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Sample 1: John Vassar's Golden Decision

John Vassar refused to go to church until one day a cousin offered him a gold coin. Money talked. Born this week, 193 years ago on January 13, 1813 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., he found new birth as a consequence of attending that service.

The 28-year-old brewery worker came home distressed to discover himself a doomed sinner. After his attempts to reform himself failed, he began to attend every church service he could, seeking God's forgiveness. Finally he was instructed to look to Christ. He did. At once he began to talk to others about the state of their souls.

He prayed so much and memorized so many scriptures that pastors began to seek his assistance with meetings. When John's wife, father and children all died within a short time of each other, he became a missionary for the American Tract Society, witnessing and passing out Christian literature "Giving legs to Baxter and Bunyan." He was 37 when he took on this role. He would open spiritual conversations by asking the person to whom he spoke if he or she was born again. Often he spoke to thirty and forty individuals in a day. Many became genuine Christians.

During the Civil War, he talked earnestly to soldiers and led hundreds to faith inChrist. Once he was captured by Confederates who took him for a spy. "Uncle" John's earnest exhortations regarding salvation quickly convinced the Rebel leader to send him away before he could start a revival.

Sample 2: Charles Sheldon Asked "What Would Jesus Do?"

You have seen, perhaps even worn one of those bracelets that reads "WWJDF:" What would Jesus do? The man who popularized that motto was Charles Monroe Sheldon. Born in 1857, he led such an active, interesting and useful life that it is impossible to summarize all its fascinating features and accomplishments in this short note.

As a boy he helped homestead in Dakota Territory. There he played with Dakota Indians. Converted before he was in his teens, he began writing at 12-- and selling his writings. Always interested in people, he struck up a friendship with his Chinese laundry man which led him to form the first Chinese Sunday school. Later, as a pastor in Topeka, Kansas, he spent whole days side by side with working men to see how they did their jobs, witnessing to them and inviting them to his church (where he preached Christ first and foremost). He opened a kindergarten. He wrote against injustice. Eventually he wrote the book In His Steps which called apathetic Christians to follow Christ and take social action. The book sold almost as well as the Bible.

When the owner of the Topeka Daily Capital offered to let him edit his paper for one week "as Jesus would do it," he jumped at the chance. People around the nation were so interested in the experiment that circulation jumped from 11,000 to 362,000. Sixty years ago this week, on February 24, 1946 Sheldon died following a stroke. His influence is still with us.

Sample 3: Ludger Preferred God to All Men

1,197 years ago, on this day, March 26, 809, Ludger died. Although an old man and in considerable pain, the beloved saint preached at Coesfeld early in the morning and then at Billerbeck before noon. He died peacefully that night, surrounded by his disciples and his sister.

Ludger was a Frisian, born near modern Utrecht, Netherlands. Several sources for his life exist. These recount that from an early age he was deeply interested in spiritual questions. He had the joy of seeing the great St. Boniface "when the hair of his head was white and his body was decrepit with old age." Ludger studied under Alcuin, the greatest teacher of that age. Physically weak and gentle, he became a missionary to his own people, where his knowledge of their language helped him win souls. Later his gentleness and winning ways converted more Saxons to true Christianity than ever Charlemagne's forced baptisms did.

Ludger founded the monastery from which the city of Munster, Germany takes its name. His success was attributed to his great zeal for God, which did not allow him to neglect his devotions. Once the Emperor, desiring to question him for his failure to richly decorate churches (he preferred to use the money for charity), summoned him to appear at court. Ludger kept the emperor waiting while he finished divine service. When Charlemagne questioned him why it had taken three messengers to get him to report, Ludger replied, "God is to be preferred to you, O King, and to all men.".