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The editors ask Akbar Ahmed about the number of American women who convert to Islam and how they are treated in both cultures.
What do converts to Islam tell you about Islam in America?
Four out of five white converts to Islam are women, and they tell us a lot about how Muslims and non-Muslims see each other.
I sympathize with the argument that a woman in Dearborn, Michigan dressed in the niqab (completely covered in black) and speaking only Arabic is bound to agitate a lot of Americans. And the conversion of white women to Islam would also agitate a lot of Americans.
American women are the freest women in the world. When many Americans see a Muslim woman in a hijab (head scarf), they see the boundaries she's putting around herself. Many Americans also have boundaries, but hers are more prominent. The hijab is a symbol of un-American dress and behavior. Why would a woman opt out of this freedom?
Nicole Queen is your classic case study. She was at the height of her career as a fashion photographer, standing next to Justin Timberlake, when she thought, "Life has got to be something more." She'd go to these clubs and see women prepared to take their clothes off, have sex, and expose themselves to everybody just to be photographed.
A spiritual awakening forces someone to either look at Catholicism more deeply or Judaism or, in Nicole's case, Islam. She felt that she needed these boundaries. Many Muslims worry that freedom has been taken to excess in the United States. Nicole is completely at ease with herself as an American. She has double pride as an American and a Texan.
Here's a great ambassador between Islam and America, I thought, but then she told me about the abuse she received. People called her a "whore" for "selling out" Christianity. A lot of the Muslims asked if she was an FBI informant.
She's very serene about it, though, and she has earned a lot of respect in the Muslim community. She has so much to give to Americans and to Muslims in trying to bridge this gap.
Is it fair to call the wild life that Nicole Queen rejected "American"? Isn't that like calling honor killings or female genital mutilation "Muslim"?
In a sense, the lifestyle isn't "American," but at the same time it is because you can't pretend it doesn't exist. Likewise you can't escape that honor killings and female circumcision are widespread practices in Muslim countries, though even Bernard Lewis, seen by many as a critic of Islam, says these are not Muslim practices.
My team of young people asked questions about American identity at Mardi Gras at 3 a.m. in New Orleans. Craig Considine, a Catholic boy from Boston, talked to this huge drunk guy on camera and this guy leaned across him and said, "You're not Muslim, are you? Because if you were, I'd have kicked you in the nuts." This is on camera. One girl said, "American? American means being f-ed up and being f-ed up again, having chicken wings and then being f-ed up again."
All evening and all morning this went on. We hit a nerve. Something is going on in the underbelly. I can't imagine any American family encouraging this, but this is happening. It's not mainstream America, but it is part of society and we can't pretend it doesn't exist.
This is precisely where you get the organic link between a Nicole Queen saying, "We have crossed the boundaries," and saying, "I want out. I want to do something else." She could have become a Catholic or a Jew or a Muslim.
Perhaps she found Islam because it has not adjusted or compromised. Obviously there's a theological reason—like St. Paul, a convert will suddenly see or hear God—but as an anthropologist I also look to society for clues.
This article appeared in the May 2011 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 76, No. 5, page 31).


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Migration and fishing in Indonesian coastal villages.
(Ambio, 2002-06)
The coastal ecosystems in Southeast Asia are under increased pressure from local and global change. This paper examines human migration and the use of marine resources in coastal villages in the Minahasa district of North ...

