The Signs of the Times newsletter is a collection of stories and quotes from past issues of Signs and These Times.
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An old man used to pray this prayer daily: “O Lord, help me to remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that You and me together can’t handle.” His faith gave him a serenity which was the envy of all his contemporaries.
A father took his young son with him on a fishing trip. It was the boy’s first sea venture, and he became thoroughly frightened as the little boat headed out into the deep water. “Daddy,” he asked, “is this water over my head?”
“Yes, it is,” replied the father.
Now the boy became even more apprehensive, and he asked, “Daddy, is it over your head?”
“It is, son. This water is very deep,” the father replied.
Almost in tears, the lad looked over the side of the boat for several minutes. Then he asked his father, “Daddy, is it over God’s head?”
“Oh, no, my son,” replied the father comfortingly, “not over God’s head. No water is too deep for God!”—By G. M. Mathews, These Times, June 1961.

Quote: An eighty-year-old woman who lived alone, when asked why she was happy, answered with a smile, “I have so much to do. I take time to select just the right birthday or special occasion card for each person I know. I write letters of praise and thanksgiving to people who do things for the community that make life safer or more pleasant. I pray daily for ideas I can use to help others in whatever way is best for them. There are so many people I must get even with for the good they do for me.”—By Dorothy S. McLaren, These Times, August 1971.

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Don't miss the October 2008 issue of Signs of the Times: “Getting Kids to Eat Healthy Food,” “Tips to Improve Your Prayer Power,” “The Terrorist of Revelation,” and other important articles. To order Signs, call: 1-800-765-6955 or online at http://www.AdventistBookCenter.com
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Once upon a time a young man asked a wise man for the definition of love.
“My son,” questioned the wise man kindly, “what will you do with the definition?”
“Do?” answered the young man. “Why, I shall then understand love.”
The wise man shook his head in silence, then gazed into the young man’s eyes and spoke: “I cannot give you a definition. You must discover love for yourself. Watch for it in the eyes of a mother nursing her child. See it in the heart of a father searching for his lost son. You must find it as it is loved, and you must weave it into your own experience; for my son, only as you love and are loved can you begin to understand love.”—By Walter Raymond Beach, These Times, April 1964.

Quote: “Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.”—By Harry Emerson Fosdick, These Times, November 1980.

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The pastor dreamed that his church was a stagecoach at the foot of a hill up which, in the absence of horse power, it fell to his lot to drag it.
Some of his officers and members bade him be of good cheer, for they would all help. He should guide the tongue, some of them would turn the wheels, others push, and so, together, they would get it up the hill.
For a while the heavy coach moved slowly, but surely, up. After a time, however, its weight seemed to increase, till the pastor, bringing the vehicle to a stand on the first ridge, and turning the tongue to prevent its slipping down, ran to see what was the matter. All the helpers, tired of turning wheels and pushing, had jumped into the coach and were sitting inside.
The pastor cannot drag the coach up alone. If all will take hold, the heaviest coach will move up the longest hill.
Pastors have been encouraged to attempt great things, and have then been forsaken when half way up the hill.—From Episcopal Recorder, Signs of the Times, June, 5, 1893.

Quote: “We are washed in the blood of Christ only when we believe that every drop of it was shed for us.”—Unknown, Signs of the Times, February 27, 1893.

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It is said that the gospel of divine love which Moody preached so effectively to upward of fifty million people was passed on to him by one Henry Moorhouse who, before his conversion, was the associate of cardsharpers, drinkers, and gamblers. In a Manchester (England) back street mission meeting, Moorhouse entered into a new life and threw himself into it with such complete surrender that few men knew the Bible better than he. He followed Moody from England to Chicago. Already he had asked Moody to let him preach for him at Chicago, but the evangelist put him off as being unsuitable for the task.
Moorhouse, however, was greatly persistent, so at last, although with definite misgivings, Moody gave way. It was arranged that, as Moody was to be from home a couple of days, Moorhouse would be asked to conduct the Thursday night meeting and, if he pleased, Friday night also, with discretion to the deacons to put him in the pulpit on Sunday if they deemed wise.
So the frail young man, who looked seventeen, but was actually twenty-eight, had his chance. Returning on Saturday, Moody inquired of his wife how Moorhouse had got on.
“Very well, indeed!” said Mrs. Moody. “The people like him; he has preached twice on the same text, John 3:16. I think you will like him also, though he preaches differently from you. He tells the worst sinner that God loves him!”
“Well, he’s wrong,” said Moody.
“I think you will agree with him when you hear him,” answered Mrs. Moody, “for he proves everything he says from the Bible.”
Sunday morning came, and Moody noticed that everyone brought his or her Bible. Moorhouse gave chapter and verse for everything he said, and he preached again on John 3:16.
At night the church was packed. The sermon was from the same text once more—“God so loved the world”—from which he preached another extraordinary sermon, proving from Genesis to Revelation that God loved the world. Up to that time, Moody never knew that God loved so much. His heart began to thaw, and he could not keep back the tears from his eyes. The result was that Moody, who hitherto had represented, or misrepresented, God as behind the sinner with a two-edged sword, became the evangelist who was aflame with the love of God and whose message eventually kindled a great revival of practical religion.—By Herman F. De’Ath, Signs of the Times, April 5, 1949.

Quote: “A cheery face preaches a sermon seven days long, and no one tires of it.”—By Charles G. Bellah, Signs of the Times, October 29, 1929.

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I walked with my friend, a Quaker, to the news stand the other night, and he bought a paper, thanking the newsie politely. The newsie didn’t even acknowledge it.
“A sullen fellow, isn’t he?” I commented.
“Oh, he’s that way every night,” shrugged my friend.
“Then why do you continue to be so polite to him?” I asked.
“Why not?” inquired my friend. “Why should I let him decide how I’m going to act?”
As I thought about this incident later, it occurred to me that the important word was “act.” My friend acts toward people; most of us react toward them.
A serenity of spirit cannot be achieved until we become the masters of our own actions and attitudes. To let another determine whether we shall be rude or gracious, elated or depressed, is to relinquish control over our own personalities, which is ultimately all we possess. The only true possession is self-possession.—By Sydney J. Harris, These Times, July 1965.

Quote:

IF:
If you want to be distressed—Look within.
If you want to be defeated—Look back.
If you want to be distracted—Look around.
If you want to be dismayed—Look before.
If you want to be delivered—Look to Christ.
If you want to be delighted—Look up.—From F. E. Thumwood, These Times, June 1965.

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Compiled by Dale Galusha. Please pass this newsletter on to others. If this FREE newsletter was forwarded to you by a friend, and you would like to receive it directly on a monthly basis, email: join-signsnews@lyra.pacificpress.com