Lovelessness — Don Currin

I echo my tremendous appreciation for your kindness in having Cindy and I on this occasion. I appreciate Jeff's heart, his openness. As we corresponded on the phone, he was very enthusiastic when I said, well, is there any way we could come through and see the people and perhaps have an opportunity to minister?

And so he graciously consented. And we're here and we felt the warmth and the encouragement from all of you as a faith family. I want to share tonight with you something that I see as a great need in the Church of Jesus Christ in this hour.

The Danger of Lovelessness in the Church

Something that I feel as if many churches are ceasing to be an evangelistic witness because of a loss of. It's interesting the very text suggests that, that our Lord will remove the candlestick, which is the very testimony of his grace and glory with the church if we are careless in this area.

I'm speaking of the subject of lovelessness. And I want you to take your Bibles with me tonight and turn to a very familiar text in Revelation chapter number two. Thank you, dear brother. Revelation chapter number two this evening.

Now, no doubt whatsoever, if you've been in the family of God for any period of time, you've probably heard at least one message on this series of verses. Being that now I've been saved a number of years and been in ministry as long as I have, I've heard a number of different words from this particular passage.

But I direct your attention please to Revelation chapter two and verse number one. While it may be common to some of us and we can readily interpret the content of it, perhaps there is something new tonight that we can glean and greatly benefit from.

So if you would, verse number one. To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things says, he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks or lampstands, I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil.

And you have tested those who say they're apostles and are not and have found them liars. And you have persevered and have patience and have labored for my name's sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless, I have this against you that you have left your first love.

Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works or else I will come to you quickly and remove, remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. But this you have that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Now, I have only attended one fellowship conference in Texas.

Back years ago, upon the insistence of my good friend and brother in Christ, Mac Tomlinson, he said, please, if you have an opening in the schedule on this particular date, would you please pencil in the fellowship conference in Denton?

So we had it open and my wife and I planned to go to the conference. And when we arrived and registered, we were given a little skinny book. And I looked at this little skinny book and I noticed everybody got a copy of it.

And I thought to myself, what they've done as a church or perhaps a fellowship is they ordered a bunch of these to sell and they can't get rid of all of them. So what they're doing now is they're giving away in the name of freebie.

And then I thought, well, maybe that's not the case at all. Perhaps what they did is they had an overprint at the publisher and they're just trying to get rid of them. And they sent them to the fellowship to give to everybody that registered.

Well, I don't know where the idea came from, but in God's providence, I received a copy of that book. And to be honest with you, I went back to where we were staying in the conference. I thumbed through it.

I came real close to putting it in file 13, just totally disregarding it. But I'm so glad that I began to read the first few pages. The title of the book was Love or Die by Alexander Strach. And it's interesting, he began to bring up some things in this passage of scripture that I had never seen before.

There was a key insight in particular that had a gripping effect upon me. And little did I know it would begin a new pilgrimage in my life. You see, quite honestly, I'm speaking from my heart. If I'm going to be known for anything, if I hope in Christ to make a mark on my generation, I would pray that I would leave before my family, as well as the family of God, a legacy of love.

And it is so essential, brethren, that we as individuals and collectively as the Church of Jesus Christ maintain this posture of caring and loving for people. Because if we neglect it, there are so many Arminian churches and so many Reformed churches today, if the truth was known, while they function together in the principles of evangelicalism, there is a sense of loss.

The glory of God has departed, namely because they no longer love as Jesus loved. And so I want to speak to you about this tonight, and this is a very practical message and something, I pray, that will encourage you to preserve what I sense here in Redeeming Grace Church is a reality presently.

Don't take it for granted. Strive to maintain it, but even to see it envelop more and more the lives and the families of your congregation. Now here's a few thoughts. What was so significant about Mr. Strach's exposition was his comments on the phrase, you have left your first love.

The Nature of the First Love

What he expounds from the original language was quite enlightening. As a matter of fact, I would almost say it resulted in a paradigm shift theologically for me in this area of love. He says that first love in verse 4 means you have abandoned the love you had at the first.

You say, big deal. I understand that. I know what you're saying there. I've always believed what he is saying is being said in the text, but listen carefully. He went on to say that literally translated, the text reads, you have abandoned your love the first.

Now why is that so important? Well, for many years I had learned and I had preached that the emphasis in the Greek language was on the object of love. And therefore I assumed he was speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But the more I began to meditate on what he was saying, that the original said, and then the implication that he drew from the text, I recognized that the emphasis in the original was not on the object, but the nature of love.

The nature of love. This is important, friend. Listen carefully. He mentions that the emphasis is on this adjective first. So the love that they had abandoned refers to their love, as it was first expressed at the beginning of their life together as a church body.

