God's Inexpressible Gift
Sermon
Christmas Is For The Young... Whatever Their Age
16 Christmas Sermon Stories
Object:
Gift buying has become a major business at Christmastime in America and in other parts of the world, hasn't it? It is not always easy to know what is the appropriate gift for someone we love and care about. Sometimes our gifts may reflect more the individual who gives them than the one who receives them. This is typified to me by the story of the elderly aunt who sent pincushions to her nieces. You may have heard about one of her nieces who received one of the pincushions. She wrote a thank-you note which expressed her feelings: "Dear Auntie, thank you for the pin cushion. I have always wanted one, but not very much."
I guess it is very difficult for us to send a gift to reflect the individuality of the giver and also to reflect the needs and wishes of the recipient. It is not always easy to get those two together. But that is a part of our struggle in gift giving at Christmastime, isn't it? In all of our giving of gifts to each other, let us not lose sight of the major reason for Christmas -- the giving of the great gift from God -- Jesus.
The Indescribable Gift
I sometimes fear that in all of our gift giving, as wonderful as it may be as a reflection of our love for each other, we often forget to focus on the gift. The birth of God's Son is the reason for the celebration of the Christmas season. Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 9:15 state, "Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift." Let's look again at that great gift and see if we can sense its real value and meaning.
Beyond Words
Translators have rendered the Greek word translated "inexpressible" sometimes as "indescribable," or as the New English Bible states, "beyond words." Many have wrestled with ways they could express their thanks to God for this gift. Great scholars, theologians, and poets have tried to put into words their understanding and interpretation of the miracle of Christ's birth. They have discovered that no matter how gifted verbally they might be, their words are always inadequate. When it comes to describing the wonder of Jesus' birth, they soon realized that their best logic was flawed and even their most poetic expressions could never totally capture what God had done through his Son. Artists, through their painting, pictures, sculptures, carvings, and architecture, have tried to express the wonder, mystery, glory, and richness of God's gift. What they could not put into words they expressed symbolically. Raphael painted 56 Madonnas in an attempt to try to capture the indescribable wonder of what God had done in Christ's birth.
Music is another way that men and women have tried to describe the indescribable. These expressions have ranged from silly songs to sacred ones, from country to classical, from rock to contemporary. Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Handel's Messiah, and Vivaldi's Gloria are all expressions in majestic ways of the wonder of the angel's announcement. Music is another way to say, "Thanks be to God." But words or music have never been adequate to describe such glory. The poet, Richard Crashaw (1613-1640), tried to capture the wonder in these words.
Welcome all wonders in one sight --
Eternity shut in a span,
Summer in winter, day in night,
Heaven in earth, and God in man.
Blest little one! whose all embracing birth
Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth!1
But poetic words, music, or artistic expressions cannot totally describe the indescribable gift of God.
Unspeakable Love
This indescribable gift also denotes unspeakable love. "For God so loved the world," John wrote. "We love because God first loved us," the epistle of John states. This gift, about which Paul wrote, describes God's eternal love which has reached down through the centuries to draw men and women to him. God's love is personal. God's love is not primarily abstract or something we just read about. God's love became personalized through a human being. "In the beginning was the Word," John said, "and the Word was with God and the Word was God ... The Word became flesh." The Greek meaning for the word "became" is "tabernacled among us." God pitched his tent among us. J. Gordon Kingsley translates that phrase this way: "God makes his dwelling place, his tenement, his rescue mission dormitory, his cottage, his condominium, his townhouse, his ranch-style home, his mansion with us and in us."2 Through this life we can see what God's nature was like. God did not give us merely an idea or a thought about God's nature. God sent a person -- his Son, and in the example of his life and death, we are able to see what God's nature is like.
What is God like? Look at Jesus Christ his Son. The nature of God has been disclosed through him. This is the miracle of Christmas -- the incarnation -- God among us. It is a marvelous truth to realize that we are able to know such wonderful love.
