Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Tue Jan 13th Todays News

Sport hooliganism is bad, but not as bad as in Constantinople in 532. Chariot races had been regulated to teams for centuries, and four colours were strongest: blue, red green and white. By the time of 532, blue and green dominated. Emperor Justinian I favoured blue. In 531, some Blues and Greens supporters had been arrested for murder. They were hanged. But a Blue and a Green hid in a church begging sanctuary from an angry mob. Justinian was in a delicate phase of a peace treaty with Persia. Justinian was also taxing highly. Acting to minimise the damage, Justinian commuted the sentences of the two to imprisonment, but their supporters demanded a pardon. Justinian ordered that chariot races be run. On this day in 532, Justinian was in the safety of his viewer's box in the hippodrome for the race. But insults were hurled at him and riots broke out. Then some senators, who seemed motivated to oppose the high taxes and Justinian's alleged lack of respect for them promoted the previous emperor's nephew, Hypatius as the new emperor. 

Justinian despaired and sought to flee, but his wife persuaded him to do the manly thing instead. She said she would rather die than lose her title. So Justinian hatched a plan with his generals and eunuch. The eunuch walked into the middle of the murderous mob in the Hippodrome and, talking to the Blues, mentioned Justinian was their supporter, and gave Blues leaders a bag of gold. The unity for Hypatius was lost .. Blues left the Hippodrome and the generals let troops in, killing thirty thousand rioters. Hypatius was executed. Half of Constantinople was in ruins and the Hagia Sophia had to be rebuilt. Not too dissimilar to a term of ALP government. 

In 1547, Henry Howard, first cousin to Catherine Howard who had been beheaded for adultery on order of Henry VIII, was sentenced to death by the sickly king. Henry VIII feared Henry Howard had plans on usurping the throne from his son, Edward. Henry Howard's father was also sentenced to death, but Henry VIII died before the sentence was carried out. Henry Howard was executed on January 19th. His father remained in jail. Henry Howard is considered a founder of renaissance poetry, having created the sonnet. 


In 1607, The Bank of Genoa failed after Spain was declared bankrupt. Not too dissimilar to a term of ALP Government. In 1842, Dr William Brydon, an assistant surgeon, became the sole survivor of 4500 men and 12000 camp followers when he staggered into the garrison at Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Years later it inspired Rudyard Kipling to write The Man Who Would be King. 1898, writer Émile Zola's J'accuse exposed the Dreyfus affair. In 1910, the first public radio broadcast was made of an opera. In 1939, the Black Friday bush fires of Australia claimed twenty thousand square kilometres and 71 lives. In 1942, Henry Ford presented a plastic automobile and Germany first used an ejector seat in an aircraft. In 1968, Johnny Cash performed in Folsom State Prison. In 2012, the Costa Concordia modelled ALP Government. 

Reports are coming in former Queensland ALP leader and pedophile Keith Wright has died in Vietnam at age 72. Important to note the QLD ALP have not reformed since his leadership. 
2014
Waddle AGW alarmists think up next? Ice bound penguins means global warming according to (insert highly paid alarmist here). A certain drawing is the real deal, according to a former Christian who used to worship God, but now worships left wing theory. I've not been given the snorkel training that I may need to help me survive the warmest future. Some can bet their careers and never be held accountable. That and more articles are covered in today's report.
Historical perspectives on this day
In 532, Nika riots in Constantinople. 888, Odo, Count of Paris became King of the Franks. 1435, Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands by the Spanish, was promulgated by Pope Eugene IV.1547, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey was sentenced to death. 1607, the Bank of Genoa failed after announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain. 1666, French traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier arrived in Dhaka and met Shaista Khan. 1793, Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, lynched by a mob in Rome 1797, French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ended with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths.

In 1815, War of 1812: British troops captured Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state. 1822, the design of the Greek flag was adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus. 1830, the Great fire of New Orleans, Louisiana began. 1833, President Andrew Jackson wrote to Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis. 1840, the steamship Lexington burned and sank four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives. 1842, Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, became famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. 1847, the Treaty of Cahuenga ended the Mexican–American War in California. 1869, national convention of black leaders met in Washington, D.C. 1893, the Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom held its first meeting. Also 1893, U.S. Marines landed in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution. 1895, First Italo-Ethiopian War: the war's opening battle, the Battle of Coatit, occurred; it was an Italian victory. 1898, Émile Zola's J'accuse exposed the Dreyfus affair.

