Second Kings 6 tells of a prophet chopping trees near a river when his iron axe head falls in. He said to Elisha: ‘Alas, master! For it was borrowed’ (v. 5 NKJV). He uses the past tense. As far as he is concerned, this axe head is gone forever. He has no expectation whatsoever that the axe head...

Demosthenes, who was reputed to be the greatest orator in ancient Greece, had a serious speech impediment. Legend has it that he overcame it by reciting verses with pebbles in his mouth and speaking above the roar of the waves at the seashore. As a prisoner in the Wartburg castle, Martin Luther...