subset: commoncrawl


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Christian Classics
These Classic Christian books offer some of the best understanding and insight into Christianity. Choose from popular authors such as C.S. Lewis, John Bunyan, Charles Haddon Spurgeon and more.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Charles Dickins
A.W. Tozer
Watchman Nee
A.W. Tozer
John Bunyan
Watchman Nee
Jonathan Edwards
Charles Spurgeon
John Bunyan
Thomas A Kempis
C. S. Lewis
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'My brain was coming out of my ears. Literally' — Nick Healey
Nick Healey was a lead designer on the Series 3 range of PDAs, head of the design team for the Psion Series 5 applicatins & UI, and head of design at Symbian.
I joined Psion in 1984 as a programmer, with a degree in Computer and Microprocessor Engineering — the ideal background for a designer.
By the time of the early 1990s, Psion had survived a few cycles of redundancy, so everyone who was left there really knew their stuff, which was handy as the company didn't really do much management, training, or strategy.
As for hiring policy, the plan was always just to recruit big brains. Psion did the single most important thing that management should do, and did it very well: find smart people, make them happy so they don't leave, and set them free to use their talents. Do that and everything else takes care of itself, I reckon. It's really not rocket science, as long as you can find middle managers and indeed senior managers who can accept life in such an environment. If you get this right, you don't have to bother reading books on management, which is another bonus.
I'd worked on the specs for the apps and the user interface for the Series 3 machines We were pretty proud of those machines. There aren't many tech gadgets from 12 years ago that I can imagine using nowadays, although they are bringing back the Casio LCD TV experience on your mobile phone, only worse and more expensive than before. Even today, the 3MX does contacts, diary and note-taking really well. It's a great PDA as long as you don't want mobile email or web, and who'd want them unless you had a wide screen and a keyboard you can type on. Come to think of it — like a Series 5. Or a 3MX! I'm just converting from using a Revo to a Series 3MX at the moment, by the way.
But no one could say how long the Series 3a would sell for. It was an uncomfortable time for us at Psion — it was possible that the Newton would take over the market, or perhaps the next HP palmtop, or something rumoured to be coming from Microsoft.
Nick Healey
Organising the new Organiser
So Protea kicked off properly. David Wood, Bill Batchelor and myself were the three development managers in the software team, and on the Protea project itself, that became known as the Series 5. Bill was the project manager.
I ran the specification team, and David had the job of creating and managing the application and UI-level Software Architecture — and teaching all the new coders. Having long ago forsaken coding myself, I was the only designer in a sea of coders. My software specification team had the job of what the software should and shouldn't do, and the UI to do it.
We moved into new offices and September 5, 1994, 12 new coders arrived, doubling the size of the software team. It was the day after Colly's [Myers] 40th birthday bash: "Happy birthday, see what you can do with these guys."
Unfortunately, I was delayed by designing and project managing the PsiWin connectivity software, a thousand apologies for which, well for the reliability anyway, and by the time I got to the Protea project the software engineers had already written lots of stuff.
They'd implemented Windows-style dialogs, for example — a 2D-layout that had enormous flexibility, but it was completely unusable from the keyboard. They agreed to throw it all away and write an "up-and-down" dialog layout you could navigate with just the arrow keys, after a month of gentle persuasion and personal threats.
Arguing the toss
It was a very argumentative culture, just because of the number of experienced, argumentative people. Healthy, I think, if a bit scary.
Colly's influence was all-encompassing, and it could be scary as a newbie when Colly himself will come to your desk and tell you what a **** you are. You soon learnt that this was just part of the "training" at Psion. And that you could give it back to him.
The culture was to argue as long as you liked with anyone you wanted to. I had an argument with Colly once, with me saying that impossible timescales are worse than having no timescales, to him it was just the opposite. Like it really matters. But it lasted from about 9pm till they threw us out of the pub at half eleven, and it continued on the street outside the pub till a quarter to one, when some understandably miffed woman leant out of her bedroom window and impolitely invited us to go home. Sadly, neither of us had given an inch in four hours. Colly had a heart attack when he got home — nothing life-threatening, and he forgave me.
Designing for simplicity
The overall goal was to make a machine that would wow the PDA world, which at the time was pretty much the Series 3, but an aim was also to interfere with the laptop market a little. So — an uber-Series3, a jack of even more trades. And then the Palm Pilot arrived mid-project, and everyone at Psion laughed, because it hardly did anything.
With the Palm Pilot, we learned the hard way about functionality for normal people [It was the Palm that taught us "the hard way" and showed us that in fact we weren't really getting to normal people at Psion]. It turned out that what reviewers called "user-friendly" — only about one in ten of the population could actually handle. It's still the same nowadays. I did run user tests on the first Series 5 prototypes, actually, in my own time, not that I had any, to the sound of a stable door being bolted, but normal people weren't formally part of the development process. They're "rule one" nowadays, for me, with every client I work with.
On Protea we had a "Thought Police", which was a committee of three, David and Bill and myself, and if you had an idea for a big change to the spec, you only needed the approval of two. It allowed a huge range of new ideas and fixes to go through, without us getting bogged down in red tape. Come to think of it I'm honoured in the Series 3MX easter egg as "Thought Police" too. Clearly, I was enjoying myself.
"With the Palm Pilot, we learned the hard way about functionality for normal people."
Products ship when "pressure to ship" exceeds "desire to improve". Protea, like every Psion project in the 90s, took twice as long as its original schedule, as we always attempted too much, and ending up losing things late in the project which would have been much better lost earlier. A fair few of those things turned up in the 5MX.
And also, we treated what were really "best case" targets as deadlines, and of course hurt ourselves by rushing things to try to achieve the unachievable. So "desire to improve" stayed pretty high, as more and more things went wrong, while "pressure to ship" slowly mounted to the same high level.
It was a deeply stressful way to live. At one point it felt like my brain was coming out of my ears — I mean, literally, for days, weeks, my head felt like it was exploding. I had to have an MRI scan. They found nothing, as they say.
It was all particularly depressing for me because in 1994 to 1995, I had written up a load of thoughts for the other senior managers on the reasons why all our projects ended up taking twice the desired timescale. Like using best-case targets as deadlines, and so on. I guess I just didn't sell it well enough.
We had one fun Protea meeting in February 1996, with the "deadline" then October/November 1996, in which the 15 or so managers on the project, from Colly down, were invited to give their best estimate as to what the real ship date would be. Everyone reckoned October, November or December, bar one guy who said February 1997 — take a bow, Geert Bollen — and me. I said a few words as to why I felt it had all the same problems in front of it as all previous projects, and that it would therefore take twice its current schedule, which came to the last week of May 1997.
Colly tore my head off for daring to say such heresy, but in the end I was out by a week, and we shipped the ROM the first week of June 1997. And again the week after. It gives me no pleasure to say this. It did almost make my brain explode.
Indeed, if you looked at every previous moment that we'd rescheduled the project, and just doubled the timescale we'd estimated each time, then every single doubled estimate came out at May 1997. Hardly Bill's fault, I hasten to add — the company was asking him to try to achieve each impossible deadline. He was well aware of all this.
By the way I heard a couple of years ago from one who was there that the "Zen of Palm" was to a fair extent reverse-engineered after the success of the Pilot, that in fact they actually dropped a lot of functionality from it, late on, through time pressure. That's pretty funny, if true.
"Psion did the single most important thing that management should do: find smart people, make them happy so they don't leave, and set them free to use their talents."
But it's a hard thing to manage. Symbian, I gather, are currently trying to reduce the number of experienced and expensive employees and they have a micromanaged production-line environment there. It's ironic that the move towards this was born out of a desire to hit software targets better than in the old Psion days. The best intentions, and all that. The timescales are more predictable, but at what cost?
A new nightmare at Symbian
A year after Protea shipped, Psion Software overnight became Symbian, and all the software people bar about one moved over. Suddenly, Psion Computers had no software design experience. I did have the offer of going to Psion Computers and being their design person for the software side, and in retrospect I so wish I had done.
Psion were a bit unsure about speccing out the software in their products by themselves. Like they did with the Revo: they just chucked the Series 5 software onto a much smaller screen — without a backlight too — and so a lot of the text is smaller than it ought to be.
So I found myself at Symbian as its lead software designer. It was a nightmare.
It was set up with a schedule to develop four new phone-centric versions of the EPOC (now renamed SymbianOS) UI in 18 months, which was laughably unachievable even without having to find and train enormous numbers of new employees. And before four new corporate overlords each began demanding every possible second of your time so that the other three wouldn't get it.
And being the only senior software design person was an especially unjoyful experience. On one of the four platforms, we had to combine the spec of our previous Psion applications and user interface, with the specification of a new device Nokia had been developing. So there's me locked in a room with about 15 Nokia designers, who, it slowly transpires, view Symbian as a software house they have just bought in order to deliver their product.
I explain to them the thinking behind the various things in the Psion UI — why it just saves changes automatically, why a second tap means "open", why it has infoprints [informational messages] in the corner, why ToDos appear on the main Diary screen, all that kind of stuff that we'd worked out over the years, and they listen and then they say "yes, but we want you to do this". So we didn't exactly get on well in those meetings.
And after a couple of days we realised there was an even bigger underlying issue, which was that we each put entirely different types of stuff in our specs because they did entirely different jobs as part of entirely different development processes. So I went back to the board and asked the rather obvious question, "So what's Symbian's development process?" and got the answer: "We haven't got one yet. Just do your best." It was great fun, the Symbian deal.
A few months down the line I'm in a meeting with one of the other Symbian shareholders about one of their phones, and I find myself selling a largely fictional plan for how we could allegedly deliver their software in the given timeframe, and their senior guy is tearing me to shreds. Now this is a guy who was involved in the due diligence on the formation of Symbian, and approved all these ludicrous delivery dates. I opened my mouth to tell him exactly where he could stick his dates, and after several seconds with my mouth open, I decided to quit. It had been seven months of hell.
Then I really wished I'd gone to Psion Computers!
What really happened to Psion?
In 1998, Psion lost all of its software expertise to Symbian, which proceeded to slowly borg it into bureaucracy. But Psion had absolutely fantastic product engineers, and grew a new software team. It also had a fantastic brand in this country, and in many others, and it had a history of designing groovy new things too.
But even after this, I'm told they turned down internal proposals to develop some really exciting new stuff like an iPod, and a TomTom, years before Apple and TomTom did it.
They even pulled out of some straightforward projects — like pulling the Bluetooth Revo at the last minute. My best guess is that they got distracted by their ownership of the stake in Symbian — as you well might, if you're thinking you might be about to own the mobile phone world for free.
Since leaving Symbian in 1999, Nick Healey's UI consultancy Slash Design has designed smartphones, PDAs, PC-phone integration software, Linux suites, mobile apps, internet radios, pointing devices, and a restaurant.


text:
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The Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts are appropriate to restore stability in financial markets and prevent damage to the broader economy, Minneapolis Fed President Gary Stern said on Tuesday.
"Against the backdrop of the financial shocks that have beset the economy and their implications for the outlook, the reduction in the funds rate target appears wholly appropriate," he said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Financial Planning Association of Minnesota.
The Fed is responsible for restoring financial stability and protecting the broad economy from damage, Stern said.
"Policy is now better positioned to attain these objectives than formerly," he added.
Stern said the current situation is reminiscent of the early 1990s, when the economy faced "headwinds" after the 1990-91 recession, particularly tighter credit and a real estate bust.
"In this environment, we need to remain sensitive to evolving financial conditions and to incoming information on business activity in order to further determine the relevance of that earlier experience," Stern said.
It is possible that an appreciable tightening of credit conditions could restrain the economy for a time, the Minneapolis Fed president said. He expects economic growth to average 2.5 percent a year over the long run, he added. Meanwhile, the possibility of a credit crunch cannot be ruled out, he added.


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This is a ear training exercise common in most aural skills pedagogies. The computer plays a melody and the user writes it down. However, SonicFit encourages the following steps for melodic dictation.
1. Write the counts for every measure before hearing it the first time.
2. Draw a slash on any count (or between counts) corresponding to the start of a new note while listening for the first time or two.
3. Next, write the solfege above any slash. To move quickly, you can just write the first letter unless it is chromatically altered.
4. When done, transcribe the short hand of slashes and solfege into standard musical notation.
Forms for these dictations can be printed under "forms" button, and will show the number of measures and an appropriate width for the measure. Levels 4, 5 and 8 contain excerpts from literature.


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Take a peek inside Coraline's stop motion world, comprised of dancing mice, flowers with child-like voices, and button eyes. Three new trailers give you a way better look at the many wonders in Coraline.
This film follows a brave girl as she leaves her depressed little family for a parallel universe that seems too good to be true. In the "other" world, her parents are happy and lavish her with attention, there's a theater in the basement, dinner is delicious, the flowers light up and her toys come alive. But of course, nothing is as it seems. The 3D stop-motion picture, based on Neil Gaiman's book, will be out in theaters on February 6th.


text:
Welcome to Suite Software!
Suite Software helps businesses Automate and Integrate the NetSuite family of products. Our specialty is integrating NetSuite with functionality you need outside of NetSuite, such as working with your customers, vendors & trading partners in special ways, using the best combination of NetSuite's Suite Scripting & Web Services technologies.
Suite Software has been helping clients cross bridges and make new connections, maximizing their NetSuite investment and their bottom line. Let us help your enterprise arrive at new destinations, too!