In 1908, the Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania killed 171 people. 1910, the first public radio broadcast took place; a live performance of the opera Cavalleria rusticana is sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, New York. 1913, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated was founded on the campus of Howard University. 1915, an earthquake in Avezzano, Italy killed 29,800. 1934, the Candidate of Sciences degree was established in the Soviet Union. 1935, a plebiscite in Saarland showed that 90.3% of those voting wished to join Nazi Germany. 1939, the Black Friday bush fires burned 20,000 square kilometers of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people. 1942, Henry Ford patented a plastic automobile, which was 30% lighter than a regular car. Also 1942, World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.

In 1951, First Indochina War: The Battle of Vinh Yen began, which would end in a major victory for France. 1953, an article appears in Pravda accusing some of the most prestigious and prominent doctors, mostly Jews, in the Soviet Union of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership.1958, the Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushed a Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera. 1960, the Gulag system of forced labor camps in the Soviet Union was officially abolished. 1963, Coup d'etat in Togo resulted in assassination of president Sylvanus Olympio 1964, Anti-Muslim riots broke out in Calcutta, resulting in 100 deaths. 1964, Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, was appointed archbishop of Kraków, Poland. 1966, Robert C. Weaver became the first African American Cabinet member when he was appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. 1968, Johnny Cash performed live at Folsom State Prison 1972, Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana were ousted in a bloodless military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. 1974, Seraphim was elected Archbishop of Athens and All Greece. 1978, U.S. Food & Drug Administration required all blood donations to be labeled "paid" or "volunteer" donors.

In 1982, Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet crashed into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and fell into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists. 1985, a passenger train plunged into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa. 1986, a month-long violent struggle began in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties. 1988, Lee Teng-hui became the first native Taiwanese President of the Republic of China. 1990, Douglas Wilder became the first elected African American governor as he took office in Richmond, Virginia. 1991, Soviet Union troops attacked Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding 1000. 1993, Space Shuttle program: Endeavour headed for space for the third time as STS-54 launched from the Kennedy Space Center. 2001, an earthquake hit El Salvador, killing more than 800. 2012, the passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sank off the coast of Italy. There were 32 confirmed deaths amongst the 4232 passengers and crew.
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This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
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Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August https://www.createspace.com/4124406 or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4 
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For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball

Or the US President at
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-change-this-injustice#
or
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-injustice-faced-david-daniel-ball-after-he-reported-bungled-pedophile-investigation-and/b8mxPWtJ or http://wh.gov/ilXYR

Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - ed

Lorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.


I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.netwhich will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns Maggie Made-In His-Image NelsonAloese Seumanutafa and Nathan Nguyen. Born on the same day,across the years, along with
January 13St. Knut's Day in Finland and Sweden
Émile Zola
Tang tastes great. Georgia can afford to lose a battle. A great French writer took on anti semitism. The Earth moved. Why are some cars called Coup? Let's party. 
Matches
Hatches
Despatches
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2015
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MO SHOW

Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 13, 2015 (1:22pm)

The ABC – along with several more reputable Australian media outlets – displays the latest Charlie Hebdo cover, complete with forbidden Mo toon:

image 
The latest front page of Charlie Hebdo has been released, showing the Prophet Mohammed holding a Je Suis Charlie sign under the banner “All is forgiven”. 
This represents a welcome change of policy since 2006.
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WALKED RIGHT INTO THAT ONE

Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 13, 2015 (4:06am)

Academic and Guardian columnist Jason Wilson
It’s adorable that Tim Blair thinks his blog still commands attention and that his positions demand a response. 
That would be Jason’s response. To my blog. To which he still pays attention.
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NON-TERROR OPEN THREAD

Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 13, 2015 (4:00am)

Let’s give ourselves a momentary break here. Please comment on any topic other than Islamic terrorism. Oh, and an administrative note: commenters have lately taken to signing off with either several full stops or none at all. One will do.
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NOT TO MENTION THE BRITISH IN MALAYA IN THE 1950s

Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 13, 2015 (3:54am)

