1900
Strike-the-Kettle is not a romantic name, but the old Indian who bore that appellation was a leader and a Christian king among his people. For many years Strike-the-Kettle was a scout, protecting the United States mail from hostile Indians. While on this duty he was wounded in a fight with his own people.
A few years ago, when the Dakota prairies were on fire, the Indians of the Standing Rock Agency fought the flames for days. When at last it was feared the whole village would be swept away, a devoted missionary stood watching, with wagon packed, ready to flee at the last moment. In the darkness she saw some one standing by her gate. It was Strike-the-Kettle.
"I can no longer fight the fire," said the wounded old scout, "but I will stay here, Winona. Go to sleep, and I will rouse you in time." When the exhausted woman finally woke, all danger was over, but Strike-the-Kettle was still on guard. Is it strange that on Memorial days Winona lays a wreath on the grave of Strike-the-Kettle?
A One Woman Revival
The enlargement of a church in Quincy, Michigan, and its recent rededication testify anew to the power one person may exert in a community.
Thirty years ago Quincy was but a hamlet, and the Presbyterian Church being reduced to a single member, the presbytery dissolved the church and sent a committee to get the minutes. Mrs. Patter refused either to give up the minutes or to be "dissolved."
"What the presbytery should do," was her plucky answer, "is to send us a minister." Her advice was taken, and to-day the church is happy, hopeful and flourishing. It lived simply because one earnest Christian woman would not let it die.
—Youth's Companion.
Showing posts with label fire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fire. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Monday, May 7, 2007
Welcome Easter
1917
Man likes to rule, not merely to wait upon nature. So it is that he has learned through the ages to look for, and love the tiny things that mark the coming of the soil's great Easter session, and give him a hint that spring is waiting for him to commit his hopes and promises to her, that she may carry them on strong and hearty to her more vigorous successor, the sunny summertime.
IN THE HOLY LAND
Easter the Accepted Time for Gathering of Pilgrims From All Countries.
Easter has always been the most popular season for pilgrims and tourists to the Holy Land. Both the Roman and Greet Catholic churches have from remote ages encouraged and promoted the pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Scattered throughout the land vast hospices have been erected for the proper care of the religious pilgrims "under the supervision of the various Catholic and Protestant faiths that are drawn to the promised land. For, as someone has said. "This, the least of all lands, is the one country toward which Christian and Jew, Romanist, Greek and Moslem turn with adoring devotion and longing desire."
About fifteen thousand have been in the habit of visiting the sacred scenes of biblical history every year, entering the country through the ancient seaport or Jaffa. The European conflict has interfered with the plans of many a devoted follower of the Christian faith who proposed this season to carry out the dreams of a lifetime. The writer recalls a band of more than 135 German Catholics whom he frequently met last summer in Jerusalem, under the guidance of Brother Sebastian, formerly stationed at the American Catholic university, Brookland, Washington, D. C. The pilgrims were taken prisoners as they sailed from Jaffa a few hours after they had left Jerusalem with songs of devotion and praise to Christ and his church upon their lips.
One of the principal sights of Easter in Jerusalem is to witness upon Holy Saturday the so-called miracle of Holy Fire. It has been denounced by Roman Catholics and devout Christians of many faiths as a grass imposture, yet year after year for hours the section of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher upon Holy Saturday is crowded with the motley multitude, mostly from Russia, who are waiting for the Holy Ghost to appear unto them in the sacred fire. The people believe that it descends from heaven that day or is brought by an angel to the Holy Sepulcher.
Early in the last century two oval holes were pierced in the walls of the Chapel of the Angels, which is a portion of the Holy Sepulcher, where Greek, Roman Catholic, Armenian and Coptic Catholics worship at the burial place, as they believe, of their Lord. After being shut up in the sanctuary for several hours, the Greek bishop passes the miraculous fire through the little openings.
