Our Work and Workers

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 3, 1911

Our Work and Workers

Four more have been added to the church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, uniting by baptism.

Seven have accepted the threefold message at Kittanning, Pennsylvania, since the work was begun there.

Five persons have united with the church in Spokane, Washington, and the note says several others will be baptized soon.

As the result of tent meetings in Alabama City, Alabama, twenty-two have decided to "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus."

At the close of a camp-meeting of colored believers at Sanford, Florida, four persons were baptized, and seven are obeying the truth for this time.

An interest begun in Porto Rico by a native preacher has resulted in ten taking their stand with the remnant people. Seven were baptized, and others will take the step later.

Brother W. R. Smith writes from Wonsan, Korea: "A Sabbath-school of twenty-four members was organized, and we hope soon to be able to organize a small company into a church."

One hundred forty-two persons were baptized and received into the various churches in the Colorado Conference during the last year. Twenty-five more were baptized at the recent camp-meeting held in Denver.

The Life Boat for December has just reached us. As usual it is filled with tender words of comfort and sympathy for the discouraged, and cheering messages of hope for the fallen. Price 10 cents. Address the Life Boat, Hinsdale, Illinois.

Brother D. T. Shireman, Hickory, N. C., writes that if there are any among our readers — perhaps a father or mother who may be left with two or

sad eyes and a timid manner, whom they called Rachel, "verily, I have come from afar, even from Damascus, to Bethany, that I might learn of the truth of those things which were told me. And now have mine eyes seen and mine ears heard truly; and I do believe that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah; for not only hath He healed the sick, but He hath given life to this man Lazarus. And now, to-morrow do I hasten back to Damascus, that I may bring word to my father,—for he, he set forth with palsy,—that he may come and be healed. Only my heart faileth me, for the distance is long, and I fear lest my father be not able to make this journey, and I fear also lest this Miracle-Worker pay small heed to our sorrow." And the woman glanced timidly around the room.

"Have no fear, Rachel," chimed in another, a poor woman who had aided in the preparation of the feast; "thou knowest me,—I have a daughter who is maid servant of Claudia Procula, the wife of Pontius Pilate, and she is now in Jerusalem. Have no fear, Rachel; for I tell thee, the heart of this Jesus of Nazareth is gentle and kind, and filled with love and sympathy for those who suffer. Ask my brother Bartimeus if this be not true; he will tell thee how on a certain day while he was in Jericho, not long ago, as he sat by the wayside asking alms of the people,—for he was blind,—they told him that this Miracle-Worker was passing by. Now as soon as my brother understood this, at once he began crying to Him earnestly, for our poor Bartimeus was in a sad way. But the people who heard him cry, bade him hold his peace, for they cared not for his misery and his helplessness. But he cried so much the more, ‘Thou Son of David, have mercy on me!’"

"Did the Prophet at all heed him?" interrupted the timid woman Rachel.

"Of a truth He did, and commanded that they call my brother. Then one came running, and delivered the message from the Man, saying, ‘Rise and be of good cheer; for behold, He calleth thee!’ And he rose quickly at these words from the messenger, and cast away his garment, lest it hinder him in running. ‘What shall I do for thee?’ asked the Prophet. ‘O Rabboni! that I might receive my sight!’ exclaimed my brother."

The woman Rachel had been intently listening from the beginning of the recital; but now her eyes were filled with a new light—the light of a wonderful hope.

"What did the Prophet unto thy brother? Tell me, woman! Gave He sight unto him?"

"Of a truth; and He said unto him, ‘Thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.’”

The listening woman waited to hear no more. She cast one searching, longing look at the quiet Figure clad in plain garments, sitting by the side of Simon the host, and Lazarus, the resurrected one. Then she turned to the narrator hastily.

"Why now should I linger till the morning? Behold, I will return to Damascus, that my father may come and be healed,—for why should he tarry longer?"

In another hour the woman Rachel had started on her return journey.

Meanwhile, close to the feet of the Man of Nazareth had crept a beautiful woman. Her soft hair fell in shining tresses about her shoulders, and in her dark, earnest eyes beamed the light of a worshipful love. With nervous haste she broke the seal of a box of whitest alabaster of exquisite workmanship, and poured the costly ointment which it contained, upon the head and then upon the feet of Him she loved, while with her silken tresses she wiped away the tears which fell upon His sacred feet.

It was Mary Magdalene, she from whose beautiful eyes once flashed the madness of the pit, and from whose lips once dropped the curses and the blasphemies of seven demons. She had hoped to perform her deed of love unnoticed by the criticizing throng; but the odor of the costly ointment had made known her act of devotion.

