Bill Wallace of China
In a chapel sermon at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Paige Patterson recommended reading “Bill Wallace of China.” Most people know of William Wallace of Scotland through Mel Gibson’s movie “Braveheart,” but relatively few have heard of William Wallace of China. What a shame. . . .
I have had this book in my personal library for several decades but it never seemed to make its way to the top of the “next to be read” stack of books that I keep by my bedside. Like most book lovers I have a problem . . . a big problem . . . well, an obsession – - – I buy more books than I can read. If I started reading right now and read twelve hours a day for the rest of my life I would not be able to read even half of the books in my personal library. So, it is not uncommon for me to own but neglect a book. I regret that I neglected this book as long as I did.
When Dr. Patterson recommended this book I had just finished reading another book (Homer Hickam’s book The Coalwood Way
As a young man in Tennessee Bill Wallace felt called of God to prepare for service as a medical missionary. After completing his preparations he was appointed by the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) to serve in Southern China. Nothing so amazing there, . . . so why the book? Wallace served in China during the Boxer Rebellion, the Japanese invasion during World War II, and in the subsequent revolutionary war when the Communists wrested control from the Nationalists.
The book is full of drama, intrigue, and suspense. Without those elements the book would not succeed. But, what makes the book compelling is that the reader experiences Wallace in a similar fashion as did the Chinese people. The reader, like the Chinese, is introduced to the quiet unassuming Wallace, gradually comes to like Wallace, then respect him, love him and finally finds that Wallace’s life story compels both introspection and committed personal action.
I add my voice to Patterson’s in recommending this book. The book is a quick read, but the reader will take much away from it in terms of clearly defined informational content as well as a tacit knowledge that drives volitional intent.
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I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves — such an ethical basis I call more proper for a herd of swine.
~ in The World As I See It
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
~ in The World As I See It
God does not play dice.
If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.
In the middle of every difficulty comes opportunity.
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.
There are two ways to look at life. One is that nothing is a miracle, and the other is that everything is a miracle.
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
When the solution is simple, God is answering.
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Autobiography is an unrivalled vehicle for telling the truth about other people.
~ Philip Guedalla
Biographies are bu the clothes and buttons of the man–the biography of the man himself cannot be written.
~ Mark Twain
Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography.
~ Oscar Wilde
Autobiography is an unrivaled vehicle for telling the truth about other people.
~ Philip Guedalla
Biographies are bu the clothes and buttons of the man–the biography of the man himself cannot be written.
~ Mark Twain
Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography.
~ Oscar Wilde
Augustine’s Confessions
Click here to get your free Confessions.
Like most people, I enjoy particular poems. But, try as I may, I have never been able to cultivate a love for the genre of poetry. And, I have seriously tried.
I make it a point to read a book of poetry at least once each year. I know that I probably didn’t like cabbage the first time that I ate it, but I love it now. So, I am hoping that through continued exposure I will develop the same kind of taste for poetry.
Thus, it was that I came to Carl Sandburg’s book Harvest Poems: 1910-1960
Thomas Sowell recently suggested the following books would make excellent Christmas gifts. In his own words:
— “The Immigration Solution” is an excellent new book that discusses illegal immigration without the political rhetoric, spin, demagoguery, and unsubstantiated claims that have become all too common in the media and among politicians.
– “Mugged by Reality” by John Agresto is an eyewitness account of life inside Iraq by someone who does not take either the Bush administration line or the Congressional Democrats’ line. Nor does he hesitate to admit that what he saw in Iraq changed the opinions with which he first entered the country.
– “The Prince of Darkness” by Robert Novak is a big book detailing half a century of his experiences in Washington, dealing with both political figures and other members of the print and broadcast media. He names names.
– For those who like history, there is a new history of one of the most decisive decades in American history — the decade of the Great Depression of the 1930s — titled “The Forgotten Man” by Amity Shlaes.
– For those who want more in-depth analysis of the economic consequences of New Deal policies, Jim Powell’s book “FDR’s Folly” would make an excellent supplement to Amity Shlaes’ book.
– “Until Proven Innocent” by Stuart Taylor and K.C. Johnson is an account of the Duke University “rape” case that goes far beyond the misdeeds of the disgraced District Attorney Michael Nifong.
– An excellent present for those parents and students who want to find academic institutions that have not succumbed to the ideological corruption found at Duke and other colleges and universities would be the book “Choosing the Right College.“
– A very moving account of the life of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas can be found in his very readable and insightful memoir, “My Grandfather’s Son,” which has been on the best-seller list for eight weeks thus far.
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