87-20 Special Education Shared Service Arrangement
 

The Cold Within

Six men were trapped by circumstances in bleak and bitter cold
Each one possessed a stick of wood, or so the story's told.
The dying fire in need of logs, the first man held his back
Because of faces round the fire, he noticed one was black.
The second man saw not one of his own local church
And couldn't bring himself to give the first his stick of birch.
The poor man sat in tattered clothes and gave his coat a hitch.
Why should he give up his log to warm the idle rich?
The man sat and thought of all the wealth he had in store
And how to keep what he had earned from the lazy, shiftless poor.
The black man's face spoke revenge and the fire passed from his sight
Because he saw in his stick of wood a chance to spite the white.
The last man of this forlorn group did naught except for gain,
Only to those who gave to him was how he played the game.
Their logs held tight in death's still hands was proof of human sin.
They didn't die from cold without; they did from The Cold Within.

-Author

Unknown

The old priest, who was dying, composed himself on his bed and said a prayer for the repose of his soul.   He was troubled about Heaven and Hell.  What were they like?  God knows he had spent a lifetime preaching about both places.  Now, at age 84, he wasn't sure.

Dimly, he saw two figures at the foot of his bed.  He knew who they were.  The tall muscular one was Moses, and the other was Peter the fisherman.   When they beckoned to the priest, he got up and followed, walking through the wall of his bedroom.  Silently, they led him through the galaxies of the night sky.   In a far-off place, they stopped before a big house.  "The kingdom of God is made of many mansions," Peter explained.  "So too is Hell.  Step inside.  We will show you the first room of Satan's palace."

As the priest walked in, his ears were assaulted by a babble of complaints.  Many people were seated at a large table.  In the center there was a big pot of the priest's favorite dish, beef stew.  Although everyone in Hell had a spoon and could reach the pot, the people were starving.  The spoon handles that were attached to their hands were twice as long as their arms.  They could catch the stew, but they couldn't bring it to their lips.  The cries of the starving were so loud that the priest begged to be taken away.

Peter and Moses took him to another mansion in a faraway place.   Moses invited the priest to step inside the outer room of Paradise.  There the priest saw a similar large table surrounded by many people.  In the center was a huge pot of beef stew.  The spoon handles were too long for human arms, but there were no cries of complaint.  No one was starving.  All the people were feeding each other.

                        -Jim Bishop, King Features

                         Published Readers Digest