900 regulations...

Redeemed

Recently Kentucky Ancestors carried a remarkable story written by Edwin Burrows Smith. It concerns a man and wife who, in the first half of the 19th century, bought the freedom of 107 slaves! Paul and Susannah Mitchem were not wealthy, but they did own 450 acres in Virginia. They had lived there for fifty years. They were...

Messiah

In the village of Blockley in Gloucestershire, England there lived Joanna Southcott, who won national attention there due to her belief that she would bear the second Messiah, to be named Shiloh. Through the centuries many have harbored such delusions. The Shakers believed that as God came once in the male, Jesus, he later...

King

There is one place where the Queen (or King) of England cannot go. She is not permitted to go there. It is the House of Commons. Because of an event long ago, the ruling monarch is forbidden to enter the House of Commons. She may go anywhere she chooses in the 53 nations that make up the British Commonwealth of...

Humility

We are learning a lot about ocean currents and the winds because of ducks -- and they aren't even real ducks. A cargo vessel in the Pacific Ocean lost some containers during a storm. One contained 29,000 plastic ducks for children's bathtubs. The ducks stayed afloat. Three years later they are still turning up in...

Heaven

Many Florida road maps show the location of the ruins of Sam Jones Old Town in the Everglades. People often go to the place looking for ruins, but there are no ruins there. The reason is that such a town never existed. Sam Jones was a Miccosukee Indian Chief. He fought against Zachary Taylor in 1837. Sam Jones lived to be...

Guilt

In an isolated corner of Ghana in Africa they have a strange idea of guilt and atonement. They believe that guilt involves the whole community. If there is no atonement by someone, the whole community will suffer from the vengeance of the gods. So often innocent people suffer as atonement for someone else's sins...

Extravagance

Early this year the Asheville, North Carolina Times carried the remarkable story of couple who fly all over the country putting on special events for dogs. They do dog weddings. They do dog bar mitzvahs. They do dog birthday parties. They got started in this strange business by baking all natural dog biscuits. That led to doggie...

Death

In "The Last Leaf," O. Henry told a story of a woman in a New York city apartment who has pneumonia. She is convinced that she will die. From her window she can see a vine of ivy and she says that when the last leaf falls from the ivy she will die. But the leaf does not fall off -- and she lives. After her recovery she learns that...