Through the giving of gifts, we try to express something of our love for another person. For many of us, it is very difficult to look at someone and say to him or her, "I love you." In this Christmas season, how many sons or daughters, mothers or fathers will sit down with each other and say, "I want you to know I love you and I appreciate you. You mean everything to me." Few, if any, will do that. Few will be able to verbalize their feelings. I think a gift is sometimes a way of trying to say: "I love you." The gift expresses what these people can't verbalize. God's greatest gift was given personally through his Son. Through this gift he said supremely, "I love you."
Love For Everyone
But remember God's love is directed to everyone. "For God so loved the world." "Unto you a son [gift] is given," Isaiah exclaimed. He will be Savior to everyone who responds to this love. A young son was walking with his father one day when they saw a sign posted on a fence that read: "No trespassing." The young boy asked, "Daddy, how come they don't put up signs that say, 'Trespassing'? I would like to go some place where there would be a sign that would say, 'Welcome. Anybody who wants to walk in this place is given permission. You are welcome to come and trespass on this property.' "
God has put out a sign which says: "Welcome, welcome." No matter what path you have walked down, no matter what sin you have committed, no matter how far away from home and God you may have wandered, the sign that is put out for you at Christmas is that beautiful banner which says, "Welcome back." You can come home again. God loves you, and God cares about you and your needs. You cannot wander too far from him. You can never be so low, you can never be so far away from God, that his arms cannot reach out to you and draw you back to himself. When he does, he will exclaim, "I love you."
Thomas Wolfe wrote a number of autobiographical novels. In one of these novels there is a character named George Weber who was six feet ten inches tall, like Thomas Wolfe, who was also very tall. He was clearly writing about himself. George Weber was a writer, who was living in New York City. Thomas Wolfe had lived in New York City for a while. Whenever George would become depressed and life would become difficult because his creativity as a writer had hit a dry period, he would go back home to North Carolina. Wolfe was also from North Carolina. Weber would return to a small cabin in the mountains to visit his mother. She would always be there to greet him. He and his mother would sit down on the top step to the porch. This huge hulk of a man would sit down beside his mother and lay his head in her lap. Neither said anything for a long time as his mother gently put her hand on his shoulder. Presently she would say, "George, it's going to be all right, whatever it is, it's going to be all right."
This Christmas, remember that you can come back to God, lay your head on God's lap, and he will stroke you with the hand of his love and say: "It's okay. It is going to be all right. You do not face your problems alone. I am here, and I love you." There is unspeakable love in God's gift to us.
Unspeakable Costs
Go further and note that this indescribable gift also reveals unspeakable cost. There was great sacrifice in Jesus' coming into the world. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God." Paul wrote that "Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he laid it aside and took on the form of a human being" (Philippians 2:6-7 cf). The Word became flesh.
The one who had been in the bosom of the Father had now descended into our world and was held in the arms of Mary. The one who had been dwelling in the majesty of the presence of the eternal God of the universe was now lying in a manger. The one who had been in the threshold of the heavenly realm now walked on a threshing floor in Nazareth. God humbled himself and came uniquely into the world in human form.
How can we describe the sacrifice of one who was made sin for us? We cannot begin to imagine the kind of sacrifice that had to be! God spared not his own Son. God came into the world at great personal sacrifice to express God's love for you and me. Such love is beyond our understanding. Here is the great mystery of God that is revealed at Christmas: Emmanuel, God is with us. There is no way that words can fully describe the mystery of the eternal God who has come into time through Jesus Christ and lived among us. In this Christmas season, we celebrate again the great sacrifice of God's love for us. Listen to the words of the hymnist, Harry Webb Farrington, as he attempts to express the mystery of such an event.
I know not how that Bethlehem's Babe
Could in the God-head be;
I only know the Manger Child
Has brought God's life to me.3
We can't explain it, but we can experience it.
Responding To The Indescribable Gift
What then is our response to this unspeakable, indescribable gift? Our responses may take various forms. Let's look at several.
