Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

“The American nation will soon be in a state of nervous collapse..." So said the 1969 British writer Tom Stacey in the London Daily Telegraph. If we are on the verge of a nervous collapse, it is because we have added to our lives a multiplicity of activities without keeping pace morally and spiritually. We cannot be ever achieving new powers, enlargin...

An article in the Wall Street Journal once stated that the Good Book had hit upon bad times, clearly losing its influence on American life amid declining sales. If the Bible has hit upon hard times, why is that? It is not because of science. Some people feel that modern science has outmoded the Bible. This simply is not true. Dr. Victor Hess, Nobel Prize winner...

There is an old saying that a man is a fool who can’t be angry, but a man is wise who won’t be. Anger is a common emotion that we must all learn to deal with. The Bible says, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:26-27). This teaches us that not all anger is sin. There...

Newscaster Lowell Thomas (1892-1981) told how early in his life his father moved his family to Cripple Creek, Colorado, during the gold rush days. That western town, like many mining communities, was a wild and wicked place. In fact, Thomas made a telling comment when he said, “In this wide open atmosphere, I soon felt right at home with sin.” Many Ch...

Chaucer once said in reference to the low morals of the clergy of his day, “If gold rust, what should iron do?” Rusty saints—that’s one of the tragedies of our day. According to the Bible, saints are followers of Christ, not statues in a corner or exceptionally good people who have gone to heaven. There are too many Christians whose lives are t...

People often say, “Everything that happens is for the best.” Through the years people have licked their wounds with the false comfort of this misconception. To believe that everything is for the best is not Christian optimism but blind fatalism. To say this is to fail to take evil into account. It is to call evil good. Men are free to choose evil as well a...

Anyone who has tried to understand human suffering knows that suffering will be a mystery to humankind for as long as people live on this earth. In the face of unexplainable suffering, here are a few suggestions to help you. Believe that God has an answer as to why we suffer and that in his own time he will give it to you. Faith, after all, is assurance of things hop...

In 1960 the country of Surinam had only one entry in the Olympics. For four years their athlete had trained for the 800-meter run. He was entered in the trial heat. He didn’t win. In fact, he didn’t even run. He slept through the event. Think of it! He slept through the most important event of his life. Christians are in danger of letting something like t...

I once read an address delivered by Dr. Douglas Freeman at the dedication of the library at the University of Florida. Dr. Freeman was for many years the editor of the Richmond News Leader and the author of a Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Robert E. Lee. At the close of his address he made a rather startling observation that the most important thing ab...