The Prized Treasures

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  “Will the prized treasures of today always be the cheap trifles of the day before? Will rows of our willow-pattern dinner-plates be ranged above the chimneypieces of the great in the years 2000 and odd? Will the white cups with the gold rim and the beautiful gold flower inside (species unknown), that our Sarah Janes now break in sheer light-heartedness of spirit, be carefully mended, and stood upon a bracket, and dusted only by the lady of the house? . . . .   The “sampler” that the eldest daughter did at school will be spoken of as “tapestry of the Victorian era,” and be almost priceless. The blue-and-white mugs of the present-day roadside inn will be hunted up, all cracked and chipped, and sold for their weight in gold, and rich people will use them for claret cups; and travellers from Japan will buy up all the “Presents from Ramsgate,” and “Souvenirs of Margate,” that may have escaped destruction, and take them back to Jedo as ancient English curios.” Jerome K. Jerome, “T...

Death ends it all

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An evangelist told the story about the atheist that said to him, “I do not believe what you are preaching.”

The evangelist replied, “You have told me what you do not believe; perhaps you will tell me what you do believe."

“I believe that death ends all.”

“So do I; shake on it.” And the evagelist thrust out his hand.

“What!” the atheist exclaimed. “You believe that death ends all?”

“I certainly do,” the evangelist answered.

The atheist said, “You are a strange Christian.”

“I am sure of that; there is none other like me in the world. As a Christian, I assert the belief that death ends all.” When the atheist said he had never heard such a thing, the evangelist added, “It is time you heard something new.”

“Death ends all your chance of doing evil. Death ends all your joy, all your projects, all your ambitions, all your friendships. Death ends all the Gospel that you will ever hear. Death ends all for you; then you go out into the outer darkness.

“Death ends all my wanderings, all my tears, all my perplexities, all my aches and pains. Death ends it all, and I go to be with my Lord in Glory.”

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