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In trying to develop a mouse model of neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1), a genetic disorder that predisposes children to certain types of brain tumors, the team discovered that tumors only developed when all brain cells were genetically abnormal, not just the cell type that becomes cancerous. The study is featured on the cover of the Dec. 15 issue of the journal Cancer Research.
"We are quite excited about this report as it represents the first model of this type of tumor," says principal investigator David H. Gutmann, M.D., Ph.D., the Donald O. Schnuck Family Professor of Neurology. "We've always assumed that cancer results from the loss of specific genes in a particular cell, but apparently that isn't always the case. Our findings suggest that as in real estate, location is everything - a permissive environment may be the key to whether a tumor cell becomes cancerous or just sits dormant for a person's entire life."
According to the National NF Foundation, NF1 is the most common neurological disorder caused by a single gene. The disorder can lead to a variety of complications including skin, spine and brain cancer. Up to 20 percent of patients with NF1 develop tumors in a type of support cell called an astrocyte along the optic nerve and optic chiasm, which transmit visual information from the eye to the brain.
Astrocytes that develop into tumors lack both copies of the Nf1 gene. So Gutmann's team first developed genetically engineered mice in which all cells were normal except astrocytes, which lacked both copies of the Nf1 gene. To their surprise, the mice did not develop brain tumors.
Humans with NF1 are born with one normal and one mutated copy of the Nf1 gene in all cells in their bodies. Gutmann's team therefore hypothesized that genetic abnormalities in brain cells surrounding astrocytes might be essential for tumor formation.
To test this theory, the team developed mice with no functional copies of the Nf1 gene in their astrocytes and only one functional copy in all other brain cells, a scenario identical to that of humans with the disease. Every mouse developed astrocyte tumors along the optic nerve or chiasm within the first 10 months.
According to Gutmann, understanding the events that lead to tumor growth is critical for learning how to predict -- and hopefully prevent -- tumors.
"It's clear from our findings that tumors do not form simply by losing both copies of the Nf1 gene," he explains. "If we figure out what external cues are necessary to trigger tumor growth, we could try to shut off that switch and stop tumors dead in their tracks without having to correct the underlying genetic defect."
The potential for the mouse model used in this study to serve as a preclinical model of NF1 is enhanced by the team's ability to detect tumors in their very early stages using a powerful 4.7-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner and algorithms developed by Gutmann's colleagues at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at the School of Medicine. Their techniques and equipment enable them to detect tumors the size of a piece of thread.
"We're now beginning to detect these tumors even earlier using MRI," Gutmann says. "I think we've gotten to the point where this mouse model can not only help us understand more about the cell biology underlying brain tumor development, but also provides a tool for developing and evaluating better treatments."
Bajenaru ML, Hernandez MR, Perry A, Zhu Y, Parada LF, Garbow JR, Gutmann DH. Optic nerve glioma in mice requires astrocyte Nf1 gene inactivation and Nf1 brain heterozygosity. Cancer Research, vol. 63, pp. 8573-77, Dec. 15, 2003.
Funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Small Animal Imaging Resource Program, the United States Army Medical Research and Material Command's Office of Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs and the National Neurofibromatosis Foundation supported this research.
The full-time and volunteer faculty of Washington University School of Medicine are the physicians and surgeons of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient-care institutions in the nation. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.


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Data Mining, Southeast Asia Edition
Elsevier, 2006 M04 6 - 800 pages
Our ability to generate and collect data has been increasing rapidly. Not only are all of our business, scientific, and government transactions now computerized, but the widespread use of digital cameras, publication tools, and bar codes also generate data. On the collection side, scanned text and image platforms, satellite remote sensing systems, and the World Wide Web have flooded us with a tremendous amount of data. This explosive growth has generated an even more urgent need for new techniques and automated tools that can help us transform this data into useful information and knowledge.
Like the first edition, voted the most popular data mining book by KD Nuggets readers, this book explores concepts and techniques for the discovery of patterns hidden in large data sets, focusing on issues relating to their feasibility, usefulness, effectiveness, and scalability. However, since the publication of the first edition, great progress has been made in the development of new data mining methods, systems, and applications. This new edition substantially enhances the first edition, and new chapters have been added to address recent developments on mining complex types of data— including stream data, sequence data, graph structured data, social network data, and multi-relational data.
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4 Data Cube Computation and Data Generalization
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6 Classification and Prediction
7 Cluster Analysis
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9 Graph Mining Social Network Analysis and Multirelational Data Mining
10 Mining Object Spatial Multimedia Text and Web Data
11 Applications and Trends in Data Mining
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Brown, Hallie Q.
|FRANCES JANE BROWN -- April 15, 1819--April 16, 1914
|Failing Health
Mrs. Brown's health became greatly impaired and the family removed to Chatham, Ontario, remaining in that city a year, then went to the farm purchased by Mr. Brown
Early one Sabbath morning in June that home was destroyed by fire and the fairest of the family, pretty little Mary, with her winning ways, soft black curls and large dark eyes was burned to death. The house had fallen in before she was missed. When the cry came--"Where is Mary?" frantic screams from women and children were heard, terrified men ran here and there seeking the child. Mr. Brown, the father, lost his mind and was restrained by kindly hands from leaping into the flames. Again that quiet, little mother went from one to the other comforting, consoling and during that ordeal--for weeks when the father's mind was a blank--hers was the strong arm upon which the family leaned. Friends by the score came to their relief and through their aid a five-room cottage was built. Here the mother found herself--stripped of all material wealth--no fine furniture or polished mirrors; no rich carpets or silverware; no instruments of music or costly pictures; only plain deal tables and bare floors.
Soon flowers and vines bloomed and clung outside that cottage door, muslin curtains draped the windows and homemade carpets covered the floor. The mother was teaching her children how to be frugal and content. She was Mary and Martha in one. "Homewood Cottage" became a beauty spot on the 9th Concession.
Mr. Brown still plied the river for a livelihood. It was during the Civil War. One day as the boat lay in port at St. Louis, Mo., two men came aboard and asked the porter, Mr. Brown, to take charge of two large carpet bags until they had finished their shopping, taking note of the boat's departure. Always courteous and obliging, Mr. Brown readily consented. The boat left without the two men appearing. At Memphis, Tenn., officers came aboard
It was early autumn when Mrs. Brown learned of her husband's imprisonment. Not knowing how long he would be detained, she began with that calm, quiet spirit, full of determination and action, together with the help of the older children and one hired man to plan for the comfort of her family. It proved to be a most severe winter but there was plenty of meat in the smoke-house, canned and dried fruit, with jellies and pickles on the pantry shelves. The apples and vegetables were stored away; grists of flour and meal were brought from the mills; cords of wood stacked near the cottage door; the cattle were well housed with corn and fodder in crib and barn. Well, could the inmates smile at the great snow drifts that blocked the highways and piled in fantastic heaps about the cottage? All that was missing was the father far away. Words of sorrow and grief came from the helpless, imprisoned one but letters of cheer and happiness were sent to him from Homewood Cottage to brighten the gloomy cell.
Four books adorned the little center table in the home, the Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, Jane Porter's Scottish Heroes, and Spurgeon's Sermons. Each Sabbath, the children gathered around the family altar, passages from the Bible were read and then a sermon from the collection of Charles Spurgeon, the noted English preacher. During the week tales from Jane Porter's Scottish Heroes were read by a member of the family. Every evening after the milking and the chores were done, as twilight approached, a huge back log was rolled into the wide fire-place and soon warmth radiated cheer through the big living room.
The frugal meal of milk and mush was over the dishes tidied, then each would take her task. The wool would be
Deprived of the music of former years, the children sang without accompaniment making melody in their hearts.
During the short winter days there would be an occasional wood chopping bee for the boys and a quilting party for the girls. Again on the moonlight nights a sleigh ride party when several wagon beds, placed on bob-sleds, filled with soft clean hay and merry boys and girls covered with buffalo robes skimmed over miles of road while gay, happy laughter rang out on the frost-laden air.
One day in late spring when the snow had gone and the ice had melted in the nearby streams the father, emaciated and pale came home. It was a season of rejoicing in that happy re-united family. He told them how he had prayed until some one said he not only shook the jail but all St. Louis and as nothing was found against him, he was liberated. "Yes," said Mrs. Brown, "and we prayed too."
One by one the older children left the home to make nests for themselves. Two remained with the mother.
After a few years Mrs. Brown concluded to rent the farm and move to the United States, which she did taking her two youngest children Hallie Q. and John G. to Wilberforce, Ohio, where they could obtain an education at Wilberforce University. Shortly afterward a residence was purchased and the name of the Canadian abode was transferred to the Ohio one. Here in the new "Homewood Cottage" she was permitted to spend in quietude and comfort her declining years. She entered heartily into the spirit of college life and placed her children under the tutelage and training of that master instructor, President Daniel A. Payne. She befriended scores of poor, worthy students and for thirty years brought into her home young men and women to "work for their board" but treated as members of the family, many of whom are today of sterling character and worth in the arena of life.
Mrs. Brown was an active worker in the Holy Trinity Church and one of the first members of the College Aid Society, an organization formed to assist indigent students. She saw borne from the cottage door to peaceful Massie's Creek Cemetery three children and her faithful husband and companion who with her had trod the path of life together for fifty years. Two devoted daughters were left to minister to her declining years. Her influence for good was felt by student body and community while little children loved to lisp the name of "Ma" Brown, the pretty old lady.
Her gentle life and gracious presence fell as a benediction upon that home. A visiting friend remarked that it was worth a trip across the Atlantic to see her. Trained by long schooling and patient labor, possessed by great social timidity and extreme shyness, the writer often gazed on her placid face and wished that hers might grow so fair and pure. She was ninety-five years and a day when silence came to that clear voice, "Thou shall come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in His season."
A tribute to Mrs. Frances J. Brown on her 91st birthday, April 15, 1909, by Mrs. B. F. Lee, Sr.:
With glad and reverent hearts we come
Our high esteem to prove,
To bring the lady of this home
Some token of our love.
This lady fair, this mother queen,
With eyes serene and bright,
(Upon whose brow no scowl is seen)
Is ninety-one tonight.
But she is young in heart and soul,
For years have never aged
A heart so warm, with love its goal;
Nor gloom her spirit caged.
What sphere or what position high80Does our sweet lady fill?
With no ambition did she try
To gain fame's shining hill.
But hers was highest of them all
And hallowed most of heaven
Her children do arise and call
Her blest. To her is given
A calm and ripened womanhood,
Nobel type of mother;
And all that's gentle, pure and good
In her has come together.
The secret of endurance long,
By love and duty bound,
She learned and in her task grew strong
And true contentment found
We thank you for the life you live
Of labor, peace and love;
For sure the creed which you believe
Was handed from above.
The Lord bless thee and keep thee still,
O mother true and dear;
His loving grace thy cup o'erfill,
His presence be thy cheer;
His smiling countenance ne'er cease
To shield thee from all fear
And give thee everlasting peace
O mother true and dear.


