Elizabeth of Hungary feeding the poor.

Fabiola, Basil the Great, Elizabeth of Hungary, Vincent de Paul, George Müller, John Barnardo, William Booth, Carolyn Chisholm, William Passavant…these and many other names in Christian history wear an aura of glory because they cared for the poor. God blessed them with all they needed in their own lives and multiplied their ability to help others.

Each was a fitting representative of their master, who went about helping the neediest and most sorrowful of his day. He gave an incentive to doing good when he promised, “whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” (Matthew 10:42)

Thomas Ken, author of the Doxology

Thomas Ken was a man with grace on his lips. Sometimes it came out as rebuke of kings—he rebuked both Charles II and William III. Sometimes it emerged as poetry, including one of the most-used verses of praise ever penned—the doxology: Praise God from whom all blessings flow…

One of the most famous incidents in Ken’s life was the time he refused to house Charles’ II’s mistress, Nell Gwynne. Ken did not think it appropriate for the Lord’s priest to offer his home for the convenience of a king’s lustful assignations. Surprisingly, Charles II took this in good part and befriended Ken by making him a bishop when a vacancy occured.

Christ the most pure, the most full of grace, was friend and more than friend of the highest king of all. His grace and virtue exalted him to the right hand of God.

A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in which they trust. Proverbs 21:22

When the Greeks could not defeat the Trojans, crafty Odyssus is supposed to have suggested leaving a giant horse outside the city with one soldier. The Greeks would sail away and the “abandoned” soldier would tell the Trojans the horse was a gift for the goddess Athena. Inside the horse soldiers would be hidden, and when, as expected, the Trojans hauled the horse into the city and the Greeks returned, the soldiers inside would pour out and open the gates. The strategem worked.

Many people make a stronghold of something which is not really a source of strength. The walls of the Trojans became their coffin. God does us a favor whenever he exposes the weaknesses of our vaunted positions.

Perhaps this proverb was based on the exploit of Joab, who broke into Jerusalem by leading his men up a water shaft which the Jebusites no doubt would have considered one of their chief assets in a seige.

Christ also scaled the fortress of Satan in a sort of Trojan Horse move, descending to the bottom, subjecting himself to death and apparent defeat that he might ascend to the highest eminence in the universe.

Bathilde

By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. Proverbs 22:4.

Bathilde may have been the original Cinderella. Born into a noble family she was captured and sold as a slave to the French court. Serving there as a kitchen maid, tradition says she handled herself with such dignity and modesty she attracted the notice first of a prince and then of the king. Eventually she became Queen of France, and after the death of the king, became regent for her son. Because of her bitter taste of slavery, she sought to ease and limit the practice, offering new life to many slaves by buying them and setting them free. A woman of faith, she spent the last years of her life in a convent.

Bathilde did not voluntarily humble herself, but allowed grace to work in her situation. Jesus, by contrast, willingly humbled himself. Highest and noblest, he stooped to be lowest. He even identified himself with criminals. In his agony, he feared God, and said, “Not my will but thine be done.”

As a consequence, in a far greater way than Bathilde, he freed people from slavery–slavery to sin. He became poor so we might be rich. He was dishonored so that we might become partakers of glory. He died so that we might have eternal life. Everything now belongs to him. He has the name above all names. He has the power of a resurrected life.

Jacket of My Son, My Son

The pain for a father whose son goes bad is agonizing. Bernard Palmer recounted his own experience with this in My Son, My Son. His defiant self-absorbed son, Barry, became an alcoholic, gambler, debtor, and adulterer. Thankfully, the ending in this case was happier than the beginning.

God’s Son when he came as a man, was, by contrast, the epitome of wisdom, one of the reasons God declared from heaven, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him.”

Maryland National Guard unit battles union workers.

When for a few months I was compelled to belong to a union in order to hold a job, I read the union papers with interest. I found that unions had made unholy alliances with evil organizations for political power. Hand had joined in hand for evil. The union urged support of abortion, reverse discrimination, and homosexual “rights.” Not surprisingly union bedfellows included socialists, communists, and everyone opposed to free enterprise. Historically unions have advanced their power through mob violence. Those same coalitions and tactics are evident today. In nothing I read from the union did I get a hint that the authors and editors gave a moment’s consideration to God or to the eternal consequences of their advocacy issues. A naked materialism held sway.

There are unholy alliances on the other side, too, where materialism is often masked behind a facade of faith. Historically, the money interests have often colluded with unjust political structures and established religions. Such coaltions are also evil. The point is that when evil men join hand in hand, whatever their politics, they are wrong and will not go unpunished.

Jesus belonged to no coalition. Like the boldest of his followers ever since, he stood alone when it counted, not linking hands with evil-doers on any side. Unable to co-opt him, all factions united to kill him–the money interests, the religious establishment, the mob, and the tyrannical Roman government. Forty years later, the Jewish nation reaped the fruit of their choices in the destruction of their nation, their holy city, and their temple. But the righteous Jesus was resurrected from death to found the most noble institution the world has ever known.

*Some modern translations lose the concept of coalitions.

