Corpus Hypercubus by Dali.

Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) was painted in 1954 by Salvador Dalí, and depicts the crucified Jesus upon the net of a hypercube. Gala (Dalí's wife), is the figure in the bottom left, who stands looking up to the crucified Jesus. The scene is depicted in front of the bay of Port Lligat.

(The painting is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA.)

   Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Púbol (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989), was a Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres.
   Dalí was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in 1931. Salvador Dalí's artistic repertoire also included film, sculpture, and photography. He collaborated with Walt Disney on the unfinished Academy Award-nominated short cartoon Destino, which was completed and released posthumously in 2003. He also collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on the dream sequence from his 1945 film Spellbound.
   Dalí attributed his "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes" to a self-styled "Arab lineage," claiming that his ancestors were descended from the Moors.
   Widely considered to be greatly imaginative, Dalí had an affinity for doing unusual things in order to draw attention to himself. This sometimes irked those who loved his art as much as it annoyed his critics, since his eccentric manner sometimes drew more public attention than his artwork. The purposefully sought notoriety led to broad public recognition and many purchases of his works by people from all walks of life.

Read more about Salvador Dali.

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The American Red Cross.



The American Red Cross (also known as the American National Red Cross) is a humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States, and is the designated U.S. affiliate of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Today, in addition to domestic disaster relief, the American Red Cross offers services in five other areas: community services that help the needy; communications services and comfort for military members and their family members; the collection, processing and distribution of blood and blood products; educational programs on health and safety; and international relief and development programs.

Issued a corporate charter by the United States Congress under Title 36 of the United States Code, Section 3001, the American National Red Cross is governed by volunteers and supported by community donations and income from blood products. The American Red Cross is a nationwide network of more than 700 chapters and 900 Blood Services regions, in 9 divisions, dedicated to saving lives and helping people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. More than a million Red Cross volunteers and 30,000 employees annually mobilize relief to people affected by more than 67,000 disasters, train almost 12 million people in necessary medical skills and exchange more than a million emergency messages for U.S. military service personnel and their family members. The Red Cross is the largest supplier of blood and blood products to more than 3,000 hospitals nationally and also assists victims of international disasters and conflicts at locations worldwide. In 2006 the organization had over $6 billion in total revenues; revenue from blood and blood products were over $2 billion.

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Cross of St. Peter.

The Cross of St. Peter (officially known as the Petrine Cross or colloquially Peter's Cross) is an inverted Latin cross. The origin of this symbol comes from the Catholic tradition that St. Peter was crucified upside down, as he felt he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner that Christ died (upright). It is often used with two keys, symbolizing the keys of heaven.
The Alexandrian scholar Origen is the first to report that St. Peter was crucified head downward, for he had asked that he might suffer in this way. Some Catholics use this cross as a symbol of humility and unworthiness in comparison to Christ.

Read much more about the apostle Peter.

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St. Andrew's Cross.

St. Andrew's Cross. Andrew (Greek: 'Ανδρέας, Andreas), called in the Orthodox tradition Protocletos, or the First-called, is a Christian Apostle and the younger brother of Saint Peter. The name "Andrew" (from Greek : "ανδρεία", Andreia, manhood, or valour), like other Greek names, appears to have been common among the Jews from the second or third century BC. No Hebrew or Aramaic name is recorded for him.
      The New Testament records that St Andrew was a son of Jonah, or John, (Matthew 16:17; John 1:42). He was born in Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee (John 1:44). Both he and his brother Peter were fishermen by trade, hence the tradition that Jesus called them to be his disciples by saying that He will make them "fishers of men" (Greek: ἁλιείς ἀνθρώπων, halieis anthropon). At the beginning of Jesus' public life they occupied the same house at Capernaum (Mark 1:21-29).
      The Gospel of John teaches that Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist, whose testimony first led him and John the Evangelist to follow Jesus (John 1:35-40). Andrew at once recognized Jesus as the Messiah, and hastened to introduce him to his brother (John 1:41). Thenceforth the two brothers were disciples of Christ. On a subsequent occasion, prior to the final call to the apostolate, they were called to a closer companionship, and then they left all things to follow Jesus (Luke 5:11; Matthew 4:19-20; Mark 1:17-18).
      In the gospel Andrew is referred to as being present on some important occasions as one of the disciples more closely attached to Jesus (Mark 13:3; John 6:8, 12:22), but in Acts there is only a bare mention of him (1:13).
      Eusebius quotes Origen as saying Andrew preached in Asia Minor and in Scythia, along the Black Sea as far as the Volga and Kiev. Hence he became a patron saint of Romania and Russia. According to tradition, he founded the See of Byzantium (Constantinople) in AD 38, installing Stachys as bishop. This diocese would later develop into the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Andrew is recognized as its patron saint.
      Andrew is said to have been martyred by crucifixion at Patras (Patrae) in Achaea. Though early texts, such as the Acts of Andrew known to Gregory of Tours, describe Andrew bound, not nailed, to a Latin cross of the kind on which Christ was crucified, a tradition grew up that Andrew had been crucified on a cross of the form called Crux decussata (X-shaped cross) and commonly known as "Saint Andrew's Cross"; this was performed at his own request, as he deemed himself unworthy to be crucified on the same type of cross on which Christ was crucified. "The familiar iconography of his martyrdom, showing the apostle bound to an X-shaped cross, does not seem to have been standardized before the later Middle Ages," Judith Calvert concluded after re-examining the materials studied by Louis Réau.

