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Now there stood by that dreadful cross
The mother of the Lord,
Whose soul with sharpest agony
Was pierced, as with a sword.
* * *
When Jesus therefore saw her near,
And His disciple, John,
The man whom He loved best, He said:
“Woman, behold thy son.”
* * *
Then said to the disciple:
“Thy mother here behold!”
And John thence forth his loving care
Around her did enfold.
American King James Version
“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the middle of them.” (Matthew 18:20)
“Pray To The Lord,” Graphics are by Kathy Grimm. Included on this page are the three colored versions.These graphics come in combinations of navy, lime green, and a pale blue.
pink, moss green and coral
grey, yellow, and pale pea green
mulberry, lavender, and peach
green, purple, and pale green
red, ivory, and white
brown, cornflower blue and ivory
Both black/white and greyscale of this image are also available!
There is an old Dutch picture of a little child who is dropping from his hands a beautiful toy. Looking at the painting, one is suprized to see the plaything so carelessly abandoned; until, following the child’s eye to the corner of the picture, one sees a lovely white dove flying down into the child’s outstretched hands.
That is the way it will be with all of us as soon as we actually begin to see the pure beauties and joys of the higher life. All our silly playthings will be allowed to fall out of our hands. We shall let go of fashion and luxury, and idle dissipation, and proud ambition, and greed for gain, and desire for men’s applause and for advancement in the world, and we shall stretch out our hands for the things that are best worth having. Those are the things which will stay with us. They will give something of their nature to our lives, and will ennoble everything they touch.
A lady physician in one of the mission fields restored to health a beloved child of a native. In gratitude the parents knelt at her feet and not only thanked but worshiped her as a god. She remonstrated, saying that she was a mortal like themselves and worship belonged only to God. They replied that no one but a god could have saved their loved one from death. “Whom would you thank and praise,” the missionary replied, “for a princely gift sent by the hand of a coolie–the servant or his generous master, the giver?” I am but God’s coolie by whose hand He has been pleased to send you this great gift of healing.” (Text)
-in 1910, United States-
If all the world did not trust all the world, we could not do business for a single day. The amount of coin and bank-notes in circulation is ridiculously inadequate to the needs of business. By far the larger part of every day’s transactions of every kind is conducted by means of promises to pay.
The National Monetary Commission has just reported an investigation of this matter. About seventy per cent of the daily bank deposits consists of checks, and even more than half of the retail business is conducted in the same way, while the banks report weekly pay-rolls aggregating $134,800,000, seventy per cent of which is settled by checks.
This is a gigantic illustration of the principle of faith. We have faith in the integrity of the average man. We have faith in the business institutions of the country. We have faith that the future will be as good as the past. And in this faith we continue to accept bits of paper in return for most of our labor and the goods we sell.
In exalting the principle of faith in our relations toward God and the concerns of the next world, religion is merely applying to the Owner of all things the same rules that we apply without question to the petty properties of earth. –Christian Endeavor World.
This shell is a pattern for a baptism banner by Kathy Grimm
Peace Through Jesus, graphic version by Kathy Grimm
Divine Peace Dove by Kathy Grimm
Dove
The dove as a Christian symbol is of very frequent occurrence in ancient ecclesiastical art. According to Matthew 3:16, during the Baptism of Jesus the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and came to rest on Jesus. For this reason the dove became a symbol of the Holy Spirit and in general it occurs frequently in connection with early representations of baptism. It signifies also the Christian soul, not the human soul as such, but as indwelt by the Holy Spirit; especially, therefore, as freed from the toils of the flesh and entered into rest and glory. The Peristerium or Eucharistic dove was often used in the past, and sometime still used in Eastern Christianity, as Church tabernacle.
However the more ancient explanation of the dove as a Christian symbol refers to it as a symbol of Christ: Ireneaus in the 2nd-century explains that the number 801 is both the sum of the numeric values of the letters of the word “dove” (in Greek: Ρεριστερα) and the sum of the numeric values of the letters Alpha and Omega, which refers to Christ. In the Bible story of Noah and the Flood, after the food a dove returns to Noah bringing an olive branch, and this scene recalled to the Church Fathers Christ who brings salvation through the cross. This biblical scene led to interpreter the dove also as a symbol of peace.
The Divine Peace Dove also comes in color versions.