text:
VANCOUVER – A Christian university that requires students to abide by a so-called community covenant forbidding intimacy outside heterosexual marriage has been cleared by the Law Society of British Columbia to open its own law school, despite complaints that the covenant discriminates against gays and lesbians.
Trinity Western University, which has about 3,600 students at its campus in Langley, B.C., southeast of Vancouver, plans to open a law school in the fall of 2016.
Gay rights advocates and some members of the legal community called on regulators and the B.C. government to reject the university's proposal, pointing to a passage in the covenant that says students must abstain from "sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman." Students can face discipline for violating the covenant, either on or off campus, according to the school's student handbook.
The school already received preliminary approval from the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, and B.C.'s Advanced Education Ministry has approved the school to grant degrees.
The Law Society of B.C.'s benchers, who act as the organization's board of governors, debated a motion Friday that could have overruled the federation's approval, but they ultimately voted 20-6 to allow the school's plans to proceed.
The controversy over Trinity Western's proposed law school fuelled a sensitive and emotional debate about how to balance the beliefs of a private Christian institution with the rights of gays and lesbians.
It's the second time in the past 15 years the school has fought — and won — for the right to demand that students adhere to its religious beliefs about sexual orientation and marriage. The university won a similar case at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2001 that focused on whether the school should be permitted to grant teaching degrees in light of its policies related to homosexuality.
The university's president, Bob Kuhn, said Friday that the law society's decision is an important victory — not just for the school but for all Christians across Canada.
"It's a great representation of freedom of religion," Kuhn said in an interview.
"If the decision had gone the other way, then those who don't want to see a Trinity Western University law school (would be) discriminating against us on the basis of religion and not showing a tolerant attitude toward people who share a different view on the definition of marriage."
Trinity Western says it will be the first Christian university in Canada to open a law school. It plans to enrol about 80 students in the first year of the program.
Kuhn said prospective students aren't asked about their sexual orientation during the application process, and he said all students are welcome at the school — as long as they agree to abide by the community covenant.
"If a gay or lesbian or bi student wished to come to Trinity Western University and wished to comply with the community covenant as it's written, then there's no problem," he said.
"If the answer would be no, then presumably they would choose another place to do their schooling."
In the late 1990s, the British Columbia College of Teachers blocked Trinity Western from granting teaching degrees over the very same issue. At the time, students were required to sign an agreement not to engage in activities that were "biblically condemned," including "homosexual behaviour."
The case went to the Supreme Court of Canada, which overturned the college's decision and said the British Columbia College of Teachers failed to offer evidence that Trinity Western graduates would go on to discriminate against students in the classroom.
At Friday's law society meeting, Vancouver-based constitutional lawyer Joseph Arvay said the school will be effectively putting up a sign at its doors telling gays and lesbians they are not welcome.
"What I fail to understand is how approving this law school in any way balances the rights of religious freedom and the rights of equality," Arvay said.
However, the majority of the speakers at the meeting urged the law society to allow the school to proceed, even as some of them condemned the community covenant.
Criminal lawyer David Crossin said the school's decision to press ahead without revising its covenant to respond to concerns about the document was discriminatory, hurtful and hypocritical.
"In my view, however, the law and the public interest demand recognition of TWU's right to conduct their affairs in this way," Crossin said.
"There is no evidence the ability of the teachers to properly teach will be compromised. There is no evidence the ability of the students to learn and think will be improperly stunted. There is no evidence the graduates will be unable or unwilling to properly serve the public and the administration of justice."
Jan Lindsay, president of the Law Society of B.C., declined to comment on the decision, but said the vote followed a thoughtful debate that saw lawyers struggle with competing charter rights.
Follow @ByJamesKeller on Twitter


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On May 8, 2013 almost 5 years after she had brutally killed her boyfriend Travis Victor Alexander, Jodi Arias was found guilty of first-degree murder. The mad woman cut Travis Alexander's throat, stabbed him multiple times and shot him in the head. Best Gore previously featured earlier leaked crime scene photos of Travis Alexander's killing, … Continue reading "Travis Alexander Autopsy Photos"
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Travis Alexander Crime Scene Photos – Murdered by Ex Girlfriend Jodi Arias
Travis Alexander was a 30 year old Mormon and motivational speaker from Arizona, USA who made a fatal mistake of getting involved with a psycho woman. He is believed to have been stabbed 27 times by his jealous ex-girlfriend Jodi Arias who also slashed his throat from ear to ear and shot him in the … Continue reading "Travis Alexander Crime Scene Photos – Murdered by Ex Girlfriend Jodi Arias"


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The Land of Mango Sunsets
Author: Dorothea Benton Frank
Format: Paperback
Pages: 528
Language: English
Publisher: HarperLuxe
Release Date: April 10, 2007
Dorothea Benton Frank writes highly addictive tales of life's conundrums with hilarity and heat. Meet Miriam Elizabeth Swanson, in a full-blown snit, buoyed by a fabulous cast that runs the gamut from insufferable to wonderful. First is the arrival of Liz Harper, Miriam's tenant from Birmingham, who sets a new cycle in motion. Her other tenant, Kevin, stalwart companion with more style than Cary Grant, shakes Miriam out of her fog to see which battles are worth the fight. Then there's Miriam's estranged son, who announces he's marrying a Jamaican woman. And what about her ex-husband, Charles, and that sordid lingerie model of his? Finally, you'll laugh and cry when Miriam meets a man named Harrison who changes her into a gal named Mellie.
Miriam spins out from the revolving door of her postured life as a Manhattan quasi-socialite while she thirsts, no, starves for recognition. It takes a few spins, dips, and one spectacular fall until Miriam gets her head on straight. Then in a whoosh she's off to the enchanted and mysterious land of Sullivans Island, deep in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.
Told straight from the heart in Frank's vivid, highly entertaining style, The Land of Mango Sunsets just might be her finest work to date. If you decide to read this book, don't make plans to do anything else for a while.


