Richard M. Hannula > Quotes

“We are to render good for evil," she urged the Huguenots. "Hate and Christianity are incompatible. We must seek peace with all.”
― Richard M. Hannula, Trial and Triumph: Stories from Church History

“Get into your heart more of that good Bible. It will give you light.”
― Richard M. Hannula, Heralds of the Reformation: Thirty Biographies of Sheer Grace

“At times he forced the conquered people, under the threat of violence, to accept Christianity and submit to baptism. Naturally, many of these people resented Christianity because of it. Alcuin advised Charlemagne to win the people to Christ through faithful preaching and kindness. "If the light yoke of Christ were preached to the stubborn Saxons as much as the duty to give money," he told Charlemagne, "perhaps they would not reject the sacrament of baptism. What is the use of baptism without faith," Alcuin said. "A man can be forced to baptism, but not forced to believe.”
― Richard M. Hannula, Trial and Triumph: Stories from Church History

“Amy Carmichael's mother taught her to ask anything of God, for He promises to hear and answer. So three-year-old Amy knelt at her bedside and fervently prayed: "Dear Lord please make my brown eyes blue. Amen." With those words she slipped into bed and fell asleep, confident that she would awake with dazzling blue eyes. In the morning Amy rushed to the mirror only to discover that her eves were as brown as ever. As a wave of disappointment rolled over her, she suddenly realized that "no" is as much an answer as "yes." She had learned a valuable lesson. The Lord does answer prayer, but often the answer is no.”
― Richard M. Hannula, Trial and Triumph: Stories from Church History

“It is necessary that you should know your sin,” he said, “or you could not understand how great is your redemption.”
― Richard M. Hannula, For Christ's Crown: Sketches of Puritans and Covenanters

“Good heavens! What remarkable women are found among the Christians!”
― Richard M. Hannula, Radiant: Fifty Remarkable Women in Church History

“I just leave myself entirely in my heavenly Father’s hands and have no anxiety about the future. I know that if He sees fit to send me greater suffering, He will give greater grace to bear it.”
― Richard M. Hannula, Radiant: Fifty Remarkable Women in Church History

“Now I go without daily bread, but I shall not feel hunger since I am full of Christ.”
― Richard M. Hannula, Radiant: Fifty Remarkable Women in Church History

“In the spring of 1519, the Bishop of Coventry received word that certain families were teaching their children the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments in English. The bishop ordered the arrest of Mr. Hatchets, Mr. Archer, Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Bond, Mr. Wrigsham, Mr. Landsdale and Mrs. Smith. While they were held at an abbey outside of town, their children were brought to Greyfriar’s Monastery in Coventry. The boys and girls were made to stand before Friar Stafford, the abbot. One by one, Stafford interrogated the children about their parents’ beliefs. “Now then,” he told them, “I charge you in the name of God to tell me the whole truth—you shall suffer severely for any lies you tell or secrets you conceal.” “What do you believe about the church and the way to heaven?” he asked them. “Do you go to the services of the parish church? Do you read the Scriptures in English? Do you memorize the Lord’s Prayer or other Scriptures in English?” After getting from the children’s own lips the information he needed to convict their parents, he warned them. “Your parents are heretics!” he bellowed. “They have led you away from the teachings of the church. You are never to meddle again with the Lord’s Prayer or the Ten Commandments or any other Scriptures in English. And if you do—rest assured you will burn at the stake for it!” The next day, the six fathers and Mrs. Smith stood before a panel of judges that included the bishop and Friar Stafford. After presenting the evidence against them—and because the men had been warned before by the bishop not to persist in their Lollard ways—the men were condemned to death by burning. But since this was Mrs. Smith’s first offense, the court dismissed her with a warning not to teach her children the Scriptures in English anymore under pain of death. It was late in the evening when the court dismissed, so the bishop’s assistant decided to see Mrs. Smith home in the dark. As they walked out into the night, he took her arm to lead her across the street. Hearing the rattling of papers within her sleeve, he stopped and said, “Well, what do you have here?” He grabbed her arm, reached into the sleeve and pulled out a little scroll. Under the light of a lantern, he read it and found that it contained handwritten in English the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments and the Apostle’s Creed. “Well, well,” he said with a sneer. “Come now, this is as good a time as any!” He dragged her back again to the bishop. The panel quickly sentenced her to be burned with the six condemned men and sent her off to prison to await her fate. A few days later, guards led Mrs. Smith and the Lollard men to an open space in the center of Coventry known as Little Park. They tied them to a stake and burned them to death for the crime of teaching their children the Word of God in English.”
― Richard M. Hannula, Radiant: Fifty Remarkable Women in Church History

“Every Christian family ought to be a little church, consecrated to Christ and wholly influenced and governed by His rules,” Jonathan taught. “And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace.”
― Richard M. Hannula, Radiant: Fifty Remarkable Women in Church History

“Livingstone explored for the rest of his life, enduring fevers, torrential rains, animal attacks, threatening tribes, and countless other hardships. Once when asked how he could make such sacrifices, Livingstone answered, "I never made a sacrifice. We ought not to talk of sacrifice when we remember the great sacrifice which Christ made when He left His Father's throne on high to give Himself for us.”
― Richard M. Hannula, Trial and Triumph: Stories from Church History