A Response Of Gratitude
Our response should begin with gratitude. Paul exclaimed: "Thanks be to God!" We should feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for God's great love to us. This gratitude should then move us to our knees where we bow in adoration and praise to God. When the wise men found the Christ Child whom they had been seeking, they worshiped him. In this Christmas season, let your gratitude burst into praise and adoration. Let us worship again the God who has revealed himself in such marvelous love.
Share The Gift With Others
We also should be willing to share this love with others. Having experienced such grace as you and I claim we have, we will want to share it with someone else and not keep it to ourselves. When I was in seminary, one of the theologians we studied was Paul Tillich. One of his basic expressions about God was "ultimate concern." Two students were talking one day about Tillich's concept of ultimate concern. Finally one of the students expressed his feelings this way, "What I really want to know is whether the ultimate is concerned about me." The Christmas message is the bold proclamation that the ultimate God is concerned about you and me. Having experienced such love, we should want to share it with others.
Why should we keep this love just for a few moments or a day? Henry Van Dyke in his book, The Spirit of Christmas, reminds us of this truth.
Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people and to remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you and to think what you owe the world; to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground; to see that your fellow men are just as real as you are, and to try to look behind their faces to their hearts hungry for joy; to own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life; to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe, and to look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness -- are you willing to do these things for a day? Then you can keep Christmas ... Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world -- stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death -- and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the eternal love? Then you can keep Christmas. And if you keep it for a day, why not always? But, you can never keep it alone.4
We are called upon to share this love with other people by living a life that reflects this love in all we say and do.
The Gift Of Your Presence
What present did you give another person this Christmas? Maybe the greatest present you can give is your presence. Your presence of time, hope, encouragement, a listening ear, and concern may be your best gift. Your presence to the elderly, sick, those in the hospital, and those who are grieving will comfort and strengthen them. The greatest present you can give this Christmas is your presence. Reach out and embrace another with your concern and love. The great gift which God gave us was his presence among us through Christ. Now this presence continues to abide with us through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Let's celebrate this presence.
When John Killinger was pastor in Lynchburg, Virginia, a young woman named Betty Jo Kendall was called to be the Christian education director at the church. The first Christmas at the church, she directed a Christmas pageant with angels, shepherds, wise men, and the other familiar figures. Each child who represented the angels was to bring a gift to the Christ Child. Some decided to bring toys or stuffed teddy bears as their presents. One of the young girls, named Sallie Baldwin, was reluctant to say what she was going to bring to the Christ Child. Finally she stated in an embarrassed way, "I want to bring Jesus a kiss." When the parents gathered for the pageant, the other children dressed as small angels walked over to the manger and put their toys down beside it. At this point, Sallie leaned over the manger and kissed the Christ Child. When she did, a sigh went through the congregation.5
Maybe the greatest gift we can give to express our love to another is a kiss, a hug, or an embrace. Our presence may communicate the best gift we could possibly give. This is the greatest gift we have experienced from God. Let's share this gift with others. It's time to begin. I have always liked the way Howard Thurman suggested in his book, The Mood of Christmas, we keep Christmas:
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.6
Now that we have celebrated Christmas on Christmas day, remember this is not the end but the beginning. Let the gift which we have experienced so permeate our lives that we will want to express thanksgiving in a way that will be lived all year long. I pray that we might understand the extent of the sacrifice of God's gift of unspeakable love to us and express thanksgiving for such love through all of our living.
____________
1. Richard Crashaw, "In the Holy Nativity of our Lord," James Dalton Morrison, editor, Masterpieces of Religious Verse (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), p. 139.
2. J. Gordon Kingsley, A Place Called Grace (Liberty, Missouri: William Jewell Press, 1992), pp. 88-89.
3. Harry Webb Farrington (1880-1931), "Our Christ: a Harvard prize hymn," Morrison, editor Masterpieces of Religious Verse, p. 214.
