COURAGE:
And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
—Luke 12:4
868 Bible Reader Unruffled By Bandit
Foster Walker accidentally strolled into the scene of a holdup at a store in Memphis, Tenn., and heard the gunman order him to surrender his money or “I’ll shoot you.”
“You just go ahead and shoot,” Walker said. “I just got through reading my Bible, and I’ve already said my prayers.”
The robber was dumbfounded and Walker, a man in his sixties, walked away.
—Gospel Herald
869 Hated But Happy Young Girl
Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake (Matt. 10:22). The Russian newspaper published by the Young Communist League once printed a letter from Nina K., a sixteen-year-old girl, quoting her as saying, “I am a young Communist League member. I am a normal girl, but at the same time I am unusual. I’m a Baptist! Frankly, I do not consider myself a member of the Young Communist League. I have Komsomol members pass me without greeting. Let them look on me with contempt. My brothers and sisters in God treat me very well. I believe them and I believe God.” The paper captioned the letter “The One Who Has Gone Astray.”
—Tom M. Olson
870 High Noon In Judge’s Courtroom
Prayer may have been banned in the nation’s public-school classrooms, thanks to professional atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, but not in the Detroit courtroom of county judge Frederick Byrd. He’s been holding noon Bible-study sessions in his courtroom for twenty years, and he says he won’t stop now, despite a written warning from Mrs. O’Hair. She told the judge his noonday practices were “wholly illegal and unconstitutional, being an unpermissible admixture of state and church.”
Mrs. O’Hair will have to sue, declares Byrd. “I’m calling her bluff. These services have been going on since long before I became a judge, and I see no reason to end them.”
—Christianity Today
871 Pastor Says: “Shoot Away”
During the pastorate of Henry Ward Beecher in Indianapolis he preached a series of sermons upon drunkenness and gambling, incidentally scoring the men of the community who profited by these sins. During the ensuing week he was accosted on the street by a would-be assailant, pistol in hand, who demanded a retraction of some utterance of the preceding Sunday.
“Take it back, right here!” he demanded with an oath, “or I will shoot you on the spot!”
“Shoot away!” was the preacher’s response as he walked calmly away, hurling over his shoulder this parting remark:
“I don’t believe you can hit the mark as well as I did!”
—Gospel Herald
872 To Quisling: “Take It Off”
When the Germans had taken Norway, Bishop Bergrav of the Lutheran Church was also taken prisoner. One day the puppet Quisling said to Bishop Bergrav: “I would like to take your head off!”
“Here I am,” replied Bergrav, “take it off!” But the traitor, Quisling, feared the people of Norway and refused to do it.
After the war, Norway with other nations, was also freed, and Quisling paid the penalty. It took courage for Bergrav to challenge the godless leaders in their reign of terror.
—Christian Victory
873 Only One Thing Pained Chrysostom
When the great Chrysostom was arrested by the Roman Emperor, the latter sought to make the Greek Christian recant, but without success. So the emperor discussed with his advisers what could be done to the prisoner. “Shall I put him in a dungeon?” the Emperor asked.
“No,” one of his counselors replied, “for he will be glad to go. He longs for the quietness wherein he can delight in the mercies of his God.”
“Then he shall be executed!” said the Emperor.
“No,” was the answer, “for he will also be glad to die. He declares that in the event of death he will be in the presence of his Lord.”
“What shall we do then?” the ruler asked.
“There is only one thing that will give Chrysostom pain,” the counselor said. “To cause Chrysostom to suffer, make him sin. He is afraid of nothing except sin.”
—Baptist Standard
874 The General Took His Stand
Frederick the Great was a scoffer, but his great general, Von Zealand, was a Christian. One day at a gathering, the king was making coarse jokes about Jesus Christ and the whole place was ringing with guffaws.
Von Zealand arose stiffly and said, “Sire, you know I have not feared death. I have fought and won 38 battles for you. I am an old man; I shall soon have to go into the presence of One Greater than thou, the mighty God who saved me from my sin, the Lord Jesus Christ whom you are blaspheming against. I salute thee, sire, as an old man, who loves his Savior, on the edge of eternity.”
With trembling voice, Frederick replied: “General Von Zealand. I beg your pardon. I beg your pardon! I beg your pardon !”
The company silently dispersed.
—Sunday
875 Wanted: Hundred Men
John Wesley said, “Give me a hundred men who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I will shake the world. I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; and such alone will overthrow the kingdom of Satan and build up the Kingdom of God on earth.”
—The Preacher’s Magazine
876 Not Fearing The World
One of the reformers being told, “All the world are against you,” replied, “Then I am against all the world.” The record on the tomb of John Knox is, “Here lies the man who never feared the face of clay.”
—Foster
877 Secret Of Fearlessness
Of the memorials in Westminster Abbey there is not one that gives a nobler thought than that inscribed on the monument to Lord Lawrence—simply his name, with the date of his death, and these words: “He feared man so little because he feared God so much.”
878 Stand With The Right
Never be afraid to stand with the minority which is right, for the minority which is right will one day be the majority; always be afraid to stand with the majority which is wrong, for the majority which is wrong will one day be the minority.
—William Jennings Bryan
879 A Prayer For The President
In 1953 a columnist of the Chicago News by the name of Harris, a man who acquired a large reader following by his frank and often caustic comments, wrote what he called A PRAYER FOR THE PRESIDENT:
“O Lord … give him the courage, not of his convictions, but of Your commandments.”
880 Epigram On Courage
• Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the mastery of it.
• Said William Penn: “Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.”
• Oh, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.
See also: Dedication ; Fear ; Matt. 10:28; Heb. 10:35.