Tag Archives: Moral Stories

Shortly before the Civil War a young lawyer came down from Vermont and settled in Adams County, Pennsylvania. There he saw fugitive slaves escaping from bondage, and as a conductor on the Underground Railroad he helped them to liberty. The … Continue reading →

On June 22, 1772, Lord Mansfield, chief justice of the King’s Bench, handed down his famous decision that effectively eliminated slavery on the soil of the British Isles. Although slavery had gradually died out in Europe after the introduction of … Continue reading →

High atop the United States Capitol dome in Washington stands the statue of the stately “Freedom Lady,” almost 20 feet high. Her face is framed by a crest of stars. A shield of stars and stripes is in her left … Continue reading →

One bleak day in February 1832, a young theological student sat in his room at Andover Seminary. Samuel Francis Smith was going over a sheaf of German songs for children, given him by a friend, the composer Lowell Mason. Sunset … Continue reading →

A global survey of political and civil liberty indicates that personal freedom diminished in the 1970s for eighty-five million people in seven countries. The assessment was made by Freedom House, a New York-based nonprofit organization that rates nations as free, … Continue reading →

Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. He is noted as stating the following: The best thing … Continue reading →

In 1946, Czeslaw Godlewski was a member of a young gang that roamed and sacked the German countryside. On an isolated farm they gunned down ten members of the Wilhelm Hamelmann family. Nine of the victims died, but Hamelmann himself … Continue reading →

During the Korean war, a South Korean Christian, a civilian, was arrested by the communists and ordered shot. But when the young communist leader learned that the prisoner was in charge of an orphanage caring for small children, he decided … Continue reading →

John Selwyn, who became the Bishop of the South Pacific, was renowned for his boxing skill in his university days. On a certain occasion he had to utter grave words of rebuke and warning to a professed convert. The man … Continue reading →

In the year 1818, Tamatoe, King of Huahine, one of the South Sea Islands, became a Christian. He discovered a plot among his fellow natives to seize him and other converts and burn them to death. He organized a band … Continue reading →

During the Revolutionary War there lived in Pennsylvania a pastor by the name of Peter Miller. Although Miller was greatly loved by everyone in the community, there was one man who lived near the church who hated him and had … Continue reading →

Leonardo da Vinci was one of the outstanding intellects of all history, for he was great as a draftsman, an engineer, and a thinker. Just before he commenced work on his “Last Supper” he had a violent quarrel with a … Continue reading →

True Forgiveness: 1. A little boy, being asked what forgiveness is, gave the beautiful answer: “It is the odor that flowers breathe when they are trampled upon.” 2. After languishing for months in Hitler’s prison Martin Niemoller emerged saying, “It … Continue reading →

In a recent chapel service bulletin from Chaplain Wendell C. Hawley, comes a classic illustration of forgiveness. When the Moravian missionaries first went to the Eskimos, they could not find a word in their language for forgiveness, so they had … Continue reading →

There was a prudent man who brushed his teeth twice a day, wore rubbers in wet weather, did his daily dozen, slept with windows open, was careful with his diet, had a medical examination twice a year, never smoked, drank … Continue reading →

In 1939, in Hitler’s Germany, Alexander Kirk was in charge of the American embassy in Berlin, and George Kennan was his counselor. Although food shortages made it difficult, Kirk gave an enormous buffet lunch every Sunday. There were perhaps a … Continue reading →

A man of 69 in a small town in Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan invited about 20 business friends to his home and held his “funeral.” Ritually, it was a full-dress funeral, complete with funeral sutra chanting by two Buddhist priests. … Continue reading →