4. Henry Van Dyke, The Spirit of Christmas (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1921), pp. 46-48.
5. John Killinger, Christmas Is Spoken Here (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1989), pp. 86-87.
6. Howard Thurman, The Mood of Christmas (Richmond, Indiana: Friends United Press, 1991), p. 23. Reprinted by permission of Friends United Press.
I guess it is very difficult for us to send a gift to reflect the individuality of the giver and also to reflect the needs and wishes of the recipient. It is not always easy to get those two together. But that is a part of our struggle in gift giving at Christmastime, isn't it? In all of our giving of gifts to each other, let us not lose sight of the major reason for Christmas -- the giving of the great gift from God -- Jesus.
The Indescribable Gift
I sometimes fear that in all of our gift giving, as wonderful as it may be as a reflection of our love for each other, we often forget to focus on the gift. The birth of God's Son is the reason for the celebration of the Christmas season. Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 9:15 state, "Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift." Let's look again at that great gift and see if we can sense its real value and meaning.
Beyond Words
Translators have rendered the Greek word translated "inexpressible" sometimes as "indescribable," or as the New English Bible states, "beyond words." Many have wrestled with ways they could express their thanks to God for this gift. Great scholars, theologians, and poets have tried to put into words their understanding and interpretation of the miracle of Christ's birth. They have discovered that no matter how gifted verbally they might be, their words are always inadequate. When it comes to describing the wonder of Jesus' birth, they soon realized that their best logic was flawed and even their most poetic expressions could never totally capture what God had done through his Son. Artists, through their painting, pictures, sculptures, carvings, and architecture, have tried to express the wonder, mystery, glory, and richness of God's gift. What they could not put into words they expressed symbolically. Raphael painted 56 Madonnas in an attempt to try to capture the indescribable wonder of what God had done in Christ's birth.
Music is another way that men and women have tried to describe the indescribable. These expressions have ranged from silly songs to sacred ones, from country to classical, from rock to contemporary. Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Handel's Messiah, and Vivaldi's Gloria are all expressions in majestic ways of the wonder of the angel's announcement. Music is another way to say, "Thanks be to God." But words or music have never been adequate to describe such glory. The poet, Richard Crashaw (1613-1640), tried to capture the wonder in these words.
Welcome all wonders in one sight --
Eternity shut in a span,
Summer in winter, day in night,
Heaven in earth, and God in man.
Blest little one! whose all embracing birth
Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth!1
But poetic words, music, or artistic expressions cannot totally describe the indescribable gift of God.
Unspeakable Love
This indescribable gift also denotes unspeakable love. "For God so loved the world," John wrote. "We love because God first loved us," the epistle of John states. This gift, about which Paul wrote, describes God's eternal love which has reached down through the centuries to draw men and women to him. God's love is personal. God's love is not primarily abstract or something we just read about. God's love became personalized through a human being. "In the beginning was the Word," John said, "and the Word was with God and the Word was God ... The Word became flesh." The Greek meaning for the word "became" is "tabernacled among us." God pitched his tent among us. J. Gordon Kingsley translates that phrase this way: "God makes his dwelling place, his tenement, his rescue mission dormitory, his cottage, his condominium, his townhouse, his ranch-style home, his mansion with us and in us."2 Through this life we can see what God's nature was like. God did not give us merely an idea or a thought about God's nature. God sent a person -- his Son, and in the example of his life and death, we are able to see what God's nature is like.
What is God like? Look at Jesus Christ his Son. The nature of God has been disclosed through him. This is the miracle of Christmas -- the incarnation -- God among us. It is a marvelous truth to realize that we are able to know such wonderful love.
Through the giving of gifts, we try to express something of our love for another person. For many of us, it is very difficult to look at someone and say to him or her, "I love you." In this Christmas season, how many sons or daughters, mothers or fathers will sit down with each other and say, "I want you to know I love you and I appreciate you. You mean everything to me." Few, if any, will do that. Few will be able to verbalize their feelings. I think a gift is sometimes a way of trying to say: "I love you." The gift expresses what these people can't verbalize. God's greatest gift was given personally through his Son. Through this gift he said supremely, "I love you."