More about St. Andrew

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Maltese Cross.

The Maltese cross or Amalfi cross is identified as the symbol of an order of Christian warriors known as the Knights Hospitaller or Knights of Malta. It was originally the symbol of Amalfi, a small Italian republic of the 11th century. The cross is eight-pointed and has the form of four "V"-shaped arms joined together at their tips, so that each arm has two points. Its design is based on crosses used since the First Crusade. The eight points are said to symbolize the eight points of courage.

▪ Loyalty
▪ Piety
▪ Frankness
▪ Bravery
▪ Glory and honour
▪ Contempt of death
▪ Helpfulness towards the poor and the sick
▪ Respect for the church

      The Maltese cross remains the symbol of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and other Orders of St John, and St. John Ambulance. In recent centuries it has come to be adopted as the insignia of numerous orders of chivalry, and appears on the coat-of-arms of the Mecklenburg-Strelitz district. In Australia the Maltese Cross is part of the state emblem of Queensland.
      In the United Kingdom, the Maltese Cross is the symbol used by Rifle Regiments, and has been incorporated into the badges of virtually all rifle units, including the amalgam, The Royal Green Jackets. The first postmark employed for the cancellation of the then new postage stamps in the 1840s was the shape of a Maltese cross and named accordingly. The Maltese cross also forms the basis for the design of the Order of the Bath. The Maltese cross is also the symbol of Neath Rugby Football Club in Neath, Wales.
      In Sweden a Maltese Cross forms the basic form for all Royal Orders, such as Order of Seraphim and the Order of the Sword.
      In Australia the Maltese Cross forms the logo for South Australian Ambulance Service logos.
The Maltese cross flower (Lychnis chalcedonica) is so named because its petals are similarly shaped, though its points are more rounded into "heart"-like shapes. The Geneva drive, a device that translates a continuous rotation into an intermittent rotary motion, is also sometimes called a "Maltese cross mechanism" after the shape of its main gear.
      It is considered one of the National symbols of Malta and used to be depicted on the two mils coin of the island prior to the removal of that denomination from circulation. It is now shown on the back of the one and two Euro coins which Malta introduced in January 2008.

More about the Maltese Cross

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Celtic Cross.


(above image is freeware, not in the public domain, by Cari Buziak)

A Celtic Cross is a symbol that combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection. The symbol is associated with Celtic Christianity, although it has older, pre-Christian origins. Such crosses form a major part of Celtic art.

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Sign of The Cross.

The Christian sign of the cross was originally made with the right hand thumb and across the forehead only. The custom is attested to as early as the second century.
      Vestiges of this practice remain: some Christians sign a cross on their forehead to hear the Gospels during Mass; foreheads are marked with an ash cross on Ash Wednesday; holy oil (called chrism) is applied on the forehead for the sacrament of Confirmation. Around year 200 in Carthage (modern Tunisia, Africa), Tertullian says: "We Christians wear out our foreheads with the sign of the cross". It is thought that by the end of the second century Christians signed the cross on their forehead before taking any risk, such as embarking on a journey.
      By the fourth century, the sign of the cross involved other parts of the body beyond the forehead. By the sixth century, these variations of smaller signs across the body became the one larger sign used now.

Read more about the sign of The Cross.

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The Methodist Cross.

Methodist Cross. The United Methodist Church is the largest Methodist denomination, and the second largest Protestant denomination, in the United States. Like all mainline denominations, it has evangelical elements. In the United States, it ranks as the largest mainline church, second largest Protestant church (after the Southern Baptist Convention), and third largest Christian Church overall. In as of 2007 worldwide membership was about 12 million members: 8.0 million in the United States, 3.5 million in Africa, Asia and Europe. It is a member church of World Council of Churches, World Methodist Council, and other religious associations. It remains the only Christian denomination or body to have congregations in every county or parish in the United States.
      The United Methodist Church traces its main root to the Methodist Movement of John Wesley in England in the 1700s. The first official organization in the United States occurred in Baltimore in 1784 with the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church at the Christmas Conference, with Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke as the leaders.

Links to Methodists

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The American Air Force Cross.

The Air Force Cross is the second highest military decoration that can be awarded to a member of the United States Air Force. The Air Force Cross is the Air Force decoration equivalent to the Distinguished Service Cross (Army) and the Navy Cross (Navy and Marine Corps).
The Air Force Cross is awarded for extraordinary heroism not justifying the award of the Medal of Honor. It may be awarded to any person who, while serving in any capacity with the U.S Air Force, distinguishes him or herself by extraordinary heroism involving one of the following actions:

▪ In action against an enemy of the United States
▪ While engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force
▪ While serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party

Originally entitled the "Distinguished Service Cross (Air Force)", the Air Force Cross was first proposed in 1947 after the creation of the United States Air Force as a separate armed service. In July 1960, the name of the decoration was officially changed to the Air Force Cross. The first award of the Air Force Cross was the posthumously made to Major Rudolph Anderson for extraordinary heroism during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Additional awards of the Air Force Cross are annotated by oak leaf clusters, and the reverse of every Air Force Cross is engraved with the recipient's name.

More links about the Air Force Cross, it's recipients, and the official U. S. Air Force site.

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A Currier & Ives Cross.