Immediately the multitude that has waited for over twenty four hours without food or drink becomes a howling mob and the fanatical Russians, Armenians, Copts and Abyssinians contend like maniacs to get their tapers lighted so that in a spirit of penance they may sear their bodies with the burning taper that has been lighted by "the holy fire."
The task of the Turkish guard stationed there in the great Christian temple erected in the cradle of their faith, symbolizing in its worship the unity in diversity of the church, is virtually powerless to keep order, much less to check the rioting and fighting of professed Christians. Frequently the enacting of the ceremony results in leaving upon the floor of the basilica the mangled dead forms of many who came there to worship. Above all the strife and superstition of the various sects that worship in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the fact that they all stand for a common truth that is symbolized in the sacred spot which for fully fifteen centuries has been considered the most sacred place on the earth.
Man likes to rule, not merely to wait upon nature. So it is that he has learned through the ages to look for, and love the tiny things that mark the coming of the soil's great Easter session, and give him a hint that spring is waiting for him to commit his hopes and promises to her, that she may carry them on strong and hearty to her more vigorous successor, the sunny summertime.
IN THE HOLY LAND
Easter the Accepted Time for Gathering of Pilgrims From All Countries.
Easter has always been the most popular season for pilgrims and tourists to the Holy Land. Both the Roman and Greet Catholic churches have from remote ages encouraged and promoted the pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Scattered throughout the land vast hospices have been erected for the proper care of the religious pilgrims "under the supervision of the various Catholic and Protestant faiths that are drawn to the promised land. For, as someone has said. "This, the least of all lands, is the one country toward which Christian and Jew, Romanist, Greek and Moslem turn with adoring devotion and longing desire."
About fifteen thousand have been in the habit of visiting the sacred scenes of biblical history every year, entering the country through the ancient seaport or Jaffa. The European conflict has interfered with the plans of many a devoted follower of the Christian faith who proposed this season to carry out the dreams of a lifetime. The writer recalls a band of more than 135 German Catholics whom he frequently met last summer in Jerusalem, under the guidance of Brother Sebastian, formerly stationed at the American Catholic university, Brookland, Washington, D. C. The pilgrims were taken prisoners as they sailed from Jaffa a few hours after they had left Jerusalem with songs of devotion and praise to Christ and his church upon their lips.
One of the principal sights of Easter in Jerusalem is to witness upon Holy Saturday the so-called miracle of Holy Fire. It has been denounced by Roman Catholics and devout Christians of many faiths as a grass imposture, yet year after year for hours the section of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher upon Holy Saturday is crowded with the motley multitude, mostly from Russia, who are waiting for the Holy Ghost to appear unto them in the sacred fire. The people believe that it descends from heaven that day or is brought by an angel to the Holy Sepulcher.
Early in the last century two oval holes were pierced in the walls of the Chapel of the Angels, which is a portion of the Holy Sepulcher, where Greek, Roman Catholic, Armenian and Coptic Catholics worship at the burial place, as they believe, of their Lord. After being shut up in the sanctuary for several hours, the Greek bishop passes the miraculous fire through the little openings.
Immediately the multitude that has waited for over twenty four hours without food or drink becomes a howling mob and the fanatical Russians, Armenians, Copts and Abyssinians contend like maniacs to get their tapers lighted so that in a spirit of penance they may sear their bodies with the burning taper that has been lighted by "the holy fire."
The task of the Turkish guard stationed there in the great Christian temple erected in the cradle of their faith, symbolizing in its worship the unity in diversity of the church, is virtually powerless to keep order, much less to check the rioting and fighting of professed Christians. Frequently the enacting of the ceremony results in leaving upon the floor of the basilica the mangled dead forms of many who came there to worship. Above all the strife and superstition of the various sects that worship in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the fact that they all stand for a common truth that is symbolized in the sacred spot which for fully fifteen centuries has been considered the most sacred place on the earth.