text:
Game 160: CitoGate (Toronto at Baltimore)
The overwhelming sense inside the Blue Jays clubhouse this evening was that a majority of players agree that there is a problem, the heart of the issue is manager Cito Gaston, and it needs to be addressed soon.
Said interim president Paul Beeston: "I don't believe it."
Said Gaston: "I'd really like to know what I need to change. That would be interesting. I'd like to hear it myself."
Beeston is expected to be in Baltimore on Saturday and the players plan on holding a meeting to discuss the current issues. Gaston did not seem to believe that more than a handful of players were complaining. Center fielder Vernon Wells indicated it was more than half the room.
There is a serious gap there.
"Unfortunately you're not going to have everybody that likes you on the team, that's just the way it is," Gaston said. "It doesn't bother me that there's some guys that don't like you. There's some guys that didn't like me before, they come back and they like me in the end. It's one of those things that you can't do anything about, there's not a guy on this team that I dislike."
Read bluejays.com later for more…
Today's lineups:
Fourth place AL East, 27.0
1. Jose Bautista, RF
2. Aaron Hill, 2B
3. Edwin Encarnacion, 3B
4. Vernon Wells, CF
5. Lyle Overbay, 1B
6. Randy Ruiz, DH
7. Travis Snider, LF
8. John McDonald, SS
9. Kyle Phillips, C
Starter: LHP David Purcey (1-2, 5.28)
Fifth place AL East, 41.0 GB
1. Brian Roberts, 2B
2. Cesar Izturis, SS
3. Matt Wieters, C
4. Nick Markakis, RF
5. Ty Wigginton, DH
6. Melvin Mora, 3B
7. Michael Aubrey, LF
8. Lou Montanez, LF
9. Jeff Fiorentino, CF
Starter: RHP Jason Berken (5-12, 6.51)
Don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter: @MLBastian
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21 Comments
LOL-This is all about poor little Vernon, can't handle the fact he's no longer the top dog on the team. Well Vernon, you have two options, one is to retire and take your sour look **** home and the other is to perform to the contract you have and when you do, you'll likely be top doggie again.
Frankly, please choose option one.
Hey Vernon, how's if feel to see a rook come up, have 105 at bats and hit 10 home runs-only 5 behind ya in your 616 at bats. Is that what's got ya upset Vernon. Awh, poor Vernon
Man, if Wells was a really worth big money he'd be tough enough to just suck it up and keep his mouth shut. After the year he has had and the money he has made, he should be embarrassed to be involved in anything other than an off season find his stroke program. What a whiner!
Wells is the players rep , so if a player has a greivance he is suppose to go to Wells . Nowhere in this article does it say VW was complaining, so until we have actual facts why go after Wells . Obviously there is a problem between Gaston and some of the players . Lets hope everything gets resolved
Indigo, this is one reason to assume Wells is at the center of this: Asked if it would be difficult to play under Cito again in 2010, Wells: "I cant answer that question."
Richard Griffin of the Star has a blog post covering this situation which is an interesting read. I don't often agree with him, but I do agree with a lot he says in this post, particularly, who leaked this supposed turmoil story to Ken Rosenthal of Fox news is the same guy who leaked the Halladay trade rumors, our very own JP Riccardi.
It might be that a lot of players were caught off guard and never expected this to be public. There's always some discontent in every clubhouse, particularly on clubs with years like this one, but Wells comment is a devastating one coming from someone the Jays have invested over $100 million in.
Like Billy Martin said, ( think he was referring to Reggie). Keep the half that love you away from the half that hate you. Good message for all management. Which side is Wells? Time will tell.
Casey Stengel said something similar. It was he understood that, on any baseball team, a number of players liked the manager, a number didn't like him and rest were undecided. Stengel said the most difficult part of managing was keeping the guys who hated him away from those who hadn't made up their minds.
All Blue Jay players should make three phone calls to Alex Rios, Ted Lilly and Reed Johnson. They should ask Alex how much he enjoys getting personally abused each and every day by Ozzie Guien and they should ask Reed & Ted how many times Lou Pinella butters their toast.
The Toronto Blue Jays have fired general manager J.P. Ricciardi.
Said Paul Beeston, the team's acting president, and CEO: ?This was a tough decision and a difficult one for me personally as I have enjoyed J.P.'s friendship and his perspective on the game.?
?J.P. has put an incredible amount of effort into improving the team and he has brought along a number of great young players. However, I feel that it is time for a change and accordingly we have decided to move on.?
Ricciardi, who was also senior vice-president of baseball operations, joined the Jays in 2001 and had one year left on his contract.
Filling in for him will be Alexander Anthopoulos, vice-president of baseball operations and assistant GM.
The 75-85 Jays are finishing out their regular season in Baltimore.
Ricciardi's firing comes on the heels of news of locker-room unrest with manager Cito Gaston.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you
I hope Cito's next. Not because of the players complaining, but because of his in-game managing.
Would anyone be upset if Alex isn't just interim ? I'd like to see him get a shot.
All this talk about the players complaining about Cito makes me wonder if that was one of the reason's Rolen asked to be traded.
Indigo is right by the way, Vernon is the team's player rep. so if anyone has complaints they go to him, that's why he's been the most outspoken of all this.
So long JP. I'm glad they made this move before the end of the season, maybe this will help some players decide their future.
I personally don't want Alex A to be the full time GM next season. Only for this reason, JP has spent 8 years dragging this team through the mud, and respect for this organization is at an all time low. We need to bring someone in with a good reputation, some previous GM experience, and help bring this team back up to a respectable standard, on and off the field.
Enigma-Yes Wells is the player rep, but the comment when asked if it would be difficult to play under Cito again in 2010, Wells: "I cant answer that question." suggests he's a lot more skin in this game than just the spokesman.
I stand by what I original posted on this fracas. JP is the one who leaked this story to Ken Rosenthal as a way of taking a shot at the organization on his way out the door.
Reading all the stuff written about this, it's quite clear the players were as surprised it hit the press as Cito was. Therefore, it might be that Wells himself was caught off guard when asked the question, BUT, one never bites the hand who feeds you and this organization has committed over $100 million to Vernon and have the right to expect his loyalty to the organization.
In all MLB clubhouses, there's always some grumbling and there's always some guys whining about playing time. As the player rep, Vernon should have sat down with Cito once a month or so and review any grumbling behind closed doors and deal with it at the time, but he didn't do that.
Point is,this story should have never hit the press. In that regard, I also hold Vernon responsible, because if he properly done his job as player rep, JP wouldn't have had the chance to throw the grenade into the clubhouse and cause this uproar..
Kevin Towers just got fired as the GM for the San Diego Padres. Under Towers, the small-market Padres won NL West titles in 1996, 1998, 2005 and 2006. The Padres' $43 million payroll this season is among the lowest in baseball.
Towers has a reputation for being able to trade untradeable contracts while upgrading the personal at the same time. hmmmmmmmmmmm
VW should be loyal to this club and by giving the answer he did he proved his loyalty . Any other answer would have been unacceptable as the representative of these players . How do you know VW didn't approach Gaston about the unrest , you don't unless you were in Gaston's office . One thing I do agree with is this should have never hit the press but should have been kept in house . Unless Rosenthal divulges who his source was ( I highly doubt he will ) , everything is based on speculation
Towers would be an interesting choice . The biggest problem the Jays' organization have, will be finding someone who wants to cross the border . This team has been mediocre at best and everyone wants to be on a winning team . It will cost the Jay's more money to entice staff and players to come to Canada . Jays may always have to overpay to get who or what they want
Indigo-I guess we have to agree to disagree on Wells answer. The right answer would have been "we have some communications issues which is normal considering our season, but I'm sure they can be straightened away."
There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that if Wells had approached Cito, he'd gotten a hearing. Cito said "If there were problems, I don't know why no one has talked to me about it." I believe Cito because he doesn't really need this job and in all the time he's been here as manager he's never been caught lying. I don't think he's lying now.
As a union rep VW is the voice for the whole team. If his answer had been " No we can't play under Gaston next year " or had he said " It will be no problem playing under Gaston next year" , then VW would have lost the capacity of representing all the players on the Jays' team and the respect of his fellow teammates. His only choice was to be neutral and say " I can't answer that question " . As you said no one bites the hand that feeds you , VW's answer reflected that .
One of the things I have read over and over again was that Gaston wouldn't talk about things but like I said its all speculation
Indigo-It was a question directed at Vernon personally, not the team and he didn't respond "we", he responded I. There are now numerous reports coming out that Vernon is the ringleader of this, which is hilarious because he's also the main problem as a result of not doing his job as player rep.
If Wells had went to Cito in his official capacity as players rep, Cito would HAVE to sit down and listen to him. Point is Beeston is saying the same thing and also said he was surprised that if there were issues no one talked to him.So if Wells had been turned down by Cito, he certainly didn't call Beeston.
Fact is, I believe Cito and Beeston one hell of a lot more than Vernon Wells. Now it could also be that it was Wells intention of bringing this forward at the end of the season in a private meeting with Cito and Wells himself was blindsided by JP released the story to Ken Rosenthal. In my mind, that's Vernon's only defense, but it still doesn't explain his answer to the question.
The only knowledge we have is what the media tells us, so none of us will ever know the whole truth . The whole thing is a mess and if JP leaked this , along with the Halladay debacle , then he should have been fired back then but we will never know . The only thing I know( from everything I have read ) is the fact there is a huge problem and if VW or any team member felt they couldn't go to Gaston then obviously there was no respect there. Hopefully the problems get solved and this team can get back to playing baseball .
I am not saying Wells isn't part of this but since he is the player's rep he should be the ringleader and be front and centre . He is suppose to be the players voice . The whole thing makes me sad it got this far and that it was leaked to the media . TO seems to be the drama queen of baseball lately…..the fights with Gibby and now this
From Bastian's Tweet referencing the team meeting:
Cito: Anonymous comments about him probably came from someone outside the organization. One team source relayed a similar story. More later.
Doc, on Cito situation: "The players being on the ledge was kind of brought up by people who aren't associated with the situation."
Two meetings today. Beeston met with some players to discuss recent reports about Cito. Team held meeting at park to talk GM situation.
Anthopoulos will be the general manager going forward, unless the new president (whenever he is hired) decides to bring in his own GM.


