Notes in My Mother's Bible

I used to tell people that you could tell a whole lot about a person by the notes in their Bible. I don't know where the comment originated; it certainly wasn't original with me. This evening as I was doing some packing, I came across one of my Mother's very old Bibles (I have several of them from both of my parents). There are too many notes to write them all here, but here are a couple.

One note appears to be an autograph, though I'm not sure. The name is Stuart Hamblin. I did a google search on the name and learned that he is the person who wrote the old song, "It is No Secret What God Can Do". The story around the song named John Wayne and Billy Graham as sources of inspiration for the song (actually, John Wayne asked his friend Stuart Hamblin what happened to him; Stuart, a former drunk, responsed that it was no secret what God could do in a man's life, to which John Wayne said "that sounds like a song you could sing"). Hamblin came to know the Lord after hearing Billy Graham speak in 1949 in Los Angeles. You can read more about this by clicking here.

One more? Another note was simply "Beulah - Isaiah 62:4". That scripture says (underlined in her Bible), "Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee" (KJV). You may remember that Beulah was my Mother's middle name.

I'll share some more of these notes when I can. I thought you might enjoy this.

Do you write notes in your Bible that are special to you? Someone just might be blessed by your notes someday, and by knowing of your faith, too.