That Mystery Floating Alongside

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  “The side of the ship made an opaque belt of shadow on the darkling glassy shimmer of the sea. But I saw at once something elongated and pale floating very close to the ladder. Before I could form a guess a faint flash of phosphorescent light, which seemed to issue suddenly from the naked body of a man, flickered in the sleeping water with the elusive, silent play of summer lightning in a night sky. With a gasp I saw revealed to my stare a pair of feet, the long legs, a broad livid back immersed right up to the neck in a greenish cadaverous glow. One hand, awash, clutched the bottom rung of the ladder. He was complete but for the head. A headless corpse! The cigar dropped out of my gaping mouth with a tiny plop and a short hiss quite audible in the absolute stillness of all things under heaven. At that I suppose he raised up his face, a dimly pale oval in the shadow of the ship’s side. But even then I could only barely make out down there the shape of his black-haired head. Howev...

Hope and Change

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Some thoughts from my friend, Dr. John Williamson at the First Baptist Church of Ridgeway,
SC:

"Last Tuesday, our nation inaugurated a new president amid shouts of 'hope' and 'change.' I don't mean to sound cynical, but didn't we hear this before about two years ago, and two years before that, etc. Any candidate wins an election by promising hope and change. No one has ever
run on a platform of: 'Let's keep everything just like it is.'

For the Christian, our hope for change is not found in any human political leader as well intended as he or she may be. Our hope is in the Returning Lord, 'Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence' (I Peter 3:15).

I'm also very glad that our God never changes. 'I the LORD do not change' (Malachi 3:6). Whatever He was; He still is! Whatever He said, He'll still fulfills."

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