       Currier and Ives was an American printmaking firm headed by Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888) and James Merritt Ives (1824–1895) and based in New York City.
      Currier worked as a printmaker first in the firm of Stodart & Currier, and then later as "N. Currier" (1835–1856). Newspapers lacked photographs; but the public was interested in some source of pictures of recent news stories. In 1835, Currier produced the print "Ruins of the Planter's Hotel, New Orleans, which fell at two O’clock on the Morning of the 15th of May 1835, burying 50 persons, 40 of whom Escaped with their Lives", which was moderately successful.
      In 1840, he produced "Awful Conflagration of the Steam Boat LEXINGTON In Long Island Sound on Monday Eveg, Jany 13th, 1840, by which melancholy occurrence over 100 PERSONS PERISHED", which was very successful. Currier soon had a weekly insert in the New York Sun.
      In 1852, Currier hired his famous counterpart, James Ives, to be his accountant. Ives showed his value by modernizing the company's bookkeeping, reorganizing inventory and streamlining the print process. Currier quickly made Ives a full partner forming the famous firm, Currier & Ives.
      Currier and Ives described itself as "Publishers of Cheap and Popular Pictures". Their pictures were indeed hugely popular; in 1835–1907, Currier and Ives produced more than a million prints by hand-colored lithography. A staff of artists produced the lithographs. The colors were applied by an assembly line, typically German immigrant girls, each of whom added a single color to the print.
The prints depicted a variety of images of American life, including winter scenes; horse-racing images; portraits of people; and pictures of ships, sporting events, and ferocious battles of the American Civil War.
      Currier died in 1888. Ives remained active in the firm until his death, in 1895. Because of improvements in offset printing and photoengraving, the public demand for lithographs gradually diminished. Currier and Ives closed in 1907.
      Today, original Currier and Ives prints are much sought by collectors, and modern reproductions of them are popular decorations. Especially popular are the winter scenes, which are commonly used on American Christmas cards.

Read more about Currier & Ives

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St. Brigid's Cross.

St. Brigid and her cross are linked together by the story that she wove this form of cross at the death bed of either her father or a pagan lord, who upon hearing what the cross meant, asked to be baptized. One version goes as follows:
      A pagan chieftain from the neighbourhood of Kildare was dying. Christians in his household sent for Brigid to talk to him about Christ. When she arrived, the chieftain was raving. As it was impossible to instruct this delirious man, hopes for his conversion seemed doubtful. Brigid sat down at his bedside and began consoling him. As was customary, the dirt floor was strewn with rushes both for warmth and cleanliness. Brigid stooped down and started to weave them into a cross, fastening the points together. The sick man asked what she was doing. She began to explain the cross, and as she talked, his delirium quieted and he questioned her with growing interest. Through her weaving, he converted and was baptized at the point of death. Since then, the cross of rushes has been venerated in Ireland.
      Brigid's cross, Brighid's cross, or Brigit's cross, or (in the Irish language) Cros Bríde, Crosóg Bríde or Bogha Bríde, though not recorded before the seventeenth century, is an Irish symbol that possibly derives from the pagan sunwheel. It is usually made from rushes or, less often, straw. It contains a woven square in the centre and four radials tied at the ends.

More links about St. Brigid

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Souter's Red Cross.

Souter's Red Cross. David Henry Souter (1862 – 1935) was an Australian artist and journalist. He was the son of an engineer, was born at Aberdeen, Scotland, on 30 March 1862. He studied art at the local branch of the South Kensington school, contributed to a local journal, Bon Accord, and went to Natal in 1881, where he engaged in journalism.
      Souter married Jessie Swanson and, together, they moved in 1886 to Melbourne, Australia, then settled in 1887 in Sydney. In Sydney, Souter obtained a position with John Sands and Company, where he worked as an illustrator for some time before moving to William Brooks & Co. Ltd. Souter contributed cartoons to The Tribune, and in 1888 founded the "Brush Club" of which he became president. In 1892 he began contributing drawings to The Bulletin, and for a period of 35 years had at least one drawing in every issue. There are various stories about the cat which so frequently appeared in his drawings, one being that it was evolved from a blot that fell on a drawing at the last moment, and another that it first appeared to fill in a blank space. When the Society of Artists was established at Sydney in 1895 Souter was elected to the council, and from 1901 to 1902 was its president. He was art editor of Art and Architecture from 1904 to 1911, and for many years was associated with William Brooks and Company and illustrated many of the school books issued by them. In his later years he was on the editorial staff of Country Life. He died suddenly at Sydney on 22 September 1935. He married Janet, daughter of David Swanson, who died in 1932, and was survived by two sons and three daughters.
      Souter was a stocky, kindly, humorous, friendly, courageous man, who wrote short stories, verse, light articles and plays, with a capable and ready pen. His separate publications were "The Grey Kimono: the Libretto of an Operetta", published in 1902, and "Bush Babs: with Pictures, rhymes for children", with his own illustrations, which appeared in 1933. He did a fair amount of painting in water-colour, 10 examples were shown at the exhibition of the Society of Artists, held at Melbourne in 1907; but his reputation rests on his black and white work which considering the mass of it was very even in quality. A scrap-book containing a collection of his earlier work from the Bulletin is at the public library, Melbourne. A collection of his War Cartoons, reprinted from the Stock and Station Journal, was published at Sydney in 1915. He also illustrated volumes written by Ethel Turner and other Australian authors.