text:
Smith, Amanda
It was in September, 1872, just after the camp meeting at Williamsville. When I went to Williamsville I had not thought anything about going to Knoxville. But while there a number of the friends thought I ought to go to Knoxville. Well, I hadn't prayed anything about it, so didn't know. I stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Little, who had charge of the book store. There was a Rev. Mr. Ford, who was Presiding Elder, or Pastor, of the Methodist Church at Knoxville. He was making the arrangements about the camp meeting, and about Brother Inskip's coming to Knoxville.
One day I came in and they were talking, and Mrs. Little said to me, a little while after, that she was not feeling at all pleased at some things she had heard them say, and that she did not care to go. "But," she said, "Henry is going, and I suppose I will have to go."
"What is it?" I said.
"Why," she said, "they don't want you to go, and say it will not do if you go, at all."
"Why," I said, "I was not thinking about going. I have not asked the Lord anything about going, and I do not know as He wants me to go."
"Well," she said, "I would like to have you go, but then it is down South, and they are afraid it will hurt their meeting if you go."
"I would not go for anything," I said. "I am so anxious for everybody to get the blessing of sanctification, I don't want to go and hinder anybody, not for the world."
At dinner time I went up to the tent of the lady who had invited me to dinner. When I got there I found dear Sister Inskip
Then I began to think there was more in what Mrs. Little said than I had at first thought. So I said, "I want everybody to get blessed, and I don't want to go unless the Lord wants me to go."
So there was not any more said directly about it. But somehow after that I got a very deep conviction that I was to go. I was sorry, for I thought, "Now, if I go after what Sister Inskip has said, I am afraid they will think I have done it impertinently."
That night dear Brother Wells preached. It was on Saturday night. I heard a little of the sermon. Up to that time it had been pretty uphill work. There was a great deal of opposition on the subject of holiness all through that part of Illinois, that had grown out of some very grave inconsistencies on the part of some who had been prominent in the profession and exposition of this great and blessed truth.
There was a great deal of earnest praying to be done. The Lord helped Brother Wells to preach, but I got under such dreadful conviction about the way they were feeling about my going to Knoxville, that I left and went down in the woods. It was dark, very dark, and I got down by a big log and asked the Lord if He would make it clear to me whether I was to go to Knoxville. If He said "Go," all right.
"But, Lord, I want to know. I don't want to hinder anybody from getting the blessing; and if my going will hinder anybody, or hinder this blessed work, I don't want to go. Now make it so clear what Thy will is in the matter that I will not be mistaken. And now, Lord, I ask thee for this evidence. If it is thy will for me to go, put it into somebody's heart to get me fifty dollars."
The rest of the people, who were invited to go to help in the work, had their expenses provided; but they didn't provide any for me, for the reason I have already said. So I thought I would ask the Lord for this great sum, for I thought fifty dollars was a great deal to ask for, and if I would ask for that much I would
Just as I went to get up from my knees, a suggestion like this came:
"You know the Kuklux are down there, and they might kill you."
Then I knelt down again, and thought it all over; and I said, "Lord, if being a martyr for Thee would glorify Thee, all right; but then, just to go down there and be butchered by wicked men for their own gratification, without any reference to Thy glory, I'm not willing. And now, Lord, help me. If Thou dost want me to do this, even then, give me the grace and enable me to do it."
Then these words came: "My grace is sufficient for thee." And I said, "All right," and got up.
I came up to the tent where I was staying, at Mrs. Little's, with perfect triumph. I never said a word to her, or to anyone.
On Sunday morning at the eight o'clock meeting, which was always a very grand meeting, I arose, and the Lord led me to relate my experience; how the Lord sanctified my soul; and the Holy Spirit seemed to fall on the people in a very powerful manner as I related my experience. And the Spirit said to one lady, "Get Amanda Smith fifty dollars to go to Knoxville."
This lady was the wife of a minister, Rev. Mr. Gardner. She had had a wonderful struggle for the blessing of a clean heart, and she told the Lord when she was consecrating herself to Him, that she would do anything He told her. So when the Spirit suggested this to her, she said, "I'll do it."
This she told me afterward. I did not know anything about it at the time.
There was a Mrs. Reeves, of Girard, O., there, and her friend, a Mrs. Smith, who had come with her; I had met Mrs. Reeves before, at Urbana, O., and so knew her, and had been at her home. She said to me on Sunday afternoon, just after the afternoon preaching was over:
"Mrs. Smith and I are going down to Springfield to see Lincoln's monument tomorrow morning; we want to start away about eight o'clock; wouldn't you like to go?"
"Oh, I was delighted. I didn't know this was anywhere in the region where Lincoln's monument was. Of course I was glad of the opportunity, and went with them. We were gone all day. I went up into the top of the monument and wrote on the wall, "Rock of Ages."
I shall never forget that wonderful scene to me. I had never seen anything like it before in my life.
After we had visited round and seen what we could, we came back, and got back to the camp ground about half-past five o'clock. Brother and Sister Inskip, with a number of the other brethren and friends, had been invited to Mrs. Blank's tent to tea. Mrs. Little and I had been invited also. When I got there they were just through tea, and they said, "Oh, Mrs. Smith, we have been waiting for you, but we could not wait any longer."
"Oh, I'm so glad; I just this minute got here."
Mrs. Inskip was just going off to take charge of the Young People's Meeting; she said, "As soon as you are through, Mrs. Smith, I want you to come down and help me in the Young People's Meeting."
I noticed that a number of these young people kept smiling and laughing, and I could not tell what was up.
So Mrs. Inskip went on, and I sat down to have my tea. Then I noticed several of the gentlemen and ladies, and they talked and smiled, and I said, "What is up? You all seem to be so happy."
"Oh, well, Mrs. Smith," they said, "never mind; when you are through, come into the tent; we want to see you before you go to Mrs. Inskip's meeting."
They had a long table spread in the rear of the tent, in the old-fashioned camp meeting style, loaded with good things.
Now I had not breathed to a soul what I had prayed about. No one knew but God the prayer I prayed in the woods on Saturday night before. When I got through my supper I went into the tent; and after a little pleasant passing of words, a gentleman arose and said, "Well, Sister Smith, Sister Gardner, and some other ladies, have got a little purse for you, and they want me to present it to you, for you to go to Knoxville;" then handing it over to me, he presented me with fifty dollars and fifty-five cents.
Well, there was my money for Knoxville. Mrs. Gardner told me she could have got a hundred dollars just as easy as she got the fifty; but the word of the Lord to her was, "Get Amanda Smith fifty dollars to go to Knoxville."
I didn't go till the meeting had been in session about three days. I thought I would give them a chance to see what the results were before I got there, and what the bad effects might be after I got there. But the Lord was on my side, now may Israel say, to give me a clear assurance, and to make it plain to others, that I had not gone myself, but that He had sent me.
It was terribly uphill during those three days. Prejudice against the doctrine was strong. There had been some blessing, but not what they called a break. And yet there were some that were a little afraid that any little indication that had been seen, would be retarded by my appearance. So some of the good folks said, when they heard that I was on the ground, they were very sorry, for I must not expect to be treated as I was treated at home; meaning the North; poor things!.
I went straight to Sister Little's, for she told me if I did come, to come right to them; they would have room in their tent. They generally had a large tent, for it was the book store, and a kind of general office. And I had my bed-tick, and would generally get it filled, and then my sheet and quilt and pillows, I took along myself; so at night, when the office was closed, we put up the partition, and I made my bed down on the floor, and it was beautiful. Then, I was up always early in the morning so as to be out of the way before the time to open the office and book store.
It was Saturday, about two o'clock, I think, when I got there. When the afternoon service was over, I saw dear Brother Grey, of Philadelphia, standing talking very earnestly to a brother. I did not know who the minister was; but they were very close to Brother Little's tent, and I saw that Brother Grey made several attempts to get away, and every way he would start this brother would get in ahead of him and hinder him. I knew Brother Grey, and knew he was a good man, and I felt sorry for him. At last, I said to Sister Little, "Who is that man talking to Brother Grey?"
"Oh," she said, "that is Rev. Mr. So and So," calling him by name. "He is arguing on the subject of holiness. He is terribly bitter against the doctrine."
"What," I said, "and a preacher, too?"
"Yes," she said, "and he has had Brother Grey pinned up against that tree for more than an hour. I believe he is in some real estate business now, down South here. He is not in the regular ministry."
"Well," I said, "the Lord bless him. We will have to pray him loose."
I don't know when he let poor Brother Grey off, but I know it was very late; almost time for the evening service to commence.
I do not know who preached Saturday night, but my heart was burdened in prayer. On Sunday morning at eight o'clock, Brother Little was lead the Love Feast service. I was very glad Brother Little had charge of that meeting, as I knew he would not hinder me from speaking as the Lord might lead. Brother Inskip preached at eleven. So the Lord laid it on my heart very heavily that I was to relate my personal experience of how the Lord led me into the blessing of entire sanctification.
The brother that had been talking and arguing so with Brother Grey sat way back in the congregation. It was in the big tent; I shall never forget it. There was a side where the colored people all sat, specially. So I sat on that side, quite near the front, and I kept looking to the Lord to indicate to me when he wanted me to talk. The testimonies and songs went on. There was a beautiful spirit in the meeting. Finally the time came when the Spirit bade me speak. I arose; a good brother from Philadelphia, I forget his name, sat very near me, and he was watching this brother that had been such an opponent; so, as I related how the Lord had led me, and my struggles and difficulties, the Lord blessed me and gave me great liberty in speaking. My! how my soul triumphed. The Spirit of God seemed to fall on the people; it took hold of this brother; I suppose I talked about fifteen minutes, and when I got through I had not more than taken my seat when this brother sprang to his feet, and holding up his hand he said:
"Hold on, brethren, hold on, hold on!" and walked to the front, weeping like a child. Oh! how he wept! "I want to say one word."
The shouts and amens and hallelujahs were full and free. The brother turned round and faced the congregation, straightened himself up, and braced himself, so as to control his feelings till he could get a start. Finally he said, "Brethren, I have been a Methodist preacher for so many years; I was converted at such a time; I entered the ministry," etc. "I have had a great deal of prejudice against these brethren coming here, and I have fought this subject of holiness." And he went on with his confession. But such a confession! And he ended by saying, "This colored sister, who has given us her experience, God bless her." Then he
"When I heard this colored sister tell how God had led her and brought her into this blessed experience, the darkness swept away and God has saved me, and I see the truth as I never did before. Glory to God."
Oh! what a shout! From that time the tide rose and swept on. The last night of the meeting came, and I was in Sister Little's tent. It was eleven o'clock at night. Sister Little had not been very well, and I was getting ready for bed; but the curtain was down, and I was sitting by Sister Little's bed talking with her and rubbing her arm. Brother Inskip did not know I was in the tent, and he came in; and I heard him say to Brother Little. "We have had a grand day; the Lord has been with us; and, after all, I was mistaken in not wanting Sister Smith to come. I tell you, Brother Little, God sent her."
And Sister Little wanted to say, "Amanda Smith is here now;" but I said, "No, no, don't say it: don't let him know it." This I heard with my own ears; and I would not let Sister Little call Brother Inskip. God bless him, for I know he only wished me well, and his only reason for thinking I should not go, was for my own good, and that of the meeting as well. But how far God's ways are above our ways, and His thoughts above our thoughts. It is safe to obey always, even though you may not always be able to explain. Amen. Amen.
I remained a few days in town, and held some meetings with my own people, which the Lord greatly blessed. Quite a revival broke out, and a number were converted. On Saturday afternoon, after the close of the camp meeting, I was down street doing a little shopping. On my way home I heard singing in the Presbyterian Church, though I didn't know it was a Presbyterian Church, then. The singing was beautiful; it sounded so much like home. They were singing that dear old hymn! "Jesus, Lover of my Soul," to the old tune. I listened, and wanted to go in, but did not dare to. The church was on the same block with the Methodist Church. I said to myself, "If I didn't have this parcel I would go in."
Just opposite, on the other side of the street, a colored nurse girl was out in the yard with a little child. I said to her, "What kind of a church is that where they are singing so?"
"I don't know," she said, "but I think it is a Presbyterian.'
"I would go in if I didn't have these parcels."
"I will keep them for you," she said; "I will be out here with the child for some time."
So I handed her my parcels, and I went into the church. When I went to go in, there lay right across the door a large Newfoundland dog. I stood for a minute, and I thought, "Well, he must be a pretty good sort of a dog to be at church on Saturday morning." I touched him with my foot. He quietly lifted his head, looked at me, and lay down again, and I stepped over him and went in and sat down on a seat just behind the door. The first thing that struck me was the face of the minister; it was as radiant as a sunbeam. How beautiful! His name was Mc Ewen. After he had given out some notices he announced his text, Isa. 35:8: "A highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness," etc. And he preached a straight, clear, orthodox holiness sermon; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and upon all the people. He was not demonstrative; calm, but, Oh, deep and powerful! The people went and sobbed. I wanted to shout "Glory to Jesus;" but I said, "Oh, Lord, help me, and hold me still;" for I knew they were not used to any such thing, and it would have embarrassed the minister and confused, if not frightened, the people; and the only good it would have done, if any, at that time, would have been to me only.
So the Lord turned the big gush of praise into oil, and a wave of blessing passed so sweetly over my soul. Oh! it was like honey and oil mingled. It was indescribably beautiful, and sweet and heavenly. I shall never forget it. Praise the Lord!
When the meeting closed the people passed out. I heard some ladies say, "What in the world was the matter with Mr. Mc Ewen? I never heard him preach so before."
"Oh, wasn't that a wonderful sermon?" said one. And another said:
"I think he has been to that holiness camp meeting."
And so he had, and had found the pearl of greatest price, even the blessing of a clean heart.
A lady came up to me and said so kindly (for they did not seem to be surprised to see me), "You are Amanda Smith?"
"I saw you at the camp meeting the other day. Our minister has got the blessing."
"Yes," I said, "I know the ring."
"We have been praying for him for five years. He's such a beautiful spirit, you would enjoy meeting him."
So she appointed an afternoon, and I went to her house, and what a blessed afternoon I spent in her parlor, and that at Knoxville, Tenn. I sang for them, and prayed, and told them how the Lord led me into the blessed soul rest after years of wandering. And I believe the Lord made it a farther blessing to this dear minister.
So Mrs. McEwen, the lady who had invited me to her house, (for that was her name, though she and the minister were no relation to each other), and who was a beautiful Christian lady, told me that she had got the blessed experience of full salvation some years before, reading Mrs. Phebe Palmer's book, "The Way of Faith;" and for years she had taken "The Guide to Holiness." She said there was not one in their church, when she sought and found the blessing; but that there were two other ladies, friends of hers, and members of the same church, who, like herself, longed for a deeper experience, and their custom was to meet once a week, and pray for the minister, and pray for themselves.
One day she went alone into her garret, so as to be away from every one, and there, as she knelt and prayed, the Lord seemed to open the windows of Heaven to her soul, and she was flooded with light and peace. She said: "I was so filled, I praised the Lord at the top of my voice. I came down and put on my things and went to see my dear Mrs. Blank. She was delighted; and we had a good time rejoicing together. A few days later she came out clear. Then the other. Now, we must still pray more earnestly for our minister, that he may see the truth and get the blessing." She said he was such a good man, and everyone liked him; but still there was a lack of real unction in his preaching. But she said all these years they never breathed it to him that they were praying for him. She had told him about the "Guide," and given him a copy several, times when he made his pastoral call, but every week for five long years these ladies met and prayed for their minister, and kept quiet, and now the answer had come. Oh, how full of delight and joy they were!
I think there might be similar results if there were more praying in the closet for the preacher. Don't talk much, but united, pray.
"Pray, if thou canst or canst not speak,
But pray with faith in Jesus' name."
She said about a year or two after she had got the experience her husband failed in business, and they lost nearly everything they had. But she said "The Lord kept me so quiet in my soul; and I believe but for this grace I never could have gone through what I did." She said her husband could not understand it, and sometimes he would feel vexed with her because she did not worry. "He said I seemed as though I did not care. But Oh, how I had to hold on to God for him. It seemed he would lose his mind at times. Praise the Lord, He kept me. Oh, Sister Smith, what deep waters God brought me through. How true His Word."
"Many shall be purified,
And made white and tried;
But the hand that purifies,
So we are quite safe. Only hold still. Amen.


