Ritual

Yardmaster Checks The Telephone Operator For The Time (illustration)

A railroad yardmaster called the telephone daily at exactly 11:45 to verify the time. After years of this ritual, the operator asked the yardmaster, “Why do you call each day at exactly the same time?"

Banning of Dangerous Rituals (illustration)

In a news item, snake-handling and the drinking of poison in connection with religious services were reportedly banned by the Tennessee Supreme Court. Liston Pack, a lay pastor of the Holiness Church of God in Jesus Name near Newport in eastern Tennessee, had been barred by a cou …

Going Through Unnecessary Ritual (illustration)

The average business executive spends about 60 hours a year on hold on the telephone, according to a survey. He/she also spends 32 minutes a day reading and writing unnecessary memos, or 128 hours a year; and an hour and 12 minutes a day at unnecessary meetings, or 288 hours a …

A Young Pastor Witnessed to An Islamic Man (illustration)

Each day the young pastor stopped at a deli-market for fruit juice on the way to Church. On many occasions he shared his faith in Jesus Christ with the Islamic man behind the counter. The Islamic man could not understand why the young pastor’s God would be willing to suffer. Ther …

The “Mush God” (illustration)

The “Mush God” has been known to appear to millionaires on golf courses. He appears to politicians at ribbon-cutting ceremonies and to clergymen speaking the invocation on national TV. The “Mush God” has no tenets of faith, nothing that would make it difficult …