"Historians record the past, but poets vitalize it. Great deeds of men and nations are chronicled in official state papers, but they live in song and story. Enshrine history in literature, and you give it both currency and permanency, for literature not only recalls the past, but makes of it an ever-living present.

"In great books great men talk to us and pour their souls into ours...We never get broad culture from a narrow circle."

--John Snider

Art credit: John Alden's Letter by C.Y. Turner

"You cannot do all the good the world needs, but the world needs all the good you can do."

Art credit: The Thorn by James Clarke Hook

"Wash the plate not because it is dirty, nor because you are told to wash it, but because you love the person who will use it next."

--Mother Teresa

Art Credit: A Young Woman Washing Dishes by Camille Pissarro

I wish I could remember where I pulled this 'Afterword' from...But what a perfect reason for reading the Bible, one of our Month 6 topics:

"Dear child:

"God's Book is a Book of Ages, a Book of Races, and a Book of Nations; but it is far more, it is a Book through which God Himself speaks to the soul of man. We begin to read it thinking that He is speaking to the mind; afterward, when our conscience wakes, we believe He speaks to the heart, but at last we find that He speaks to the inmost spirit--the immortal soul. Then all that had seemed to be history, poetry, biography, philosophy, begins to be to us the voice of God in the inmost of the soul, speaking of the life of the spirit.

"We find at last, too, that One has walked beside us all the way, teaching us by His Spirit as He taught the people on the hill-side, or by the lake-side in Galilee... That you, dear child, may find Him walking close beside your way, be in the habit of walking daily with Him in the paths of His Word, and He will reveal Himself to you there."

Art credit: Let the Children Come to Me by Gebhard Fugel

"Studying goes deeper than mere reading. There are surface nuggets to be gathered, but the best of the gold is underneath, and it takes time and labor to secure it."

--Moody

Art credit: Reading by Renoir

We are always looking for better ways to serve you... and we think we have some ideas you are going to be really excited about!

Stay tuned for an announcement in a couple of days!

Art credit: Christmas Eve by Carlton Alfred Smith

I've had several requests for the poem I shared in the podcast I posted yesterday. Here it is (by Henry H. Berry)

He Leadeth Me
In ‘green pastures’”? Not always; sometimes He
Who knowest best, in kindness leadeth me
In weary ways, where heavy shadows be;
Out of the sunshine into darkest night,
I oft would faint with sorrows and affright,
Only for this: I know He holds my hand;
So, whether led in green or desert land,
I trust, although I may not understand.
Beside “still waters”? No, not always so;
Oftimes the heavy tempests ‘round me blow,
And o’er my soul the waves and billows go.
But when the storms beat loudest, and I cry
Aloud for help, the Master standeth by,
And whispers to my soul, “Lo, it is I.”
Above the tempest wild I hear Him say:
“Beyond this darkness lies the perfect day;
In every path of thine I lead the way.”
So whether on the hill-tops high and fair
I dwell, or in the sunless valleys where
The shadows lie, what matter? He is there.
And more than this; where’er the pathway lead
He gives to me no helpless, broken reed,
But His own hand, sufficient for my need.

Art credit: Gathering Storm by Jozsef Molnar

"Books possess an essence of immortality. They are by far the most lasting products of human effort. Temples crumble into ruin, pictures and statues decay, but books survive. Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh today, as when they passed through their author's minds, ages ago."

--Samuel Smiles

Art credit: A Young Girl Reading by Jean Honore Fragonard

"No one has ever become poor by giving."

--Anne Frank

Art credit: Woman Pouring a Drink by Julien Dupre

"That we may learn that while 'it is the glory of God to conceal a thing,' He is not only willing we should search out these hidden wonders, but will himself be glad in our new-found delight in them."

--Julia Bullard

Art credit: Girls Picking Anemones and Primulus by Hans Brendekilde