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WITandWISDOM(tm) - March 11, 2002 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it. - Joseph Joubert (1754- 1824), French essayist and moralist Source: Bits & Pieces, October 10, 1996, Copyright (c) Economic Press, Inc., http://www.epinc.com Subjects: Debate, Examine ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: One day a minister received a request from a missionary society to preach a missionary sermon to be followed by a collection for a certain foreign field. The minister put his whole soul into the effort, encouraging the people to give cheerfully for the Lord's work. After the sermon the collection basket was passed as usual; but the minister watched the result with depressed feelings as only small amounts were dropped in. Evidently his words had not reached the hearts of his hearers. He noticed how those who were well able to give kept looking at the time, anxious to be out and about other things. On the last bench, in the meantime, a battle was waging in the heart of a poorly clad girl. Through an accident, Margaret had been crippled. She could not take a step without assistance. One day a kind lady procured a pair of crutches for her, and since then her life had been much happier. This Sunday she ventured for the first time to church. What a great blessing it was to be able to listen to the Gospel once more. As the usher came near with the basket, Margaret said to herself with a sad heart, "I have nothing to give - not a cent - and there in the foreign land the missionaries are expecting our gifts; they need so much to carry on their work. Oh, what can I do?" These thoughts went through her mind and made her shudder. "My new crutches could be sold for a sum of money, but I cannot spare them; I must have them; they are my very life." "Yes, your life", said a voice within; "but did not Christ give His life for you? If you give what is your life, some poor souls in Africa will hear that He is their Savior too. Oh, if you only would!" Finally a glow came over her face. She pressed, a kiss on the crutches and waited, her heart pounding. The collection basket came to where Margaret sat. The usher knew her well. He gave a friendly nod and was about to pass on. To his astonishment, she made an effort to lay the crutches on the basket. The man grasped the situation, took the crutches out of her hand, put them on the basket and carried them slowly through the aisle, laying them without a word on the altar. Everyone watched him in breathless suspense. They all knew the young girl, and many eyes filled with tears. The minister, deeply affected, laid his hand on the crutches and repeated solemnly the words of Jesus: "She hath done what she could." What a stir this incident made in the meeting! Suddenly the perspiration came on the banker's brow, and he wiped his face with his handkerchief as he pulled out his pocketbook. The rich lady fumbled about for her purse. The rich merchant whispered something in the ear of the usher, who passed the collection basket once more from bench to bench. This time money came like raindrops. Quietly and solemnly the people left the church. One lady stepped up to Margaret and gave back her new crutches. She had redeemed them for the benefit of the missionaries for the sum of one hundred dollars. The happy girl returned home, little realizing how much she had done that day for her Master. Author Unknown Source: Illustrations, http://www.cybersalt.org/illustrations/ Subjects: Offerings, Benevolence ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: I'm tired. For a couple of years I've been blaming it on iron-poor blood, lack of vitamins, dieting and a dozen other maladies. But now I found out the real reason: I'm tired because I'm overworked. The population of the USA is about 237 million. 104 million are retired. That leaves 133 million to do the work. There are 85 million in school, which leave 48 million to do the work. Of this there are 29 million employed by the federal government. This leaves 19 million to do the work. Four million are in the Armed Forces, which leaves 15 million to do the work. Take from the total the 14,800,000 people who work for State and City government and that leaves 200,000 to do the work. There are 188,000 in hospitals, so that leaves 12,000 to do the work. Now, there are 11,998 people in Prisons. That leaves just two people to do the work. You and me. And you're sitting there reading this. No wonder I'm tired; I'm the only one working. Submitted by Peter de Vries Subjects: Work, Tired ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: The city of Xinhua, China was recently selected to host the 2004 World Toilet Summit. It is part of a desire to upgrade the country's toilets which violate most of our five sense. The headline of the article said the city was "Flushed with Success." Imagine passing out name cards on that one... "Chairman of the World Toilet Summit"! Source: Monday Fodder mailto:dgauf aaa@iohk.com?subject=Subscribe_Monday_Fodder Subjects: Toilets, China ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: E-mail News Flash! Following are various services that offer news alerts by e- mail. CNN'S e-mail alerts ( http://CNN.com/email ) are the most popular, but they have a major flaw: The subject headings are blank, so each news flash is potentially cataclysmic until you open it CNN sends about five alerts a week, and your heart may skip a beat each time. Yahoo's breaking-news service ( http://alerts.yahoo.com ) e-mails you even more frequently than CNN. MSNBC ( http://msnbc.com/tools/newstools ), which alerts you somewhat less often, has some nifty customizable tools for true news hounds. One, "News Alert," is a tiny piece of software that flashes a button on your computer's task bar when news has broken. (It doesn't work on a Macintosh, sadly.) More recently, the site introduced "MSNBC Now," which lets you e-mail MSNBC whenever you crave news on a particular subject. The site instantly replies with links to relevant stories. It's a particularly good service for people who have BlackBerries and other e-mail pagers that may lack Web access. Those who don't want to be interrupted by frequent alerts may prefer The New York Times ( http://nytimes.com ; click on "Sign Up for Newsletters") or ABC News ( http://abcnews.com ; click on "News Alerts") By Ron Lieber Source: USA Weekend, January 11-13, 2002, http://usaweekend.com Subjects: News, E-mail |