text:
May 7, 2019
At times one forgets that as children created in the image and likeness of God, our physical existence reflects the beauty of who God is and how we are called to worship Him. Attuned to this point, the way we position ourselves to profess the Blessed Trinity takes on greater significance when we recognize and acknowledge that God should be adored and reverenced in a holy and acceptable way.
We see this practice on display with specific men consecrated to assist us in worshipping and praying to our Lord in a holy way. These men consecrated as priests, i.e. servants of Christ and His Gospel, wear distinctive liturgical attire representing their sacred duty to provide the faithful with the opportunity to profess Christ and celebrate his ultimate sacrifice through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Their priestly vestments signify a sense of sacredness, order, and sanctity because priestly vestment are aimed to adore Christ. Whether the color of the chasuble is green for ordinary time, or violet for Lent or Advent, the vestments are specifically aimed to assist the Priest who acts in the person of Christ to reflect Him especially in the celebration and our participation in the Mass.
The origins of priestly vestments can be found in the book of Exodus (28:2-3): "Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron, to give him dignity and honor. Tell all the skilled men to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron for his consecration, so he may serve me as priest." The Roman Cassock for instance serves as the appropriate ecclesiastical or Church garb for all clerics and is typically black to signify simplicity and penance.
The premise of priestly vestments was to assure that a priest was first and foremost a servant of the Gospel meaning his duty was to serve the Church. His liturgical vestments are an extension of his duty and ministry to the Church and reflective of the call to serve in the name of Christ. What are the garments a priest wears and what are they called? The cincture is a rope that ties together everything the priest wears — including the chasuble, the alb, and the stole — so it's not flying all over when the priest is celebrating Mass. It symbolizes spiritual watchfulness.
The alb is a garment of authority, signifying purity. A priest would most likely wear it underneath the chasuble when he celebrates Mass. An acolyte or separate minister assisting at the Mass might also wear this white garment.
The outer garment, the chasuble, is specific to the priest, who was given the ability through the gift of his priesthood to consecrate the elements of bread and wine at the holy sacrifice of the Mass.
The Roman collar is an adaptation from the 12th and 13th century, attributed to Pope Urban, to give a sense of authority and reverence. The collar was typically also associated with the black cassock as well.
|Father Maurice Moon celebrates Mass at the Middle School rally.(NTC/Juan Guajardo)
What is the meaning of the stole?
The stole is a long strip of fabric worn by deacons, priests, and bishops as a sign of Holy Orders. The deacon wears the stole diagonally on his left shoulder, and the priest wears it around his neck over both shoulders.
What are the origins of the priesthood vestments?
They can be attributed to Exodus 28 in particular. This particular chapter really gives an impression of the priesthood vestments and that they should be strictly reserved to worshipping God. And so these vestments are connected to the Holy of Holies or the Holy Temple, the Ark of the Covenant, or the Tabernacle. So whoever is the minister or part of the Levitical priesthood would wear this particular vestment as a preparation for the celebration of the worship of God in the Holy Tabernacle sacrifice.
Why do priests wear black?
Black signifies austerity and discipline, it signifies purity, and it signifies humility. The color black was attributed between the 12th and 13th century as part of the original cassock and Roman collar that priests would wear. The Church wanted a distinction for the priest to stand out and to understand their servanthood with respect to being a priest.
What do different liturgical colors signify?
Development of these colors spans from the beginning of the Church in the first century, all the way through the 16th century. For example, white, typically associated with a priest's alb, is meant to symbolize purification or making a sacrifice.
Green typically refers to the ordinary time of the Church, beginning prior to the fourth century and developed all the way through the 12th century to describe "normal time" in the Church.
Red is very significant because it signifies martyrdom. The color red is used within the Church for specific feast days; for example, Good Friday, Pentecost, and Corpus Christi. It's a representation of Christ who died on the cross and His martyrdom that occurred at the three o'clock hour. Red is also used throughout the liturgical year when we have a particular feast day of a saint who died a martyr.
The color black signifies death. It is not uncommon to see black vestments worn by a priest during a funeral Mass or to signify someone who has passed on from this world to the next.
Purple or violet signifies penance. This color received some of its identity around the fourth century and was attributed loosely to St. Augustine and the whole process of the catechumenate, or those who came into the Church. It signifies a willingness to let go of worldly desires and embrace Christ. So typically you have this color during Advent and during Lent because both these seasons center on preparation, anticipation, humility, and sacrifice.
Another color we typically see at different times of the year is rose, which signifies joyful anticipation. Priests wear rose chasubles and stoles on the third Sunday of Advent, as we anticipate the birth of our Lord, and the fourth Sunday of Lent, because we know that Easter is coming.
What does the color gold signify?
The color gold is very significant because it's attributed to a king. So you would typically see the color gold worn during the feast of Christ the King, or on a significant feast, say the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter that we just celebrated in February. And during the Easter season as well, where you'd see white and gold linens because we say "Alleluia" to our Lord, He is risen, He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
At times one forgets that as children created in the image and likeness of God, our physical existence reflects the beauty of who God is and how we are called to worship Him.