Links to the Australian Red Cross in memory of David Souter.


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Death of a Child.

by Charles Wesley
Wherefore should I make my moan,
Now the darling child is dead?
He to rest is early gone,
He to paradise is fled!
I shall go to him, but he
Never shall return to me
God forbids his longer stay,
God recalls the precious loan!
He hath taken him away,
From my bosom to his own.
Surely what he wills is best;
Happy in his will I rest.
Faith cries out, "It is the Lord!
Let him do what seems him good,
Be thy holy name adored,
Take the gift a while bestowed;
Take the child no longer mine;
Thine he is, for ever thine!"


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The Angel of Grief.

by J. G. Wittier
With silence only as their benediction,
God's angels come,
Where in the shadow of a great affliction,
The soul sits dumb.
Yet would we say, what every heart approveth, 
Our Father's will,
Calling to him the dear ones whom he loveth,
Is mercy still.
Not upon us or ours the solemn angel
Hath evil wrought;
The funeral anthem is a glad evangel,
The good die not!
God calls our loved ones, but we lose not wholly 
What he has given;
They live on earth in thought and deed as truly
As in his heaven.


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The Dying Mother.

by Robert Pollok
I do remember, and will ne'er forget
The dying eye! That eye alone was bright,
And brighter grew as nearer death approached:
As I have seen the gentle little flower
Look fairest in the silver beam which fell
Reflected from the thunder-cloud, that soon
Came down, and o'er the desert scattered far
And wide its loveliness. She made a sign
To bring her babe- 'twas brought, and by her placed:
She looked upon its face, that neither smiled
Nor wept, nor knew who gazed upon't; and laid
Her hand upon its little breast, and sought
For it with look that seemed to penetrate
The heavens, unutterable blessings, such
As God to saying parents only granted
For infants left behind them in the world.
"God, keep my child!" we heard her say, and heard
No more. The Angel of the Covenant
Was come, and faithful to His promise, stood
Prepared to walk with her through death's dark vale.
And now her eyes grew bright, and brighter still,
Too bright for our to look upon, suffused
With many tears, and closed without a cloud.
They set, as sets the morning star, which goes
Not down behind the darkened west, nor hides
Obscured among the tempests of the sky,
But melts away into the light of heaven.


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Asleep In Jesus.

The following article is by Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D. 

   Then go to sleep, poor, old, hard-worked body, the apostle seems to say, and Jesus will wake thee up in good time, and thou shalt be "made life to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby he subdues all things unto Himself."
   Let us not be charged with pushing the Scripture simile too far, when we hint that it illustrates the different  feelings with which different persons regard the act of dying. When we are sleepy we covet the pillow and the couch. Even so do we see aged servants of God, who have finished up their life-work, and many a suffering invalid, racked with incurable pains, who honestly long to die. They are sleepy for the rest of the grave and the home beyond it. For Christ here, with Christ yonder, is the highest instinct of the Christian heart. The noble missionary, Judson, phrased it happily when he said: "I am not tired of my work, neither am I tired of the world; yet, when Christ calls me home, I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school." He wanted to toil for souls until he proved sleepy, and then he wanted to lay his body down to rest and to escape into glory.
   A dying bed is only the spot where the material frame falls asleep. Then we take up the slumbering form, and gently bear it to its narrow bed in Mother Earth. Our very word "cemetery" describes this thought. It is derived from the Greek word koimeterion, which signifies a sleeping-place. It is mingled and promiscuous sleeping-place; but the Master "knoweth them that are His." They who sleep in Him shall awake to be for ever with the Lord.
   The early Christians were wise in their generation when they carved on the tomb of the martyrs "In Jesu Christo obdormivit," -In Jesus Christ he fell asleep.
   The fragrance of this heavenly line perfumes the very air around the believer's resting -place. Giving to the Latin word its true pronunciation, there is sweet melody, as well as Heaven-sent truth in this song of the sleepers:

"Oh! precious tale of triumph this!
And martyr-blood shed to achieve it,
Of suffering past--of present bliss,
'IN JESU CHRISTO OBDORMIVIT'"

"Of cherished dead be mine the trust,
Thrice-blessed solace to believe it,
That I can utter o'er their dust,
"IN JESU CHRISTO OBDORMIVIT.'

"Now to my loved one's grave I bring
My immortelle and interweave it
With God's own golden lettering,
'IN JESU CHRISTO OBDORMIVIT.'"



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Death A Divine Message.

   It matters little at what point in the perspective of the future the separation enforced by death is thought to cease. Faith and love are careless time-keepers; they have a wide and liberal eye for distance and duration; and while they can whisper to each other the words: "Meet again," they can watch and toil with wondrous patience,-- with spirit fresh and true, and, amid its most grevious loneliness, unbereft of one good sympathy. And since the Grave can bury no affections now, but only the mortal and familiar shape of their object; death has changed its whole aspect and relation to us; and we may regard it, not with passionate hate, but with quite reverence. It is a divine message from above, not an invasion from the abyss beneath; not the fiendish hand of darkness  thrust up to clutch our gladness enviously away, but a rainbow gleam that descends through tears, without which we should not know the various beauties that are woven into the pure light of life. -Rev. James Martineau.

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Victor Over Death.

