#baker books

[wutbju]

So is this a Vespers program about the Bible or is it about Christian Nationalism?

I mean, quoting Daniel Webster and Woodrow Wilson?

By the way, Daniel Webster did not actually say the above.

First reported in the Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bible Society (1870), p. 27. This is actually a misquote combining phrases from different lines in an address delivered by Webster to the New York Historical Society on February 23, 1852.

[wutbju]

And the Cold War story continues. Note that it was "arranged for reading" by Joyce Parks.

"It is so valuable that a man was killed because of it; so valuable that you would never get your filthy hands upon it, were it not that I must have what you alone can give me." His greedy eyes and fingers raked the box as it slipped from my hands to the table. Then I looked at it, and sweat beaded my fore-head. There before us lay a battered book with the faint gold letters on the cover: "The Holy Bible." I was too tired to move, even to think; but what is physical weariness to one who might die in a few short hours. I could only curse that Book and the boy who had tricked me into thinking he had a possession of value. As I began to run, I heard the words the forger flung at me -"Go on, Conrad Kotl, run! But I promise you that within an hour you'll rot in prison. No man can make a fool of me —- offering me a Bible for a passport!" The newspaper told of all that followed…. I was the one they had been looking for, and there was the custody, the trial, and the sentence of death. I had not been long in prison when a package was delivered to me, and there with my name scrawled across the wrapping in ugly letters was that Book. I dropped it and kicked it across the tiny cell -- too furious to think; but that night I couldn't sleep. The memory of that young man haunted me — he had said, "My grandfather was killed because of it." He himself had died for it. It was more than curiosity that drove me to that Book, for even the noble plans of the Communist Party couldn't soothe the horror of death. What was death like? As much as I hated the Bible, I decided to read it the next day. I turned to the passages which one of the former owners had underscored heavily in red: "Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God and there is none else…. God sent not His Son into the World to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved…. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." I asked to see the chaplain the next day. "You asked to see me?" "Yes, I have been reading this Book and I want to understand the things I've been reading. It says that anybody who believes in Jesus Christ will be saved. What does it mean by that?" "Why, it means exactly what it says." "You don't understand. It says anybody 'whosoever' that would include me. The very night I was arrested I killed the man who owned this Bible. Do you mean that 'whosoever' would take me in?" "Yes, my son. 'The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.'" That was all he said to me, but I understood. I received Christ as my Saviour that hour. I cannot yet fathom it nor understand it completely, but I know I'm changed. The candle is almost gone, but it doesn't make any difference because dawn is nearly here. I have been allowed a few last hours to write this record, but how I wish it might be shouted from the housetops. Oh, the sound of footsteps! The guard is coming. This is all. "But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

[wutbju]

Bernard Palmer published a lot of stories for young people through Moody Press.

This one weighs heavily on me as I read it in March 2025 after Donald Trump has sold America's soul to Putin.

The Master Plan

By Bernard Palmer (and abridged by Rachel Bourne)

I paused at the intersection, looking over my shoulder with studied carelessness. Ahead of me an MP stood staring at me with amused superiority. I shoved past him, my eyes fastened deliberately on the battle-torn pavement. I wanted to run as fast as I could, but I forced myself to be calm and to appear like another destitute peasant. What I saw around me made me cringe - the rubble of war, gray-haired soldiers haunted by Russian winter, and the young over-confident American troops in the American sector of Berlin. I noticed that our young men, the Russians, though lean and gaunt, still fought the enemy with proud, angry defiance - afraid of neither God nor man. They were the future of Russia. "Our first enemy is the Church!" … this I had learned in my Russian schools. "No man can worship both God and the State. Our first task is to drive out God from the hearts of Russia." We had set to work, cautiously, cunningly, thoroughly. Sometimes the work was made easy for us by the portion of the clergy in Europe who already branded the Bible as a book of myths and fantasies. In a few short years we had thrown out the Bible from the lives of our people, and our land arose in obedience to the ideal - there is no God but the State. Now the Party had decided that this program must be spread throughout all Europe; and for this purpose I was making my way to Spain, where I, Conrad Ketl, could live in immunity and still help the Party erase these exaggerated religious legends from the minds of European youth. I was tired of living in filthy German dumps, avoiding the traps of stupid American intelligence agents. I carefully worked out my plans, and my passport was to be prepared by the cleverest forger in all Germany. But I could not trust him. I was nervous when I approached him in his little book shop, and he saw my fear. Would he turn me, Conrad Ketl, fanatic for the Kremlin, over to the American Occupation troops. I could not be sure. "You must want to leave badly, my friend." "Oh, a friend of mine gave me your name. He said you would provide me with a passport without questions." "Without questions? I never ask questions. I only think!" "What is the price for such a passport?" "The price for such a one as you is steep, quite steep." "Must it be money? Could it be something else -- jewels or watches?" "Bring what you have tonight." "But how will I know whether it is enough?" "My advice to you is to see that it is enough." I left his book shop, my eyes searching the streets for one who could supply the necessary payment, because I had no money. I was not interested in those carrying big parcels. Here and there on the road there were peasants lugging tattered sweaters and blankets. Then suddenly I saw a young, bedraggled German lad clutching something beneath his coat as though it were of great value - perhaps a diamond, or a watch, or a stack of bills. "Say, there, is that an heirloom you're carrying?" I asked as I fell in with him. "Oh, more than an heirloom. It cost my grandfather's life." That night I killed him in a long, dark alley. I hurried to the forger's basement shop with the price of freedom in my hand. I took out the small package that would buy my passport. "Is the passport ready?" "The passport is done. I trust this payment is valuable enough to satisfy the need."

[wutbju]

Charles Spurgeon liked that poem here attributed to Sir Walter Scott.

And remember Favorites #4!??

[wutbju]

To candid, reasonable men, I am not afraid to lay open what has been the inmost thoughts of my heart. I have thought, 1 am a creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God and returning to God, just hovering over the great gulf till, a few minutes hence, I am no more seen; I drop into a great gulf; I drop into an unchangeable eternity. I want to know one thing - the way to Heaven, how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way; for this very end He came from Heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book. At any price, give me the book of God. I have it; here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be a man of one book. Here, then I am far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone; only God is here. In His presence I open, I read His book; for this end, to find the way to Heaven.

You can read John Wesley's whole sermon here.

[wutbju]

Have wizards of science like Kelvin, Lodge, and Tesla been deceived? Have giants of statesmanship like Webster, Gladstone, and Wilson; master poets like Tennyson, Milton, and Scott; mighty philosophers like Bacon and Newton; world-renowned artists like Michelangelo, Murillo and Rubens; world historians like Macauley and Bancroft; mighty men of God like Wesley, Luther, Calvin and Spurgeon, as well as countless millions of humble-minded folk of

That is one weird paragraph.

[wutbju]

And then they include John Greenleaf Whittier's poem, "The Vaudois Teacher."

You can read it here.

[wutbju]

Remember having to practice to speak something like this in chorus?

The Bible as a book stands alone. There never was, nor ever will be, another like it. As there is but one sun to enlighten the world naturally, so there is but one son to enlighten the world spiritually. May that Book become to each of us the man of counsel, the guide of our journey, the inspiration of our thought, and our support and comfort in life and in death.