Bruce Staley

I've just finished reading Miracle in the Mine: One Man's Story of Strength and Survival in the Chilean Mines , written by Jose Henriquez. In chapter 13 Jose writes,   "As we seek the Lord and begin to grow in the things of God, we begin to acquire the three special tools in life that enable us to face any adversities. Become persons of prayer. Prayer for a Christian is as important as the air that he breathes. Become persons who treasure the Word of God. It is necessary to understand and know the Word of God, because it edifies, educates, strengthens, and teaches us how to live and act. Become persons who dare to build churches without buildings. If we are people of prayer who know the Word and have faith, we can raise up a church wherever we go, regardless of the environment, context, historical era, or any other impediments."

On December 8, 1903, a great printing machine was awaiting a message in type that should carry, to the hundred thousand readers of the paper which it was to print, the news of the death of its editor. The one who, in that moment of grief and uncertainty, must write the message, tried to view the seventy-three years of life that had just closed, the half-century of manhood that had ministered unceasingly. The life was rich in varied and extended forms of service: as home missionary in Sunday-school work, as an army chaplain, as interpreter of the Bible, as traveller and explorer, as preacher and speaker and editor, and as writer of more than thirty volumes in the field of character-building and spiritual truth. Yet in that hour when death seems to reveal the real man and his central power and purpose, the one form of ministry that stood out in clearest, whitest light to those who knew this man best was the ministry of which the world at large, though it knew him well, knew least. It was