   But this dwelling among Christian dead is not altogether fearful. These walks are toward heaven. The light of the glory beyond falls on these faintly faces. The upturned gaze pierces the heavens. It sees them in bright array, washed, calm, jubilant. It sees, and longs to be there. What is earth to that sight, song, service, society? Concord cemetery, Forest Hills, Mt. Auburn, Harmony Grove, suddenly soften their wintery aspect to spring-like beauty. The sweet fields beyond sweeten this bank of the river. Like the grand entrance to palatial grounds, they become fascinating above themselves. They allure to brighter worlds, and grow brighter in the allurement.
   "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." Heaven is no cheap and paltry place. Its inhabitants are no weal and worthless populace. It is the Lord's garden; they are the Lord's friends. "Henceforth," He says to them, "I call ye not servants, but friends, brothers, sisters, joint heirs. My beloved, beloved forever."
   Cling then to Christ, when you walk among the graves. Rejoice, when those you bear thither are His elect, whom He shall call from the four ends of heaven. Strengthen yourselves with His divine terror and truth. Recognize the awfulness of death, that you may be its only possible Victor. Accept the fact in all its horror, and the triumph in all its glory eternal. -Bishop Gilbert Haven

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The Dead Are Ours Still.

   What we need is to banish all haze from our conceptions of the reality of that state, so that we can think of it heartily and talk about it to each other with clear eye and open brow, as we would talk of some great university or gorgeous landscape of a foreign land. Thus only can we have any comfort when our dearest are transferred hence. What is so inspiring, what aspect of our humanity is so lofty and divine, as when a Christian mother, one the hallowed clay of a little one, can say with assured faith: "This was only the earthly image of an innocence, a wonder, and a love that have been withdrawn into the deeps of eternal life, into that world of truth and essences and peace that is near me in my prayers. Its dawning faculties, which I loved so to watch and guide, are more precious to God than to me, and he has lifted them to a state of being  where a purer light and more delightful splendors than the earthly sun sheds or shines upon, surround its unfettered spirit. It is mine still through my faith in God , and my assurance of the supremacy of the spirit over the clay." That is the way to think of the future world, -not in weak fancy, but in a conviction that our powers of thought, feeling, and worship are our real substance here. -Thomas Starr King.

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Death A Transition.

   I think you will see clearly, from what I have said, That this earthly life, when seen hereafter from heaven, will seem like an hour past long ago, and dimly remembered; that long laborious, full of joys and sorrows as it is, it will than have dwindled down to a mere point, hardly visible to the far reaching ken of the disembodied spirit. But the spirit itself soars onward. And thus death is neither an end nor a beginning. It is a transition, not from one existence to another, but from one state of existence to another. No link is broken in the chain of being; any more that in passing from infancy to manhood, from manhood to old age. There are seasons of reverie and deep abstraction, which  seems to me analogous to death. The soul gradually loses its consciousness of what is passing around it; and takes no longer cognizance of objects which are near.  It seems for the moment to have dissolved its connection with the body. It has passed, as it were, into another state of being. It lives in another world. It has flown over lands and seas; and holds communion with those it loves in the distant regions of the earth, and more distant heaven. It sees familiar faces, and hears beloved voices, which to the bodily sense are no longer visible and audible. And this likewise is death; save that, when we die, that soul returns no more to the dwelling it has left. -Longfellow

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The Historic Dead.

   We can think of no sublimer spectacle within the limits of flesh and blood than the furnished by a great and pure mind, strengthened and adorned by the accumulated knowledge of ages, thrilled with the inspiration of its task, eager for its work, exposing error, finding and defending truth, pleading the cause of justice and right, lifting human thought above its usual level, hastening forward the grand march of society, working by night and by day to illuminate and bless mankind, and then through the open gates of eternity ascending to the skies. Such men as Chalmers, Edwards, Butler, Wesley, Luther, Calvin, and a host of others, illustrate the dignity and glory of human nature, developed by culture, stimulated by high motives, and consecrated to the interests of eternal truth. The world has much occasion to thank God for their existence. In living one life they live forever in the results thereof. Posterity feels their moral presence when their personal presence is with archangels. They are incarnated in the world's history. What they did while living, lasts when they are singing in Heaven. The bare possibility of achieving such a life ought to stir every mind with the ardors of the most intense enthusiasm. To make a good impression upon the world - an impression that shall not only endure, but descend along the current of ages with expanding and increasing power, attaching to itself new and auxiliary cause of greatness- is an object which any being may well covet, whether man or angel. A life which attains this object is a grand success. The actor therein has, as he deserves, a place among the Historic Dead. -Rev. Samuel T. Spear, D.D.

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Death According To Philo.

   Man's bodily form is made from the ground, the soul from no created thing, but from the Father of all; so that, man was mortal as to his body, he was immortal as to his mind. Complete virtue is the tree of immortal life. "Vices and crimes, rushing in through the gate of sensual pleasure, change a happy and immortal life to a wretched and mortal one." Referring to the garden of Eden, he says: "The death threatened for eating the fruit was not natural, the separation of soul and body, but penal, the sinking of the soul in the body. Death is twofold, one of man , one of soul. The death of man is the separation of the soul from the body; the death of the soul is the corruption if virtue and the assumption of vice. To me, death with the pious is preferable to life with the impious. For those so dying, deathless life delivers; but those so living, eternal death seizes." -Philo, quoted by Alger.

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The right view of death.

