These short stories, perhaps we might call them modern parables, are not the usual fare of warm and fuzzy Christmas stories (pleasing as those are) but rather life events and crises triggered by Christmas, present or imminent. Brady was a journalist, historian, adventure writer, and Episcopal priest.

The Mysterious Forces of Civilization (Persian: Risálih-i-Madaníyyih) is a work written before 1875 by ‘Abbás Effendí, known as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (the Servant of Bahá) (1844-1921). The Persian text was first lithographed in Bombay in 1882 and printed in Cairo in 1911. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was the eldest son and appointed successor of Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith. The original text of this work was written and published anonymously, and the first English translation (by Johanna Dawud) was published in London in 1910 and Chicago in 1918, under the title ‘Mysterious Forces of Civilization’ written by "an Eminent Bahai Philosopher...

The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith, in the Calvinist theological tradition. Although drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly, largely of the Church of England, it became and remains the 'subordinate standard' of doctrine in the Church of Scotland, and has been influential within Presbyterian churches worldwide.

The Augsburg Confession is the first and most fundamental Confession of the Lutheran Church. It was composed for a public reading at the Diet of Augsburg on June 25, 1530. Although written by Melanchthon, it was presented as the official answer of the undersigned German princes to the summons of Emperor Charles V. Two copies were presented on the same day, one in German, the other in Latin. This work translates a conflation of the German and Latin texts and was prepared for the Concordia Triglotta of 1921. (Introduction by Jonathan Lange)

The Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (1537) (Latin, Tractatus de Potestate et Primatu Papae), The Tractate for short, is the seventh Lutheran credal document of the Book of Concord. Philip Melanchthon, its author, completed it on February 17, 1537 during the assembly of princes and theologians in Smalcald.

Saint Catherine of Genoa (Caterina Fieschi Adorno, born Genoa 1447 – 15 September 1510) is an Italian Roman Catholic saint and mystic, admired for her work among the sick and the poor. She was a member of the noble Fieschi family, and spent most of her life and her means serving the sick, especially during the plague which ravaged Genoa in 1497 and 1501. She died in that city in 1510.In 1551, 41 years after her death, a book about her life and teaching was published, entitled Libro de la vita mirabile et dottrina santa de la Beata Caterinetta de Genoa...

“Bahaism is not a new religion,” writes Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney, “It is religion renewed… it does not pretend to represent the whole Truth; on the contrary, it recognises Truth in fundamental principles which are the basis of all former dispensations, and which for that very reason form the standpoint of concord too long lost sight of. And it requires people to renounce ancient superstitions, to abandon the dead letter in order to be penetrated by the living and vivifying spirit, then by...

A Romance of Two Worlds starts with a young heroine telling her story of a debilitating illness that includes depression and thoughts of suicide. Her doctor is unable to help her and sends her off on a holiday where she meets a mystical character by the name of Raffello Cellini, a famous Italian artist. Cellini offers her a strange potion which immediately puts her into a tranquil slumber, in which she experiences divine visions.

A fictionalized biography of George Mackay (1844-1901), an influential Presbyterian missionary in northern Taiwan.

She was born a princess, heir to her father’s kingdom of Portugal, and she might at will have reigned from almost any throne in Europe. But instead of this, she made what to her world seemed a thoroughly mad choice – for she chose to have a throne in heaven. Today those scepters are dust which she would not accept, and as Blessed Joanna of Portugal she possesses a throne imperishable… This children’s biography of Blessed Joanna of Portugal was written by Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, a Catholic Dominican Nun...

MANUAL OF SURGERY, OXFORD MEDICAL PUBLICATIONSBY ALEXIS THOMSON, F.R.C.S.Ed.PREFACE TO SIXTH EDITION Much has happened since this Manual was last revised, and many surgical lessons have been learned in the hard school of war. Some may yet have to be unlearned, and others have but little bearing on the problems presented to the civilian surgeon. Save in its broadest principles, the surgery of warfare is a thing apart from the general surgery of civil life, and the exhaustive literature now available on every aspect of it makes it unnecessary that it should receive detailed consideration in a manual for students...