You see, the love here is not referring to a person, but to a type or expression of love. So bottom line, what Jesus is saying is that you've abandoned the love that you had at the first. In other words, it was not who they had neglected, but a certain kind, a nature of love they had neglected.

Let me illustrate. I once again draw from Strach's book, Love or Die. He gives the example, a true story of a young minister who came to a church on one occasion. He had a great deal of passion. He seemed to be inclined to connect with the people.

He came to the early service prayer meeting, and he entered into the spirit of prayer. He prayed for the people. He prayed that God's blessing would come and help the people that morning. He really seemed to have a legitimate interest.

He got in the pulpit. He had a great gift of communication. It seemed to really resonate in the minds and hearts of the congregation that morning. Afterwards, he stood at the back door, and he gave a warm embrace, either literally or verbally, to everyone that exited the church building.

A family invited him to dinner that day, and he gladly accepted their invitation, went and sat around the table, and engaged in meaningful, savory conversation. It was a wonderful time of fellowship. And finally, later in the afternoon, he dismissed himself, and he left.

Fifteen years later, the same minister came back to the same church. This time, he insisted that he had to have a motel room when the people had offered a place in someone's home. He came to the early morning prayer meeting that Sunday morning when he was to speak, but during the prayer time, he remained conspicuously silent.

He didn't seem to enter into the spirit. There wasn't that connectivity like he had formally expressed 15 years earlier. That morning, as he stood before the people, it was more of just an academic outline with no heart in his preaching.

Afterwards, he stood at the back door. He greeted people as they came out, but only with superficial pleasantries. Later that day, someone said, Would you come to lunch? He said, I'm sorry. I have some things to attend to.

And he excused himself, got in his car, and sped off. Now, something had happened to this man. There are certain things that you'll note when you compare the two times that he was in the church. First of all, he did not pray with meaning.

He did not pray at all as he did formally. He didn't spend time with the brothers and sisters as he had previously. He left the church as soon as possible that day, and even his message that he preached that second time was scripted, not heartfelt.

Something had happened. As Alexander Strzok points out, he had lost the love that he had previously displayed. Jesus would have said to the minister, I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at the first.

It wasn't Christ. It wasn't an object. It was the type, the kind, the texture of the love that he had formally demonstrated before these people. Now, listen carefully. Another significant thing I found in the text was that Christ is addressing a particular object as the first love.

Now, I'm just going to piggyback on what I've said in the way of introduction here. He said, I had assumed, or personally, I had assumed for years that the love that was left was their love for Christ.

But it's interesting, a closer look at the text once again reveals that the object of love is not mentioned. This is important. Listen. The passage does not say you've left Christ or you've left your love for fellow believers.

Once again, Strzok comments, it is best to understand Jesus to mean Christian love in general, which would include love for God, love for one another, and love for the unsaved. You see, according to our Lord, Strzok says, love for God and neighbor are inseparable companions.

Mark 12 verse 29 through 31 and Luke 10 verse 27 underscore this. He said it is possible, impossible to love God and not love His people or to love His people and not love God. Now, to be clear before we move on.

What the passage is saying, men and women, is the love, this love encompasses all relationships. In other words, it's not just our relationship vertically with Christ and with our Father, but also our relationship horizontally with the saints of God and people who are unregenerate in our community.

It encompasses all people. We are to love as Jesus loved. Therefore, this is what I want you to see. It is so troubling, what is so troubling about the passage is that Christ says, if you do not repent of your cold, stale, lifeless, mechanical love, I will come to you quickly and I will remove the candlestick out of its place.

This warns of a judgment. Listen now, this warn, can God judge the church? Can the Lord Jesus Christ measure or mete out judgment against the church? Absolutely. This underscores the fact that our sovereign Lord will bring a judgment upon any church that suddenly begins to wane in their love for people in general.

And therefore, because of their lovelessness, they stand at risk of losing the candlestick, which is the very nature of God's presence with them that validates their witness in the eyes of the world. Listen, it is interesting as you study this, you see today the examples.

Christianity, particularly in North America, is strong with churches that in one sense are no better than the Masonic Lodge. They have no witness. They have no testimony whatsoever. Formality has replaced force.

Superficiality has replaced spiritual reality. Therefore, what they do is they just go through the motions they may give. They may have a mission board, but there is no passion because there is such a profound lack of love.

The Marks of a Loving Church

My wife and I, years ago, we were in transition. HeartCry had left Muscle Shoals and I had asked Brother Washer, I said, I have an Alzheimer's mother that we just got moved down to Alabama. And, of course, that was a whole experience in itself.