Hizb ut-Tahrir pleads for “perspective” following last week’s Islamic terrorist attacks in France: 
People are killed every day around the world in numbers and in circumstances that should put the events in France in perspective. 
True. More people are killed every day in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria and Egypt. And they are all killed by Islamic extremists. Stupid Hizbies didn’t really think this through.
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FACT FACED

Tim Blair – Tuesday, January 13, 2015 (3:24am)

British culture secretary Sajid Javid, who is of Islamic background, slams the lazy and wrong: 
There is no getting away from the fact that the people carrying out these acts – what we have seen just horrifically this week in Paris, what has happened in London and Madrid – these people call themselves Muslims.
The lazy answer would be to say that this has got nothing whatsoever to do with Islam or Muslims and that should be the end of that. That would be lazy and wrong. You can’t get away from the fact that these people are using Islam, taking a peaceful religion and using it as a tool to carry out their activities. 
Not for the first time, Andrew O’Keefe (shown here researching global geopolitics) is on the side of lazy wrongness. By contrast, Paris terrorist Amedy Coulibaly is extremely direct on the connection between Islam and murderous violence. So too is Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who earlier this month called for Islam to face its terror addiction – and reform:

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Deception or clever marketing? Should a political party be able to insinuate that the AEC is advocating voters to rid Newman on Jan 31?
I'll call it deception. MM
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I don't approve of the generalisations .. but when I try to list them, I don't see them either. Which is the example?
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The 'test' is an example of 'sign abuse' as the operations are not what are indicated and they aren't equal.
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"Paris attacked." Millennials flood TMZ site to make sure Paris Hilton is ok & blast Lindsay Lohan for attacking her. 
"OMG, Hilton H8 is un 2 the Kewl, so 2014."
eric @ the Tygrrrr Express
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Weak analysis
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Chris Turney now blames warming for trapping penguins in ice, too

Andrew Bolt January 12 2014 (3:45pm)

Professor Chris Turney, who got stuck in the Antarctic ice he’s convinced is melting away, now warns that too much ice is killing Adelie penguins and global warming is to blame:
Read more about the ice-bound penguins struggling @DouglasMawson’s Huts, Cape Denison, Antarctica.
Turney links to a post by a member of his expedition which claims:
In normal years the Adelie penguins that nest at Cape Denison can feed in the open waters of Commonwealth Bay, but now they must walk over 60 km across the ice in order to find food. This giant iceberg has set up a natural experiment that tests the resilience of Adelie penguins to major iceberg calving and stranding events that we expect to become more common with climate change.
Strangely enough, not three years ago we were told that Adelie penguins in Antarctica were actually being killed by too little ice, and, yes, global warming was to blame:
If global temperatures continue to rise, however, the Emperor penguins in Terre Adélie, in East Antarctica may eventually disappear, according to a new study by led by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)… 
“Over the last century, we have already observed the disappearance of the Dion Islets penguin colony, close to the West Antarctic Peninsula,” says Stephanie Jenouvrier, WHOI biologist and lead author of the new study… Like in Terre Adélie, Jenouvrier thinks the decline of those penguins might be connected to a simultaneous decline in Antarctic sea ice due to warming temperatures in the region.
Unlike other sea birds, Emperor penguins breed and raise their young almost exclusively on sea ice. If that ice breaks up and disappears early in the breeding season, massive breeding failure may occur, says Jenouvrier…
Disappearing sea ice may also affect the penguins’ food source. The birds feed primarily on fish, squid, and krill, a shrimplike animal, which in turn feeds on zooplankton and phytoplankton, tiny organisms that grow on the underside of the ice. 
Is there any evidence at all that would change Turney’s conviction that global warming is causing the ice to melt, grow or whatever? 
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WORLD VISION: THE DRAWING IS GENUINE

Tim Blair – Monday, January 13, 2014 (12:21pm)

Following last week’s Obvious controversy, World Vision Australia CEO Tim Costello responds to criticism – and reports that a certain drawing is the real deal.
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“EVERYTHING IS SWEET”

Tim Blair – Monday, January 13, 2014 (12:19pm)

The magistrate who took down Russell Packer.
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LEFTOID LEAP

Tim Blair – Monday, January 13, 2014 (11:59am)

Recently I upset Twitterists of the left by … well, we could just leave it there, couldn’t we? It doesn’t take much to offend social media’s eternally outraged panty bunchers, hissy fitters and tantrum tossers. There’d still be angry reactions even if I filled this page with recipes for your gluten-intolerant children.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'LEFTOID LEAP'
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CRANK UP THAT OLD MISOGYNY SPEECH

