Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1918-03-22

by lnadelity: fallen woman who had
become clean through hearing a lee
ture IN Fidelity, and a gambler, who
had been delivered from the awful
passion by accepting infidelity. Then
the evangelist said, Il promise you
when the time for the debate comes,
that | will march into the hall at the
head OF small army of former drunk.
ards, harlots and gamblers who heard
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
and were saved by thep over of Cod
The inf1del, with sneering laughter
left the street-meeting.
Aco-oPERATivE CHARITY
Where help is. the needy resort: be
lit soup kitchen for the hungry,
doctors Office for the sick. church
for the spiritually needy. That is why
the miscellaneous multitude, with
their varying wants. logged the foot
steps of Jesus And, as all humanity
is tethered by a short chain to the
elemental neds Of nature, all the as
sortment Of desires that this crowd
pressed upon the Bountiful One. re-
solved themselves later into a desire
for food.
This made the lieutenants of the
Master uneasy. They would have sent
the mob away, shifting back on each
the responsibility for food. They had
not the wherewithal in sight to feed
them, nor had they anything like the
immense sum of thirty or forty dol
lars necessary to buy food from the
neighboring villages. The Lord does
not eblieve in these easy evasions a
obligation. He puts up to the individ-
ual the claims of the many; il obed-
lent to Him, nobody could disregard
the social problems Of our time. Give
We them to eat" is the way He turned
this big responsibility over to His dis
ciples. Similarly, Americans are
called upon to modify their rations
that their allies may have food.
The resultant incidents were
capital instance of organized charity.
First, there was the Masters part:
He provided the motive, the direction
the Thanksgiving and the spirit Of
economy, holding the others up to
their duty. In the great scheme OF
present-day cooperative benevolence,
Jesus represents the spirit of love and
compassion: the sustaining force that
makes all else possible.
The second party in this organized
relief were the disciples. They had
the practical work to do; they were
the ways and means committee. All
the moving to and fro was theirs. The
most efficient member appears to
have been that quiet man, Andrew,
who had knack or producing tho
person whom Jesus needed. It was
the disciples who arranged the bread
line" seating the company in orderly
rows on the grass. and who carried
out the actual work OF dis ''rtion.
and later of the collection of the frag.
ments. They were the essential med.
iums of the whole charity No con.
vention. church organization would
go" If it were made up OF speech
makers and preachers. and no humble
workers.
Then, vital link in the chain o
relief was the small boy Only
boy" yet through him five thousand
we're fed. His provident mother had
put up a lunch Of Ave nat barlc,
cakes, with some fish relish. What
boy he was-or rather,
what exciting sights he had been
hearing-that he had not gobbled up
that lunch long before noon! Wouldn't
you like to hear the story Of this days
events as he afterwards rehearsed 1t
to his family, his neighbors, and, later
to his own children and grandchil.
dren?