Love For Everyone
But remember God's love is directed to everyone. "For God so loved the world." "Unto you a son [gift] is given," Isaiah exclaimed. He will be Savior to everyone who responds to this love. A young son was walking with his father one day when they saw a sign posted on a fence that read: "No trespassing." The young boy asked, "Daddy, how come they don't put up signs that say, 'Trespassing'? I would like to go some place where there would be a sign that would say, 'Welcome. Anybody who wants to walk in this place is given permission. You are welcome to come and trespass on this property.' "
God has put out a sign which says: "Welcome, welcome." No matter what path you have walked down, no matter what sin you have committed, no matter how far away from home and God you may have wandered, the sign that is put out for you at Christmas is that beautiful banner which says, "Welcome back." You can come home again. God loves you, and God cares about you and your needs. You cannot wander too far from him. You can never be so low, you can never be so far away from God, that his arms cannot reach out to you and draw you back to himself. When he does, he will exclaim, "I love you."
Thomas Wolfe wrote a number of autobiographical novels. In one of these novels there is a character named George Weber who was six feet ten inches tall, like Thomas Wolfe, who was also very tall. He was clearly writing about himself. George Weber was a writer, who was living in New York City. Thomas Wolfe had lived in New York City for a while. Whenever George would become depressed and life would become difficult because his creativity as a writer had hit a dry period, he would go back home to North Carolina. Wolfe was also from North Carolina. Weber would return to a small cabin in the mountains to visit his mother. She would always be there to greet him. He and his mother would sit down on the top step to the porch. This huge hulk of a man would sit down beside his mother and lay his head in her lap. Neither said anything for a long time as his mother gently put her hand on his shoulder. Presently she would say, "George, it's going to be all right, whatever it is, it's going to be all right."
This Christmas, remember that you can come back to God, lay your head on God's lap, and he will stroke you with the hand of his love and say: "It's okay. It is going to be all right. You do not face your problems alone. I am here, and I love you." There is unspeakable love in God's gift to us.
Unspeakable Costs
Go further and note that this indescribable gift also reveals unspeakable cost. There was great sacrifice in Jesus' coming into the world. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God." Paul wrote that "Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he laid it aside and took on the form of a human being" (Philippians 2:6-7 cf). The Word became flesh.
The one who had been in the bosom of the Father had now descended into our world and was held in the arms of Mary. The one who had been dwelling in the majesty of the presence of the eternal God of the universe was now lying in a manger. The one who had been in the threshold of the heavenly realm now walked on a threshing floor in Nazareth. God humbled himself and came uniquely into the world in human form.
How can we describe the sacrifice of one who was made sin for us? We cannot begin to imagine the kind of sacrifice that had to be! God spared not his own Son. God came into the world at great personal sacrifice to express God's love for you and me. Such love is beyond our understanding. Here is the great mystery of God that is revealed at Christmas: Emmanuel, God is with us. There is no way that words can fully describe the mystery of the eternal God who has come into time through Jesus Christ and lived among us. In this Christmas season, we celebrate again the great sacrifice of God's love for us. Listen to the words of the hymnist, Harry Webb Farrington, as he attempts to express the mystery of such an event.
I know not how that Bethlehem's Babe
Could in the God-head be;
I only know the Manger Child
Has brought God's life to me.3
We can't explain it, but we can experience it.
Responding To The Indescribable Gift
What then is our response to this unspeakable, indescribable gift? Our responses may take various forms. Let's look at several.
A Response Of Gratitude
Our response should begin with gratitude. Paul exclaimed: "Thanks be to God!" We should feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for God's great love to us. This gratitude should then move us to our knees where we bow in adoration and praise to God. When the wise men found the Christ Child whom they had been seeking, they worshiped him. In this Christmas season, let your gratitude burst into praise and adoration. Let us worship again the God who has revealed himself in such marvelous love.
