805
A woman advises her husband to entrust their modest savings to the bank of God.
This story was told to John Moschus (?550–619) by Maria, a Christian lady on the Greek island of Samos who was devoted to the care of the poor. The events occurred in Nisibis in Syria, an ancient Christian centre now just inside Turkey, whose early fourth-century church is ruined but still partially standing.
Picture: © Timo Roller, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted December 14 2018
806
A warlike king sets out to bag another small kingdom for his realms, but a monkey gets him thinking.
The Jataka Tales are a collection of roughly fourth-century BC stories supposedly from the many previous lives of Gautama Buddha. Several tell, Aesop-like, how one may learn wisdom by observing the ways of the natural world around us. In this case, a belligerent monarch draws a timely lesson from the antics of a monkey.
Picture: © Arya C S, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted December 10 2018
807
Cuthbert’s friend comes asking for a priest to attend his dying wife — so long as it isn’t Cuthbert.
St Cuthbert’s miracles not only brought healing or deliverance from danger, but left others wiser and kinder for having lived through them. In this example, his friend Hildemer learnt that illness, and specifically mental illness, is nothing for a Christian to be ashamed of.
Picture: © James Denham, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted December 10 2018
808
Soon after Athelstan became England’s first king, he played a trick on the King of Norway which demanded a reply.
According to the Norse chronicler Snorro Sturluson, King Harald Fairhair of Norway struck up a curious friendship with King Athelstan of England, Alfred’s grandson. It all began when Athelstan played a trick on the ageing Harald, which involved a magnificent jewelled sword.
Picture: © York Museums Trust, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted November 30 2018
809
Samuel Smiles warns us against pursuing popularity for its own sake, saying that it is a kind of cowardice.
Samuel Smiles was uncharacteristically severe on those statesmen who court popularity by deceitful talk or by whipping up hatreds. By implication, however, he was equally severe on those who allow such rogues to do so simply because they will not, or dare not, think for themselves.
Picture: © Buchhändler, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted November 29 2018
810
William Cobbett recalls his first taste of classic literature, for which he had to go without his supper.
At eleven, William Cobbett’s (1763-1835) ambition was to be a gardener at Kew. It would be a step up from clipping hedges and weeding flower beds for the Bishop of Winchester back home in Farnham, but it meant walking all the way to Richmond, a distance of nearly thirty miles as the crow flies, and with threepence all his wealth.
Picture: © Len Williams, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted November 28 2018