Tim Blair – Monday, January 13, 2014 (6:20am)

Spare a thought for Julia Gillard, who is in for an extremely busy week.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'CRANK UP THAT OLD MISOGYNY SPEECH'
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SNORKEL TOWN

Tim Blair – Monday, January 13, 2014 (5:28am)

Much of the international media followed the BBC’s lead on global warming.  But who led the BBC
The BBC has spent tens of thousands of pounds over six years trying to keep secret an extraordinary ‘eco’ conference which has shaped its coverage of global warming, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The controversial seminar was run by a body set up by the BBC’s own environment analyst Roger Harrabin and funded via a £67,000 grant from the then Labour government, which hoped to see its ‘line’ on climate change and other Third World issues promoted in BBC reporting.
At the event, in 2006, green activists and scientists – one of whom believes climate change is a bigger danger than global nuclear war – lectured 28 of the Corporation’s most senior executives.
Then director of television Jana Bennett opened the seminar by telling the executives to ask themselves: ‘How do you plan and run a city that is going to be submerged?’ 
I was in London last year. The lack of snorkel preparedness was disturbing.
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PERFESSER PERSISTS

Tim Blair – Monday, January 13, 2014 (4:29am)

Back in 2007, psychologist Steve Biddulph bet his career on Labor solidarity: 
Rudd and Gillard are not in power for power’s sake. I am willing to stake my 30 years as a psychologist on this, but I think many observers have also come to this conclusion. Kevin and Julia, as Australia already calls them, want to make this country a better place for the people in it. In the coming times of deprivation, they have the value systems that will be needed to care for the sudden rise in poverty, stress, and need. They also have the unity. 
That unity quickly vanished. So, might you expect, would Biddulph’s wagered credibility as a shrink. Seven years later, however: 
Steve Biddulph is an Adjunct Professor of Psychology … 
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SHORT CAR SHORTENED

Tim Blair – Monday, January 13, 2014 (4:08am)

Observe as a temper-fuelled tiny car becomes tinier with every collision.
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WADDLE AGAINST WARMING

Tim Blair – Monday, January 13, 2014 (4:00am)

The amazing life of a Sydney Morning Herald climate screamer: 
Wow, found an old photo of Ben Cubby at Walk Against Warming 07 when I was dressed up as a penguin! 
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ARIEL SHARON

Tim Blair – Monday, January 13, 2014 (1:38am)

(Via Jill)
UPDATE. Further from Caroline Glick.
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www.theaustralian.com.au
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John Tran The irony was not lost when he called his left-liberals communist, or puppets of the communist state.

John Tran This just shows left leaning politics is so insular, so self obsessed, so petty, they can't work or support in a bipartisan way to tackle an issue bigger than them.. and that's the problem, the issue is never bigger than them, it has to be about them first..===


