Jesus washed the disciples' feet. A similar spirit was manifested by H. B. Gibbud with excellent results, as told by him in this extract:
I was going from cell to cell among the
prisoners, when one man called me back, and
asked if I remembered him. I did not.
"Well," said he, "I remember you. You got me out of the 'dives' in Mulberry Bend in New York City about twelve years ago, took me to the Florence Mission, and gave me a note to the Home of Intemperate Men. Do you remember?"
I was unable to place him, as I had done a similar act for quite a number.
"You will remember me, I think, when I tell you the circumstances. I was nearly naked; you got some clothes for me. I was shivering with delirium tremens, and could not dress myself, so you drest me. Now you remember me, don't you?"
I was still unable to recollect him.
"Well, there is one thing more, and that is what broke me up. After you had drest me, you said, 'You want to look nice, so I'll black your boots'; and you did.
"Now I could not tell, to save my neck, what you said about Christ; I did not want to do better; I did not go to the home; all I wanted was what I could get out of you. But your blacking my boots—I have never been able to get away from that."
"I did not want your religion, but to think that you cared enough about my soul to black my boots, that has followed me all these years, and when I have been drunk and stupid that thing would haunt me. I have thought of it hundreds of times, and now I thank God has brought me here to meet you again, and I want you to pray for me." (Text.)
(2914)
The whole material universe is ever compulsorily engaged in mutual service. The spheres wait on earth, air, sun, clouds, and sky. But the spiritual universe has for its grace and its glory the principle of service consciously rendered by love and sacrifice.
Two ragged street urchins stood one day
before the window of a picture store in
London, and one cried out, "Look, Jim,
look!" "What is it?" Jim asked, and the
little fellow answered, "Why, there he is.
That's our earl." It was the photograph of
the Earl of Shaftesbury, in truth the earl
of the poor and opprest. The motto of his
family is "Love—Serve," and nobly did he
live up to his motto. At his funeral a laboring
man was heard to say in a choking voice,
"Our earl's gone. God A'mighty knows he
loved us. We sha'n't see his likes again."
(Text.)
(2915)
The flowers got into a debate one morning as to which of them was the flower of God, and the rose said: "I am the flower of God, for I am the fairest and the most perfect in beauty and variety of form and delicacy of fragrance of all the flowers." And the crocus said: "No, you are not the flower of God. Why, I was blooming long before you bloomed. I am the primitive flower; I am the first one." And the lily of the valley said modestly: "I am small, but I am white; perhaps I am the flower of God." And the trailing arbutus said: "Before any of you came forth I was blooming under the leaves and under the snow. Am I not the flower of God?" And all the flowers cried out: "No, you are no flower at all; you are a come-outer." And then God's wind, blowing on the garden, brought this message to them: "Little flowers, do you not know that every flower that answers God's spring call, and comes out of the cold, dark earth, and lifts its head above the sod and blooms forth, catching the sunlight from God and flinging it back to men, taking the sweet south wind from God and giving it back to others in sweet and blest fragrance—do you not know they are all God's flowers?"
(2916)
Service and Age—See Age and Experience. SERVICE AND SACRIFICE An old Roman coin bore the design of an ox standing between a plow and an altar, thus signifying its readiness for either service or sacrifice. No symbol could more beautifully represent the attitude of the true servant of Christ—ready, while the Master wills, to bow the neck to the yoke and toil in his service; and just as ready when the call comes, to sacrifice everything, even life itself. (Text.)—Zion's Herald.
(2917)
Service as Testimony—See Witness of Service.
