Dear Friend,

Johann Sebastian Bach was born into the musical family of Bachs in 1685. By the age of ten, both of his parents were dead. Early in his friction-filled life, young Johann determined he would write music … music for the glory of God … and this he did.

Dear Friend,

Two hundred years ago, in the early 19th Century, as astonishing as it may seem, Christmas in Great Britain had become almost extinct.

The Times newspaper did not mention Christmas once between 1790 and 1835. Not once!

Dear Friend,

A pastor friend wrote to me about an article in a campus publication where a young nurse writes of her pilgrimage of learning to see in a patient the image of God beneath a very “distressing disguise.”

Eileen was one of her first patients, a person who was totally helpless.

Dear Friend,

What does hope in God do for humanity?

Hope shines brightest when the hour is darkest.

Hope motivates when discouragement comes.

Hope energizes when the body is tired.

Hope sweetens while bitterness bites.

Dear Friend,

During World War I, a British commander was preparing to lead his soldiers back to battle.

They’d been on furlough, and it was a cold, rainy, muddy day.

Their shoulders sagged because they knew what lay ahead of them: mud, blood, possible death. Nobody talked, nobody sang.

Dear Friend,

A college ethics teacher gave the following situation to a class of students.

How would you advise a mother who was pregnant with her fifth child based on the following facts.

Her husband had syphilis.