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Frank Severino
Art, by definition, has to travel from the grip of the artist. Whether given or sold, it must seek a home beyond the authorial grasp. Accordingly, those fingers should willingly unfurl.
She had me where she wanted me. She wouldn't loosen her grip. I told her, with sweat beading, that she was an artist .. ed
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blogs.news.com.au
It used to be a yr 8 science experiment to light a flame and make an observation. One apparently correct answer is "I see the world's atmosphere heating" - ed
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Smearing Francis by likening him to Obama ..ed
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why can't any 2 people share a living space without other people assuming that they are a couple?
My parents did it .. ed
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 Michelle Malkin
Cute pic of Piper Palin inflames Palin Derangement Syndrome ==>http://twitchy.com/2014/01/11/cute-pic-of-piper-palin-inflames-palin-derangement-syndrome/
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Andreas Herrmann
Wer nicht mit Fremdwörtern umgehen kann, der muss halt die Frequenzen tragen ...
I stopped wearing frequencies years ago .. I now wear clothes. I accept my lack of knowledge and embrace it. Now I use Google translate to confuse me. - ed
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“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” - Galatians 3:26-28
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
January 12: Morning
"Ye are Christ's." - 1 Corinthians 3:23
"Ye are Christ's." You are his by donation, for the Father gave you to the Son; his by his bloody purchase, for he counted down the price for your redemption; his by dedication, for you have consecrated yourself to him; his by relation, for you are named by his name, and made one of his brethren and joint-heirs. Labour practically to show the world that you are the servant, the friend, the bride of Jesus. When tempted to sin, reply, "I cannot do this great wickedness, for I am Christ's." Immortal principles forbid the friend of Christ to sin. When wealth is before you to be won by sin, say that you are Christ's, and touch it not. Are you exposed to difficulties and dangers? Stand fast in the evil day, remembering that you are Christ's. Are you placed where others are sitting down idly, doing nothing? Rise to the work with all your powers; and when the sweat stands upon your brow, and you are tempted to loiter, cry, "No, I cannot stop, for I am Christ's. If I were not purchased by blood, I might be like Issachar, crouching between two burdens; but I am Christ's, and cannot loiter." When the siren song of pleasure would tempt you from the path of right, reply, "Thy music cannot charm me; I am Christ's." When the cause of God invites thee, give thy goods and thyself away, for thou art Christ's. Never belie thy profession. Be thou ever one of those whose manners are Christian, whose speech is like the Nazarene, whose conduct and conversation are so redolent of heaven, that all who see you may know that you are the Saviour's, recognizing in you his features of love and his countenance of holiness. "I am a Roman!" was of old a reason for integrity; far more, then, let it be your argument for holiness, "I am Christ's!"
Evening
"I have yet to speak on God's behalf." - Job 36:2
We ought not to court publicity for our virtue, or notoriety for our zeal; but, at the same time, it is a sin to be always seeking to hide that which God has bestowed upon us for the good of others. A Christian is not to be a village in a valley, but "a city set upon a hill;" he is not to be a candle under a bushel, but a candle in a candlestick, giving light to all. Retirement may be lovely in its season, and to hide one's self is doubtless modest, but the hiding of Christ in us can never be justified, and the keeping back of truth which is precious to ourselves is a sin against others and an offence against God. If you are of a nervous temperament and of retiring disposition, take care that you do not too much indulge this trembling propensity, lest you should be useless to the church. Seek in the name of him who was not ashamed of you to do some little violence to your feelings, and tell to others what Christ has told to you. If thou canst not speak with trumpet tongue, use the still small voice. If the pulpit must not be thy tribune, if the press may not carry on its wings thy words, yet say with Peter and John, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee." By Sychar's well talk to the Samaritan woman, if thou canst not on the mountain preach a sermon; utter the praises of Jesus in the house, if not in the temple; in the field, if not upon the exchange; in the midst of thine own household, if thou canst not in the midst of the great family of man. From the hidden springs within let sweetly flowing rivulets of testimony flow forth, giving drink to every passer-by. Hide not thy talent; trade with it; and thou shalt bring in good interest to thy Lord and Master. To speak for God will be refreshing to ourselves, cheering to saints, useful to sinners, and honouring to the Saviour. Dumb children are an affliction to their parents. Lord, unloose all thy children's tongue.
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Laban 
[Lā'ban] - white or glorious.
The son of Bethuel and grandson of Nahor. Laban was the brother of Rebekah and father of Rachel and Leah. He lived in Padan-aram (Gen. 24:29, 50; 27:43; 28:2, 5).
The transactions between Laban and Jacob are well known, and speak of cunning on both sides. After twenty years Laban was reluctant to part with Jacob, whose presence was an assurance of divine blessing. "In character Laban is not pleasing," says T. A. Moxon, "and seems to reflect in an exaggerated form the more repulsive traits in the character of his nephew, Jacob: yet he shows signs of generous impulses on more than one occasion, and especially at the final parting with Jacob."
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Today's reading: Genesis 29-30, Matthew 9:1-17 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Genesis 29-30

Jacob Arrives in Paddan Aram
Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. 2 There he saw a well in the open country, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large. 3When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well's mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.
4 Jacob asked the shepherds, "My brothers, where are you from?"
"We're from Harran," they replied.
5 He said to them, "Do you know Laban, Nahor's grandson?"
"Yes, we know him," they answered.
6 Then Jacob asked them, "Is he well?"
"Yes, he is," they said, "and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep...."

Today's New Testament reading: Matthew 9:1-17

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man
1 Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2 Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven."
At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!"
4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? 6 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." So he said to the paralyzed man, "Get up, take your mat and go home." 7 Then the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man....

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