text: A trio of stories by a trio of brilliant creative teams! A spectacular adventure with Cliff and a prowling Japanese submarine could spell the end of the Rocketeer, while a day at the beach becomes anything but relaxing for Cliff, Betty and Peevy. Plus a story of a sexy Nazi saboteur hell-bent on acquiring Cliff's jetpack!


text:
Pulmonary function tests (PFTs) are noninvasive tests that show how well the lungs are working. The tests measure lung volume, capacity, rates of flow, and gas exchange. This information can help your healthcare provider diagnose and decide the treatment of certain lung disorders.
There are 2 types of disorders that cause problems with air moving in and out of the lungs:
PFT can be done with 2 methods. These 2 methods may be used together and perform different tests, depending on the information that your healthcare provider is looking for:
PFT measures:
Normal values for PFTs vary from person to person. The amount of air inhaled and exhaled in your test results are compared to the average for someone of the same age, height, sex, and race. Results are also compared to any of your previous test results. If you have abnormal PFT measurements or if your results have changed, you may need other tests.
There are many different reasons why pulmonary function tests (PFTs) may be done. They are sometimes done in healthy people as part of a routine physical. They are also routinely done in certain types of work environments to ensure employee health (such as graphite factories and coal mines). Or you may have PFTs if your healthcare provider needs help to diagnose you with a health problem such as:
PFTs may be used to check lung function before surgery or other procedures in patients who have lung or heart problems, who are smokers, or who have other health conditions. Another use of PFTs is to assess treatment for asthma, emphysema, and other chronic lung problems. Your healthcare provider may also have other reasons to advise PFTs.
Because pulmonary function testing is not an invasive procedure, it is safe and quick for most people. But the person must be able to follow clear, simple directions.
All procedures have some risks. The risks of this procedure may include:
In some cases, a person shouldn't have PFTs. Reasons for this can include:
Your risks may vary depending on your general health and other factors. Ask your healthcare provider which risks apply most to you. Talk with him or her about any concerns you have.
Certain things can make PFTs less accurate. These include:
Your healthcare provider will explain the procedure to you. Ask him or her any questions you have. You may be asked to sign a consent form that gives permission to do the procedure. Read the form carefully. Ask questions if anything is not clear.
Tell your healthcare provider if you take any medicines. This includes prescriptions, over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements.
Make sure to:
Your height and weight will be recorded before the test. This is done so that your results can be accurately calculated.
You may have your procedure as an outpatient. This means you go home the same day. Or it may be done as part of a longer stay in the hospital. The way the procedure is done may vary. It depends on your condition and your healthcare provider's methods. In most cases, the procedure will follow this process:
If you have a history of lung or breathing problems, you may be tired after the tests. You will be given a chance to rest afterwards. Your healthcare provider will talk with you about your test results.