Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the
child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a
carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant
preacher.
He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He
never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big
city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never
did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials
but Himself..
.
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His
friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He
went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two
thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of
property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed
grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of
the human race and leader of the column of progress.
I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched,
all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all
the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man
upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.
Lest we forget what this is all about.
(From a sermon by Dr James Allan Francis, 1926)
Merry Christmas
and a
Happy New Year
to all of our family and friends
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