Come along, then, all of You who have Found the Truth. Come with us again into a few of the homes where people are still seeking.
When we get to the home of Miss F. L. in Aitkin, Minnesota, it is early evening; and there in bed is Frances herself. In bed! Yes, she’s been there for five years—almost six, now, since polio struck her down. In the oncoming twilight we look around us in the strange room and see beside the bed a wheel-chair. But Frances looks up at us and smiles.
“Here’s my picture, taken at the park last summer when I could get out”, she says. Such a cheerful face looks back at us out of the picture. “Can I have one of you and the family to look at when I’m working on my Bible Course?” — How could one refuse?
Through the window we see vast fields of wheat. Things are very dry and it looks bad for this farm family, dependent on their crops. But Frances turns our attention to her library beside the bed. Bible Dictionaries, Bible Helps, Gospel magazines and pictures. “And I’ve read my Bible through nearly six times now, since I’ve been here in bed. I never blame God for what happened to me. He knows what’s best for me.”
“What are you working on, there, Frances?’ — “Why, it’s an embroidery picture of the Master with the lambs. I’m making it for you because of all you’ve done for me.” — We are very touched, and as we turn to go, something shines in our eyes. But Frances must not see our emotions. So we lean down to scratch “Rusty”, the dog, under the chin.
Can we help Frances to find the Truth? We can hope so. We have been visiting her almost a year now, and her answers to our questions are gradually turning from pious religiosity to definite Scriptural soundness.
There are others to be visited tonight, and the sun has gone behind the hills as we come into Cincinnati, Ohio, where an entirely different kind of Person is waiting to greet us. — Brash and breezy young Mr. R. M. is a writer. As we ‘come up the walk’, he calls out to us to hurry up as he wants to tell us all about his latest article he’s working on.
“What do you think of this for a title? — “The Price You Pay for Being Civilized” — Intriguing, isn’t it? Quite often the title comes to me first, (wish the check did!) and I write the article around it.”
“Say, that’s pretty good. Do you get your info’ right out of your head ?” we ask in amusement.
“Well, sometimes. But it is always necessary to go to the library and do a little research, to know that the facts are correct. We have an excellent library here-1,700,000 volumes — which is probably even greater than your supply of Christadelphian booklets!”
Despite the facetiousness, Ray likes our booklets. “Yes,” says Ray, “I think some of these Christadelphian authors are especially good at explaining Bible history — and I am really fascinated by this angle. For instance, I had almost forgotten that what happens in Israel is not merely politically important, but prophetically important as well.”
Then Ray asks us a strange question: “I’ve been wondering about the make-up of the Christadelphians — and particularly your source of revenue; also, how did you learn about it? And how come you take such an active part in it?”
So we tell him all about people like You who help finance the work; and about those dedicated ones — perhaps our parents, perhaps others — who took the time to teach us the Truth. “Ray”, we ask, “since others have done this for US, how could we Not take an active part in telling everyone who asks us about the wonderful reward which might be theirs ?”
“I like that answer”, says Ray.
Ray’s still talking as we go back ‘down the walk’. We always stay too long at his house, he’s so much fun to talk to. So many interesting ideas crowd one upon another from his mind — politics, health, philosophy, typographical errors found in our Bible Courses (how he loves to twit us about them!) — Much more is to be done, so we must go on . . .
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One