Friday, May 4, 2007
Priest's Surplice on Fire; Billy Sunday Destroys Pulpit
1908
Priest's Surplice on Fire
Presence of Mind Averts Panic in Church Crowded With Children
Presence of mind prevented a serious panic in St. Josephs Catholic Church at Newport, R.I. during the children's mass yesterday, with many little ones occupying the body of the church and adults in large numbers also present.
The first communicants among the children were receiving communion from the Rev. James Mahon, the pastor, when a candle on a votive table at the left of the altar set fire to Father Mahon's surplice.
A woman in the congregation yelled fire. In a second many of the congregation were on their feet, when the Rev. Dr. William A. Doran, who was celebrant of the mass rushed to Father Mahon's side and with his hands beat out the flames, while both priests called upon the people to remain in their seats.
Sinners On The Bases
Billy Sunday Brings Them Home With Liners From Pulpit
The Rev. Billy Sunday, the former baseball player who has been holding a series of revivals at Sharon, Pa., closed his engagement at the Tabernacle last night. The minister got so excited during his last sermon at Sharon that he pounded the pulpit into strips.
He plucked off a piece of the hard wood and wielded it as if it was a baseball bat, knocking out liners to bring home the stragglers on the bases.
During his talk he would measure off the distance from the pulpit as if he was sizing up his position at an imaginary curve ball and watch it shoot out into the right or left field of his audience.
Among his hearers were many baseball fans and they watched the revivalist with envy.
—The Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY, June 1, 1908, page 5.
Priest's Surplice on Fire
Presence of Mind Averts Panic in Church Crowded With Children
Presence of mind prevented a serious panic in St. Josephs Catholic Church at Newport, R.I. during the children's mass yesterday, with many little ones occupying the body of the church and adults in large numbers also present.
The first communicants among the children were receiving communion from the Rev. James Mahon, the pastor, when a candle on a votive table at the left of the altar set fire to Father Mahon's surplice.
A woman in the congregation yelled fire. In a second many of the congregation were on their feet, when the Rev. Dr. William A. Doran, who was celebrant of the mass rushed to Father Mahon's side and with his hands beat out the flames, while both priests called upon the people to remain in their seats.
Sinners On The Bases
Billy Sunday Brings Them Home With Liners From Pulpit
The Rev. Billy Sunday, the former baseball player who has been holding a series of revivals at Sharon, Pa., closed his engagement at the Tabernacle last night. The minister got so excited during his last sermon at Sharon that he pounded the pulpit into strips.
He plucked off a piece of the hard wood and wielded it as if it was a baseball bat, knocking out liners to bring home the stragglers on the bases.
During his talk he would measure off the distance from the pulpit as if he was sizing up his position at an imaginary curve ball and watch it shoot out into the right or left field of his audience.
Among his hearers were many baseball fans and they watched the revivalist with envy.
—The Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY, June 1, 1908, page 5.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Sunday Morning Fire Drives Out Worshipers
1920
FLAMES DRIVE OUT LA CROSSE WORSHIPERS
La Crosse. -- Fire which broke out here Sunday morning in the English Lutheran church drove out several hundred worshipers who fled from the building. No one was injured.
It is thought an overheated chimney caused the fire, which consumed the upper part of the edifice. The interior was badly damaged by water and falling debris.
The Rev. J. J. S. Rumbarger is the pastor.
--The Appleton Daily Post, Appleton, Wisconsin, January 6, 1920, page 3.
FLAMES DRIVE OUT LA CROSSE WORSHIPERS
La Crosse. -- Fire which broke out here Sunday morning in the English Lutheran church drove out several hundred worshipers who fled from the building. No one was injured.
It is thought an overheated chimney caused the fire, which consumed the upper part of the edifice. The interior was badly damaged by water and falling debris.
The Rev. J. J. S. Rumbarger is the pastor.
--The Appleton Daily Post, Appleton, Wisconsin, January 6, 1920, page 3.
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