It was horrible. Worst thing I've ever gone through because Mother just took on an entirely different nature in her state of malady, you know, with dementia and all and said things to me that she had never said before using very, very bad language.

And it was horrible. And so I asked Paul, I said, you know, I need to take care of my mother. And he said, look, brother, he said, you stay there. And, of course, two girls were both engaged and they got married.

So he said, you can continue to work with HeartCry and stay there in Alabama. And I was very appreciative. But our dilemma was, where are we going to go to church? Now, in our neck of the woods there in Florence, Sheffield, Tuscumbia and Muscle Shoals, the Quad City, they're probably in the outside parameter of that about 100 ,000 people.

And we've got all kinds of churches. And so we thought, what are we looking for in a church? I'm not picking. I was not looking for perfection. But there were five things in my heart that were non-negotiables I could not compromise.

Number one, I was looking for a solid theological, theologically foundational evangelical faith church. Secondly, I was looking for a church that preached a clear biblical gospel, a biblical gospel. Thirdly, I had a firm conviction in not just in the inerrancy of Scripture, but in the sufficiency of Scripture.

Why is it that we don't do certain things as the world does? Because we believe that truth is what God has ordained to help men and set them free, not gimmicks and trinkets and methods that the world suggests.

So you see, this thing of the sufficiency of the Scripture was very, very important to us. Fourthly, I wanted to be a part of a congregation that believed and practiced biblical, restorative church discipline.

And the fifth thing I was looking for was a community of love. They didn't just say that they loved each other, but you could see it in the tangible proof of accountability and oversight and care and sacrifice.

Now, you would have thought in our neck of the woods, if I can use that expression, we would have had beaucoups of churches, you know, to choose from. But there were only two, perhaps three, that resembled this in some measure.

Consequently, our response was we started a church. Not perfect. We never feel as if we're better than anyone else in the community. But these things, for conscience's sake, were very important to us.

We wanted a church, though, once again, I underscore, a church that genuinely loved one another. Love was very obvious in the faith family. Now, what I want to do for the next few moments is I want to give you three things to just basically hang our thoughts on.

Number one, I want you to consider with me the nature of this love. The love that Christ commends. What is the real nature of that love? What is he talking about? Secondly, I want to talk about three primary relationships.

Once again, I've already mentioned these, but now let's just expound on them. Three different relationships that this love encompasses. And then fourthly, in closing tonight, we're going to once again look at the indictment of Jesus.

That if we do not love like we had at the first, we will die. Your testimony to others individually and collectively will die. It will diminish and ultimately die. So we begin tonight by just talking about, for a few moments, the nature of the love that Christ desires.

Loving as Christ Loved

Now, once again, we look back in verse number four. Very familiar phrase there that most of us are very familiar with. When Christ said, I have somewhat against you because you have left your first love.

Let me stir up your mind in the way of remembrance again. Once again, the text speaks of a special kind of love. A love that is unique in nature. And very simply put, practically conveyed, the love is the love of Christ.

The love that Jesus has we are to emulate. We are to love as he loved. What are you saying? He is saying that Ephesus does not love with this kind of love. The love that Jesus loved with. Now, can you believe, and I ask you this question, think about it.

Is it possible for the church to love as Jesus loved? Believe that? You say, man, that is a standard that is almost infinite. I mean, there is absolutely no way that we could love the way Jesus loves.

But it is interesting that that is exactly what Paul commands the saints at Ephesus to do. You remember the verse there in Ephesians chapter 5 verses 1 and 2? Listen to this. Paul said, Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us.

And hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. Did you catch it? He said it is possible for these believers in Ephesus to love as Jesus loved. He is commanding.

This is a divine directive here. He says there, and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us. Now, I will say this in the way of clarifying this challenge. I do not believe that we can reach that standard of perfection that Christ loves his elect or loves people with.

But I do believe that we through the Spirit by virtue of the fact that we have a divine nature, we have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son he loves, we have the capacity to come remarkably close.

We cannot use as an excuse that is beyond my reach. It is not through the Spirit. We can maintain consistency in this area. Now you say, well, how did Jesus love? Can I just give you a few things to think about for a moment?

First of all, he loved you and I unconditionally. Unconditionally. Now that's the question, right? Why did Jesus love you? Some people might think, well, the reason Jesus loved me is because he saw some inherent good in me.

There was something within me that apparently he took delight in that he assessed as desirable and consequently he showed his love toward me accordingly. I hope you don't believe that. There was nothing within you, nothing inherent, nothing that you had cultivated through some performance of your own spiritually that merited his love for you.