"Wherefore is this wasteful extravagance?" cried a tall, dark man at the right, whom we remember to have last seen in his own home in Kerioth of Judea. Nor can we forget the awful errand which carried his covetous feet thither, nor the dark and terrible deed which even then he meditated.

Influenced by the example of the man of Kerioth, Simon the host exclaimed, "Behold the woman!" while he bent his haughty head and whispered in the ear of Bar-jona:

"Knoweth not thy Master, if He is a prophet, that this woman is a sinner?"

For answer, Bar-jona only turned his astonished eyes questioningly upon the calm face of his Master; but the usually glib tongue of the fisherman of Galilee was silent.

But the dark eyes of Judas of Kerioth were filled with a greedy light, as he turned them full upon the shrinking woman.

"Wherefore is this waste?" he again sternly demanded. "Dost thou forget, O woman, that there are many poor who perchance are hungry and naked even in Bethany and Jerusalem? Why then gavest thou not this ointment to the apothecary? for he would have given three hundred shilling [a coin worth 17 cents] for this spikenard, and behold, it is now wasted. Verily this thing ought not to have been done!"

The woman dried her hot tears for a moment, but her cheek was flushed with embarrassment, and she glanced uneasily and timidly toward her older sister Martha, as if fearing a rebuke from her lips also. Then she fixed her dark eyes, again swimming with tears, in piteous appeal upon the face of her Master.

Will He rebuke her also? Will He misunderstand her act of love, and think it at best a deed of childish folly? Will He?

By this time the attention of the entire company was fixed upon her, as with streaming, downcast eyes and hot cheeks she made haste to hide herself from the indignant glances of the guests.

Suddenly a stern voice broke the momentary hush which had fallen over the company:

"Let her alone!"

The quick command of the Man of Nazareth sounded loud and clear and full of Godlike authority, as He slowly rose from the triclinium, while His eye swept the assembled guests with an expression of mingled scorn and pity: "Let her alone!"

The man Judas of Kerioth, even as he was first to criticize and condemn, was first to recover himself.

Glancing up into the stern face of the Master, with some degree of confusion—for he was a proud man—he stammered, "But, Master, the poor—"

"The poor ye have always with you, and whenever ye will, ye may do them good; but," and the voice rang with mournful pathos, "but Me ye have not always!"

Then resting His eyes upon the woman, with an expression of infinite love and sympathy, He continued:

"She hath done what she could; she hath come beforehand to anoint My body for the burial. And wherever this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, this also that she hath done shall be told as a memorial of her."

A few moments thereafter, the man Judas Iscariot was missed from the assembly.

"Where hath he gone, thinkest thou, Bar-jona?" queried Matthias. "He is a strange man, and verily I liked not the look in the man’s dark face, when he rose and went out."

Bar-jona said nothing, but he stepped to the outer porch, where, leaning against a marble column, stood John, the son of Zebedee, watching the dark figure of a man walking rapidly toward the west on his way to Jerusalem.

But the eyes of Simon the host followed the woman, and in his heart he hated her. Had she not kissed the travel-stained feet of the Nazarene, and moistened them with foolish tears, in very presence of his guests?

"Almost do I regret having made this feast for thy Master," he whispered to Matthias, who constantly followed the company of the Miracle-Worker, and sat near the host; "almost; for hath not this woman humbled me before these my guests?" And in his secret heart he said that the Nazarene was no prophet, even tho He had healed him, and given him back his manhood, and rescued him from the horrible home of the leper.

Ingratitude, thou basest foe That ever breathed thy cruel breath From craven lips, full well we know Thy birthplace is the pit of wo; Thine end, the fiery lake of death!

The Nazarene fixed His sad eyes upon His ungrateful host; and in that moment Simon of Bethany was conscious that the ugly secrets of his past life were read like an open book!

What if the Master should expose the dark secrets of his life now, in presence of his guests?

A few hours later, Simon of Bethany was alone with his wife Prisca. But the look of haughty arrogance and unbending pride in the dark eyes, had given place to an expression of deep humility and contrition.

"Surely this Man by His love hath broken and subdued my rebellious heart, until, O my Prisca, I am filled with shame and confusion; for behold, tho He hath healed me, yet have I done Him scant honor even to-day. And in mine ungrateful heart I have even doubted and misjudged Him! But lo, He hath read mine heart, and understandeth my sins—and behold they be black; yet He smote me not in the presence of my guests. But as the Lord liveth, when the Man said, ‘I have somewhat to say unto thee, O Simon,’ I said in my heart, This Man who, I perceive, knoweth the secrets of my life, will humble me now in very presence of these people.

"But now, behold, He hath shown me mine own heart, till I abhor myself. And how shall I be forgiven for this mine ingratitude?

"Surely this is none other than the Shiloh of the prophets,—for we know the time is fulfilled."

(To be continued)