   I received sometime ago a letter from a friend in London, and I thought, as I read it, I would take it and read it to other people and see if I could not get them to look upon death as this friend does. He lost a loved mother. In England it is a very common thing to send out cards in memory of the departed ones, and they put upon them great borders of black- sometimes a quarter of an inch of black border- but this friend has gone and put on gold; he did not put on black at all; she had gone to the golden city, and so he just put on a golden border; and I think it a good deal better that black. I think when our friends die, instead of putting a great black border on their memorials to make them look dark, it would be better for us to put on gold. -D.L. Moody.

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No Fear Of Death.

   It is only for Christ to say, "Peace, be still," and all is well. He comes to dwell within us, He comes to give comfort, to be a joy. Hence, it is said, "Christ in you is the hope of glory." He is with me, the joy of my soul. When I come to die He will take me to Himself.
   I was struck very much by the remark which Father Tasker made to me the other day. Many of you know him. He told me of his experience when sick. Some one asked him "what he thought of death." He said he scarcely thought of it. He just said to himself, "Jesus is the only one who has any right to me: the devil has no right to me; I don't know where to go or who ought to take me if Jesus don't, and so I left myself in the hands of Jesus and felt all at peace." If Christ dwells in our hearts there is that unison. If He loves me so much as to come and dwell within me here is safe ground for the future. -Bishop M. Simpson, D. D.

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Churchyard.


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Ash Wednesday, title.


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Ash Wednesday Clip Art.



There is more clipart at the gallery under this topic. Here is a drawing of my younger child with an ash cross on her forehead.

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Sacred Treasures.

Of gold, and gems, and jewels rare,
Earth hides a countless store,
If we may trust the sages
Deep read in nature's lore;
And many a pearl lies buried
In oceans shining caves,
But sacred treasures sleep within
Our pleasant hill of graves.

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The Dead And The Living.

   What a pleasant thought that when we come to die the people will show us respect, that they will gather around our bier and religiously lay our remains away in the earth for the angels to watch over till the morning of the resurrection. Perhaps a tear will be dropped on our coffin or our grave, and appreciative words not entirely around the bier of the dead would encircle the home of the living?
   Kind words spoken in the ears of a living man, woman or child, are worth a great deal more that the most complimentary utterances over the coffin of the dead. The time to carry flowers is when they can be looked upon and handled, when their fragrance can be inhaled and their beauty enjoyed; when the attention bestowed will warm the heart and awaken more. Love poured out at family alters, in the social circle, and amid the struggles and conflicts of life, may lift up the fallen, cheer the fainting heart, convert sorrow into joy, causing many a flower to spring up and bloom along the rugged pathways of this world. Were this done, there would be smiles instead of tears, rosy cheeks, where now there are dull and haggard ones, light in the places of darkness, and a terrestial paradise, perhaps, in the raging warring elements of an earthly pandemonium.

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Death The Fiat Of God.

   The grass, has at best, a vanishing form, ready, almost before maturity, to be resolved into its elements - to sink back into the earth from which it sprang. "The breath of the Lord has blown upon it." Death does not come to men, animals or herbs simply in consequence of the chemical solvents which they contain, but because the Being who gave them life, freely withdraws that which he gave. Death is always the fait of God , arresting the course of life. This truth of revelation is not at variance with the chemistry of  animal life. Whatever else human life is , or may imply, it is soon over. It fades away suddenly like the grass. The world may have made great progress during the centuries, but the frontiers of life do not change with the generation of men. We are born and die just as our rudest ancestors. Every one of us shall die. "The grass withereth, the flower passeth." It is not a bit of sentiment, but a solid law, true at this moment and always true." -Rev. Canon H.P. Liddon, D.D.

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Life is passing.

   This world is turning on its axis once in four and twenty hours; and, besides that, it is moving round the sun in the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year. SO that we are all moving; we are flitting along through space.  And as we are traveling through space, so we are moving through time at an incalculable rate. Oh! what an idea it is could  we grasp it! We are all being carried along as if by a giant angel, with broad out-stretched wings; which he flaps to the blast, and, flying before the lightning, makes us ride on the wind. The whole multitudes of us are hurrying along, -whither, remains to be decided by the test of our faith and the grace of God;  but certain it is, we are all traveling. Your pulses each moment beat the funeral marches to the tomb. You are chained to the chariot of rolling time. There is no bridling the steeds, or leaping from the chariot; you must be constantly in motion. -Spurgeon

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Life A Stream.

   Life bears us on like the stream of a mighty river. Our boat at first glides down the narrow channel, through the playful murmuring of the little brook and the winding of its grassy borders. The trees shed their blossoms over young heads; the flowers on the brink seem to offer themselves to the young hands. We are happy in hope, and we grasp eagerly at the beauties around us; but the stream hurries on, and still our hands our empty. Our course in youth and manhood is along a wilder and deeper flood, amid objects more striking and magnificent. We are animated at the moving pictures, and enjoyments and industry passing us; we are excited at some short-livid disappointment. The steam bears us on ; and our joys and griefs are left behind us. We may be shipwrecked; but we cannot be delayed. Whether rough or smooth, the river hastens to its home, till the roar of the ocean is in our ears, and the tossing of the waves is beneath our feet, and the land lessens form our eyes, and the floods are lifted up around us; and we take our leave of earth and its inhabitants until, of our future voyage, there is no witness say the Infinite and Eternal. - Bishop Heber

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Life's Discipline A Training For Heaven.

by Sir Humphry Davy.