Share The Gift With Others
We also should be willing to share this love with others. Having experienced such grace as you and I claim we have, we will want to share it with someone else and not keep it to ourselves. When I was in seminary, one of the theologians we studied was Paul Tillich. One of his basic expressions about God was "ultimate concern." Two students were talking one day about Tillich's concept of ultimate concern. Finally one of the students expressed his feelings this way, "What I really want to know is whether the ultimate is concerned about me." The Christmas message is the bold proclamation that the ultimate God is concerned about you and me. Having experienced such love, we should want to share it with others.
Why should we keep this love just for a few moments or a day? Henry Van Dyke in his book, The Spirit of Christmas, reminds us of this truth.
Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people and to remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you and to think what you owe the world; to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground; to see that your fellow men are just as real as you are, and to try to look behind their faces to their hearts hungry for joy; to own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life; to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe, and to look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness -- are you willing to do these things for a day? Then you can keep Christmas ... Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world -- stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death -- and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the eternal love? Then you can keep Christmas. And if you keep it for a day, why not always? But, you can never keep it alone.4
We are called upon to share this love with other people by living a life that reflects this love in all we say and do.
The Gift Of Your Presence
What present did you give another person this Christmas? Maybe the greatest present you can give is your presence. Your presence of time, hope, encouragement, a listening ear, and concern may be your best gift. Your presence to the elderly, sick, those in the hospital, and those who are grieving will comfort and strengthen them. The greatest present you can give this Christmas is your presence. Reach out and embrace another with your concern and love. The great gift which God gave us was his presence among us through Christ. Now this presence continues to abide with us through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Let's celebrate this presence.
When John Killinger was pastor in Lynchburg, Virginia, a young woman named Betty Jo Kendall was called to be the Christian education director at the church. The first Christmas at the church, she directed a Christmas pageant with angels, shepherds, wise men, and the other familiar figures. Each child who represented the angels was to bring a gift to the Christ Child. Some decided to bring toys or stuffed teddy bears as their presents. One of the young girls, named Sallie Baldwin, was reluctant to say what she was going to bring to the Christ Child. Finally she stated in an embarrassed way, "I want to bring Jesus a kiss." When the parents gathered for the pageant, the other children dressed as small angels walked over to the manger and put their toys down beside it. At this point, Sallie leaned over the manger and kissed the Christ Child. When she did, a sigh went through the congregation.5
Maybe the greatest gift we can give to express our love to another is a kiss, a hug, or an embrace. Our presence may communicate the best gift we could possibly give. This is the greatest gift we have experienced from God. Let's share this gift with others. It's time to begin. I have always liked the way Howard Thurman suggested in his book, The Mood of Christmas, we keep Christmas:
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.6
Now that we have celebrated Christmas on Christmas day, remember this is not the end but the beginning. Let the gift which we have experienced so permeate our lives that we will want to express thanksgiving in a way that will be lived all year long. I pray that we might understand the extent of the sacrifice of God's gift of unspeakable love to us and express thanksgiving for such love through all of our living.
____________
1. Richard Crashaw, "In the Holy Nativity of our Lord," James Dalton Morrison, editor, Masterpieces of Religious Verse (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), p. 139.
2. J. Gordon Kingsley, A Place Called Grace (Liberty, Missouri: William Jewell Press, 1992), pp. 88-89.
3. Harry Webb Farrington (1880-1931), "Our Christ: a Harvard prize hymn," Morrison, editor Masterpieces of Religious Verse, p. 214.
4. Henry Van Dyke, The Spirit of Christmas (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1921), pp. 46-48.
5. John Killinger, Christmas Is Spoken Here (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1989), pp. 86-87.
6. Howard Thurman, The Mood of Christmas (Richmond, Indiana: Friends United Press, 1991), p. 23. Reprinted by permission of Friends United Press.
