Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

One more word about suicide, for it is as prevalent today among the young and the old as any other ill. Suicide is in many ways the most tragic form of death. It usually entails more shock and grief for those who are left behind than any other. And it leaves us with many questions. However, the Bible can address the matter with three truths.  The practice of sui...

Writer Ernest Hemingway grew up in a strong evangelical Christian home in Old Platte, Illinois. His grandparents were missionaries and his father was a devout churchman. His family conformed to the strictest code of Christianity, and as a boy and then man he was active in the life of his church, even serving as a choirboy.   Then came the first World War. H...

In 2009 William L. Calley, the only U.S. Army officer convicted of the 1968 slaying of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai, made an extraordinary public apology.   Calley was a young Army lieutenant when he was court-martialed for his part in the massacre of 500 men, women, and children. In his confession he said, “There’s not a day that goes by that...

Charles G. Finney was one of America’s great evangelists (1792-1872). He was a lawyer by profession when he became a Christian at the age of 27. The day he was converted he quit practicing law, though he had a trial scheduled for that day. He told his client, “I have been retained for the Lord Jesus Christ to plead his case and I cannot plead yours.”...

Father George DePrizio was in Rome years ago for a gathering of bishops. They discussed among other things why the church has lost the youth. One of the bishops, an American, rose and said, “My brother bishops, we have been busy bringing forth many reasons why we have lost the youth. I would be bold enough to give perhaps the first and real reason: it is our lac...

Pat Neff, one-time governor of Texas and later president of Baylor University, once said, “All my life I’ve heard preachers tell me to lay up treasures in heaven, but none of them ever told me how to do it. I had to figure it out on my own. “The only way to get our treasures into heaven is to put them in something that is going there. Cattle, land,...

General Sam Houston, one of my heroes, was commander the army of the Republic of Texas, the first elected president of the Republic of Texas, first Senator from the state of Texas, and later the sixth governor of the state. Life on the Texas frontier was rough and rugged. Men molded by the frontier knew how to fight, drink, curse, and kill. Sam Houston fit the lifesty...

Over the triple doorways of the Cathedral of Milan, Italy, there are three inscriptions spanning three beautiful arches. Over the first arch is sculptured a cross and with it the words, “All that troubles is but for a moment.” Over the left arch is carved a beautiful wreath of roses, and underneath it are the words, “All that pleases is but for a mo...

1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. 3 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. 4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah. 5 I ackno...