All speaks of change: the renovated forms
Of long-forgotten things arise again.
The light of suns, the breath of angry storms,
The everlasting motions of the main,-
These are but engines of the Eternal will,
 The One Intelligence, whose potent sway
Has ever acted, and is acting still,
Whilst stars, and,worlds, and systems all obey;
Without Whose power, the whole world of mortal things
Were dull, inert, an unharmonious band,
Silent as are the harps's untuned strings
Without the touches of the poet's hand. 
A sacred spark, created by His breath,
The immortal mind of man His images bears;
A spirit living 'midst the forms of death,
Oppressed, but not subdued, by mortal cares;
A germ, preparing in the winter's frost
To rise, and bud, and blossom in the spring;
An unfledged eagle by the tempest tossed,
Unconscious of his future strength of wing;
The child of trial, to morality
And all its changeful influences given,
On the green earth decreed to move and die.
And yet, by such a fate, prepared for heaven!

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Life A River.

   Pliny compares life to a river. The river, small and clear in its origin, gushes forth from rocks, falls into deep glens, and wantons and meanders through a wild and picturesque country; nourishing only the uncultivated tree or flower by its dew or spray. In this, in its state of infancy and youth, it may be compared to the human mind, in which fancy, and strength of imagination, are predominant: it is more beautiful than usual. When the different rills or torrents join, and descend into the plain, it becomes slow and stately in its motions, and able to bear upon its bosom the stately barge. In this mature state, it is deep, strong, and useful. As it flows on towards the sea, it loses its force and its motion, and at last, as it were becomes lost and mingled with the mighty abyss if waters. -Sir Humphery Davy

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Building Up Life.

   Tiniest insects build up loftiest mountains. Broad bands of solid rock, which undergird the earth, have been welded by the patient, constant toil of invisible creatures, working on though the ages, unhasting, unresting, fulfilling their Maker's will on the shores of primeval oceans, watched only by the patient stars, these silent workmen have been building for us the structures of the world. And thus the obscure work of unknown nameless ages appears at last in the sunlight, the adorned and noble theatre of that life of man, which, of all that is done in this universe, is fullest before God on interest and hope. It is thus, too, in life. The quite moments build the years. The labors of the obscure and unremembered hours edify that palace of the soul, in which it is to abide, and fabricate the organ whereby it is to work and express itself through eternity. - J. B. Brown

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Life and Death

by Edward Young

Life makes the soul dependent on the dust,
Death gives her wings her wings to mount above the spheres.
Through chinks, styled organs, dim life peeps at light,
Death bursts th' involving cloud, and all is day;
All eye, all ear, the disembodied power.
Death had feigned evils, Nature shall not fee.
Life, ill substantial, Wisdom cannot shun.
Is not the mighty mind, - that son of Heaven-
By tyrant Life, dethroned, imprisoned, and pained?
By Death enlarged, ennobled, deified?
Death but entombs the body; Life the soul!...
Death is the crown of life. ...
Death wounds to cure: we fall, we rise, we reign!
Spring from our fetters, fasten in the skies.
Where blooming Eden withers in our sight,
Death gives us more that was in Eden lost.
This king of terrors is the prince of peace.
When shall I die to vanity, pain, death?
When shall I die? -When shall I live Forever?

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Life- New and Old

  There have been human hearts, constituted just like ours, for six thousand years. The same stars rise and set upon this globe that rose upon the plains of Shinar or along the Egyptian Nile; and the same sorrows rise and set in every age. All that sickness can do, all that disappointment can effect, all that blighted love, disappointed ambition, thwarted hope, ever did, they do still. Not a tear is wrung over and over again in long succession since the hour that the fated pair stepped from paradise, and gave things; but the heart forevermore practices old experiences. Therefore our life is but a new form of the way men have lived from the beginning. -H. W. Beecher

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Fuzzy Companions


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About rabbit's feet



"Do not rely on rabbit's feet for luck, after all, it didn't work out too well for the rabbit."

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Easter Bunny.


"You'll wake up on Easter morning, and you'll know that he was there, when you find those choc'late bunnies, that he's hiding ev'rywhere." quote by Gene Audry

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Happy Easter.


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Palm Sunday.


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Three palms for Palm Sunday!


"Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" Mark 11:9

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Hosanna!



"Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" Mark 11:9

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No pain, no gain.



"No pain, no palm; no thorns; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown." by William Penn

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Crown of Thorns.


"I will not wear a crown of gold where my Savior wore one of thorns." quote by Godfrey of Bouillion

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Enter through the narrow gate.

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." quote by Jesus in Matthew 7:13

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Footprints Clip Art.



The message in this graphic reads, "Dear God, your footprints are in the sand and mine are in this plaster. Let's hope mom's footprints can keep up with us both." Love, baby

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Deeds Versus Words.

   A boy was pushing a heavily loaded barrow up a steep hill, using every ounce of energy. "Hi boy," called out a benevolent looking old gentleman, "if you push that zigzag, you'll find it go up more easily." "That's all right, sir," responded the boy, rather crisply, "but if you'd give me less advice and more shoving, I'd like it better."

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Heaven and Eternal Life.

