Practical Thoughts

Dear Reader, A believer (or knower) of God will, without hesitation, seek help from the object of his adoration, particularly when in some danger.  There are countless times when God's  protection   has been sought, but there are some stories about this aspect that stand out in ordinary human experience. Two such stories follow, the first about an American Army unit at war: Over 100 years ago, during World War I, the 91st Infantry Brigade was preparing to enter combat in Europe. The Brigade Commander, a devout Christian, assembled his troops and gave each of them a little card on which was printed the 91st Psalm, the same number Psalm as their brigade. They agreed to recite that Psalm daily. After they had begun praying the Psalm, the 91st Brigade was engaged in three of the bloodiest battles of World War I — Chateau Thierry, Belle Wood and the Argonne. Other American units that fought in the same battles had up to 90 percent casualties, but the 91st Brigade did not...

Dear Reader, In a world where obfuscation creates a fog in our daily lives whenever we read a newspaper or watch the TV news, what appeared this week in the press should not be surprising. But it was: to me at least.  A few times in the week I purchase the only so-called 'quality newspaper' that my budget will allow: the i . Generally, it gives me a reasonable view of what is happening in the affairs of this world, but there are quite a few times when it has let me down. And this week was one of those weeks where it let me down. I suppose my reactions are as a result of having a good insight into Indian culture (for a Westerner, at least) as I had been following the early stories of the India-Pakistan conflict and gained a clear perspective that India felt it had to take some punitive action as a result of terrorist activities in Kashmir, by a group that is based in Pakistan. That terrorist activity had killed 40. However, the way that the   i   (and the BB...