Harry Truman.

There are many instances in history in which the leader of a nation has changed his mind or acted against his own best interests in a way that leads people to believe God must have been at work.

Such an example could be the decision by Hitler not to launch an invasion of Britain (which might have won him the war), but rather to turn on his ally Stalin.

An even better example might be the about face of Stalin after World War II. Previously his government had been anti-zionist, but now he began to sponsor the cause of a Jewish homeland; the Soviet Union voted for the Palestine partition plan in the United Nations, under the illusion Israel would become a socialist state.

Truman, harking back to his Christian upbringing, quickly recognized the fledgling Israeli nation, although the State Department urged against it.

It was time for Israel to be reborn, and God moved the hearts of rulers to bring it about.

Until the end of his life, Christ had little contact with kings, rulers and governors. Nonetheless, that Pilate yield to the roar of the Jerusalem mob was necessary for our salvation, and turned his heart to do what he knew was wrong.

Following his resurrection God also turned the heart of kings. The first ruler recorded as accepting Christ was not a king, but the the proconsul Sergius Paulus on the island of Cyprus. Within three centuries, the history of Europe and Asia Minor would become a history of kings who bowed their knees to the Lord and brought their nations into the fold of Christendom, beginning with Armenia in the third century and ending with Lithuania in the fourteenth.

We cannot presume to determine why God has not chosen to turn the hearts of other kings to Christ. But as the history of this age draws to a close and we see prophecies fulfilled, we likely will get deeper insight into God’s plan.

Charles IX of France, by Clouet.

When I worked as a prison librarian, one of my workers always wore a haunted look. He told me that he had killed during the commission of a robbery. “I can’t get that old woman’s screams out of my head,” he said. He was burdened with bloodshed.

Likewise Charles IX of France suffered terrors because of his role in ordering the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, which butchered thousands of Huguenots without warning. At times he would boast of the massacre, and at others exclaim that he was damned and that the screams of the innocent victims were ringing in his ears. Sometimes he blamed himself; at other times he accused his mother and others who had counseled him to the atrocity.

Solomon’s approach seems pitiless: such a person is not to be assisted. The Old Testament law substantiates Solomon’s position: no sacrifice was provided for murder, but rather the murderer was to be executed; a life for a life. However, even under the Old Testament law there was mercy for some murderers: David was told he would not be executed for his plot against Uriah and the Lord witheld his hand from Ahab when that wicked king donned sackcloth after being rebuked for the killing of Naboth.

Now that Christ has come with his new covenant, there is forgiveness for things which were not forgiven under the old law. As Paul remarked in Acts 13:39, “and through Him [Jesus] everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.”

If I had had the wisdom at that time, I would have shared this hope with my worker.

A. W. Tozer reminded us of eternity

A present is a precious stone in the eyes of its possessor; wherever he turns, he prospers. Proverbs 17:8

Some people think they can bribe their way to success. To them a present is like the philosopher’s stone in alchemy. This was a hypothetical stone which was supposed to be able to turn into gold anything it touched. (In the first fifteen Christian centuries, alchemists wasted vast amounts of time and energy searching for this mythical stone.) Bribe-makers often do succeed, but at the cost of corruption. Therefore, what seems precious in the eyes of its possessor may actually be recognized as a bane by onlookers.

Of what value is success in this brief life if it leads to eternal loss? One of the most chilling verses in the Bible, found in Psalm 106, tells us that God gave the Israelites their desire, but sent leanness into their soul. Christ added an even more solemn warning: “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?”

A. W. Tozer summed the idea up this way: “Apart from God, nothing matters. We think that health matters, or knowledge, or art or civilization. And but for one insistent word, they would matter indeed. That word is eternity.”

This does not mean there is no place for presents. Christ brought to the Father a present far more valuable than anything anyone can bring another on earth: his precious blood. It paid for our sin.

If bribe-givers (and takers) would reflect, they would see that the only true success in to be a partaker of Christ’s present, for when one comes under the blood, one receives eternal life and gifts of the Spirit. What is more, to those who overcome, Christ promises a white stone, a truly valuable stone, on which is written a new name, known only to God and the recipient—a token of a priceless, intimate, unique relationship between God and an individual. Is not this the success to seek?

Elisabeth of Hungary

Mercy and truth preserve the king, and by lovingkindness he upholds his throne. Proverbs 20:28

Elisabeth of Hungary was just fourteen when she wed Ludwig, but was wise beyond her years. While he was away fulfilling duties with Emperor Frederick II, famine overtook their land. Over the objections of her greedy inlaws, Elisabeth opened Ludwig’s treasuries and set up soup lines and a hospital to provide for the starving populace.

On Ludwig’s return, his family assaulted him with angry charges of Elisabeth’s “extravagance,” but he endorsed all that she had done. Both died young, but the people of Thuringia cherished their memory and considered them saints. They retained a kingdom in the hearts of people.

Christ is a ruler of lovingkindness who purchased his subjects from slavery with his own blood. In all our trials he shares our suffering. He is our bread. He is our healer. He, too, is a ruler of hearts.