   That word, life is always music--that word, next to the word "God in Christ," has in it the deepest meaning in the world. Let us cross the flood where that life especially is, whose path the Savior is to show, the mansions which he has gone to prepare. Jesus is called, "The true God and eternal life." What is this eternal life, which is held before the believer's eye, and chartered as his privilege?
   This life is conscious; death cannot for one moment paralyze the soul. Paul said it was "far better to depart." He knew the moment he was released from mortality he should be with Christ. There is no moment's interval of slumber for the soul--we do not cease to be. We only change the conditions of our being. There is no human soul, which from the day of Adam until now has ever dwelt in clay; that is, not alive to-day! It is a conscious world into which we are passing.
   Again; heaven is not a solitude. If is a peopled  city--where there are no strangers, no homeless, no poor, where one does not pass another in the street without greeting, where no one is envious of another's superior minstrelsy or another's more brilliant crown. They are not only with the Savior, but with the "General Assembly," and with "the spirits of the just made perfect;" all affections are pure, all enjoy conscious recognition, all abide in perpetual recognition, abide in perpetual reunion, in a home without a discord, without an illness, without a grave.
   Take comfort, then; those from whom you have parted or whom you shall have soon to separate, shall be your companions again, recognized as of old, and loved with a purer love. 
   The resurrection and the life-- what heart is not thrilled with the preciousness of the promise--who does not feel more grateful to the Redeemer, who brings him life? Enjoyed recompense, recovered friends--there for ever and Jesus with us there! by Rev. Wm. Morley Punshon D. D.

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Need of The Church.

A message in the form of a letter from Monsignor Bonomelli was read to the delegates attending the World Missionary Conference, held in Edinburgh, June 1910, part of which reads:

   All of you feel the need of a church, which may be the outward manifestation of your faith and religious feeling, the vigilant custodian now and here of Christian doctrine and tradition. It sustains and keeps alive religion and individual activity, in virtue of that strong power of suggestion, which collectively always exercises on the individual.
   "Sir," exclaims Johnson, "it is a very dangerous thing for a man not to belong to any church!"
   And this is true. How many of us would fall a thousand times were it not for this support!
   From the various churches and religious denominations, into which you Christians are divided, there arises a new unifying element, a noble aspiration, restraining too great impulsiveness, leveling dividing barriers, and working for the realization of the holy church through all the children of redemption.

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The True Heaven.

The bliss for which our spirits pine,
That bliss we feel shall yet be given-
Somehow, in some far realm divine,
Some marvelous state we name a heaven-

Is not the bliss of languorous hours,
A glory of calm measured range,
But life which feeds our noblest powers
On wonders of eternal change;

A heaven of action freed from strife,
With ampler ether for the scope
Of an immeasurable life,
And an unbaffled, boundless hope;

A heaven wherein all discords cease,
Self-torment, doubt, distress, turmoil,
The core of whose majestic peace
Is God-like power of tireless toil-

Toil without tumult, strain, or jar,
With grandest reach of range indeed,
Unchecked by even the farthest star
That trembles through infinitude,

In which to soar to higher heights
Through widening ethers stretched abroad,
Till in our onward, upward flights,
We touch, at last, the feet of God!

Time swallowed in Eternity!
No future, evermore, no past,
But one unbending Now to be
A boundless circle round us cast.

by Paul E. Hayne.

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Moral Heroes in Heaven.

   My friends, when the battle of life is over, and the resurrection has come, and our bodies rise from the dead, will we have on us any scars showing our bravery for God? Christ will be there all covered with scars. Scars on the brow, scars on the hand, scars on the feet, scars all over the heart, won in the battle of redemption. And all heaven will sob aloud with emotion as they look at those scars. Ignatius will be there, and he will point out the place where the tooth and paw of the lion seized him in the Coliseum, and John Huss will be there, and he will show where the coal first scorched the foot on that day when his spirit took wing of flame from Constance. M'Millan, and Campbell, and Freeman, American missionaries in India, will be there -- the men who with their wives and children went down in the awful massacre at Cawnpore, and they will show where the daggers of the Sepoys struck them. The Waldenses will be there, and they will show where their bones were broken on that day when the Piedmontese soldiery pitched them over the rocks. And there will be those there who took care of the sick and who looked after the poor, and they will have evidences of earthly exhaustion. And Christ, with His scarred hand waving over the scarred multitude, will say, "You suffered with Me on earth; now be glorified with Me in heaven." And then the great organs of eternity will take up the chant, and St. John will play: "These are they who came out of greaf tribulation and had their robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb,"
   But what will your chagrin and mine be if it shall be told that day on the streets of heaven that on earth we shrank back from all toil and sacrifice and hardship. No scars to show the heavenly soldiery. Not so much as one ridge on the palm of the hand to show that just once in all this battle for God and the truth, we just once grasped the sword so firmly, and struck so hard that the sword and the hand struck together and the hand clave to the sword. O my Lord Jesus, rouse us to Thy service. by Rev. Dr. Talmage.

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Faith In God.

   I pluck an acorn from the green sward and hold it to my ear; and this is what it says to me: "By and by the birds will come and nest in me. By and by I will furnish shade for the cattle. By and by I will provide warmth for the home in the pleasant fire. By and by I will be shelter from the storm to those who have gone under the roof. By and by I will be the strong ribs of the great vessel, and the tempest will beat against me in vain, while I carry men across the Atlantic."
   "Oh foolish little acorn, wilt thou be all this?"
   And the acorn answered, "Yes, God and I." -- Lyman Abbott.

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