Somebody else might raise their hand and say, I know the reason that Jesus loved me is because he knew that one day I would receive him as my personal Savior. Well, now we certainly don't minimize the importance of him being omniscient, okay?

He knows all things that end from the beginning. However, though, that is not why he set his love upon you. It's because he knew that one day you would repent of your sin and believe his finished work for your salvation.

Now this is so profound you might want to write it down, okay? This is the reason. This encompasses the entire scripture. Why did Jesus love you and love me? Are you ready for this? Because he loved you.

Now, that's the glory of love. Go figure. I mean, you can't explain that. Even theologically you may attempt to make a stab at it. But listen, it's beyond our comprehension that he put his love on us for no other reason than he just took pleasure in doing it.

Kind of sobers you up, doesn't it? Makes you want to live for the praise of the glory of his grace. He loved us unconditionally. And guess what? That's the way I'm to love the most undesirable people in my life.

In a sense, we were all undesirable in his eyes, were we not? But he still loved us. And God, the audacity of you, you're telling me, you're charging me to love the people that I dislike the most like Jesus loves me?

That's what the text is saying. Secondly, another thing about this love is notice the sacrificial nature of it. I mean, the infinite price was paid. The blood was shed. The death was accomplished. The death of deaths for you and I.

Substitution and atonement was offered to us as an act of sheer mercy. And it's all predicated on the principle of sacrifice. Here's what I believe, friend. I think everything we do, our prayer life, our witnessing, everything we do in life, we should do with gusto, with great passion.

Because, you see, the way we live, the way we give should reflect the value that we put on the cross. And the value of the cross is that his atonement was predicated upon sacrifice. You have no idea. Let it soak in for just a moment.

At least get just a brief glancing taste of it. Jesus loves sinners like you and me. I just thought about it the other day. Think about it. I'm just speaking to you here. Listen, I'm not going to hell.

I am not going to suffer the wrath of God. That's love. And based on his sacrifice again. Thirdly, you see something else. And that is his love was relentless. It was faithful. I could not read. Listen, every time I come to John 13, you remember there the disciples are around the table.

It's the last supper. And John gives us this depiction of Christ's love for his own. It says that the Lord Jesus loved his own even unto the end. Now get a load of that. No matter how much I fail, regardless of all the glitches and idiosyncrasies and abounding inconsistencies and hypocrisy in my life, he loves me even unto the end.

And Lord, did I hear you correctly? You said I'm to love like that? I'm to love my enemies? I'm to love a saint that I dislike? I'm to love sacrificially? I'm to love even to the end just recklessly and relentlessly in spite of the fact that these people seem to be just an obnoxious eyesore to me ongoingly in my relationship.

Now listen, this is the type of love that is underscored here in Revelation chapter number 2. Now here's something else I want you to see, and that is these three primary relationships that this love encompasses.

Love for Christ and the Evidence of Regeneration

Number one is vertically our love for Christ. I believe hands down there is no competition that this is the greatest mark of regeneration. It is somehow in the evil heart of a depraved sinner there is such a work of grace wrought and imparting of a divine nature that God gives you the desire, the propensity to love God.

The greatest evidence of salvation is a love for God. Now you remember the text there in 1 Corinthians 16 verse 22 that said, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. It means let him be damned at the appearing of Christ.

Love grows out of this relationship through regeneration. And so we build upon it. It's cultivated. Greater knowledge, experiential knowledge is acquired. Listen, regeneration produces a love for Christ that surpasses our ability to love the Savior.

Our ability to love the Savior. The real capacity, friend, to love Him comes from His love being poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. That's what Romans 5 says. It means literally shed abroad in our hearts or poured out abundantly by His Spirit is the love of God.

Then there are those who love loving Christ, but they don't love Christ. They're caught up in this sentimentalism, but they know nothing of the reality of the love that the work of His Spirit in regeneration produces in their heart.

Consequently, when that love is encountered, it has a reciprocating effect that we love Him in return. We love Him because He first loved us, you see. But how can we measure our love for the Savior? It's interesting.

Listen carefully. It is most accurately measured by our love for people. By our love for people. Now that moves me to this second point, this second relationship, and that is the church or my fellow saints.

Love for Fellow Believers

You recall the text in 1 John 4, verses 20 and 21. Let me read it in your hearing here. John says, If a man say, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

And this commandment have we from him that he who loves God loves his brother also. There are some people that are very tenacious, you know, in observing certain things in their life, whether it pertains to theology or spirituality.

And they could care less who they offend in the upholding of their sometimes secondary or peripheral issues. But they violate a higher standard when they become mean-spirited. And that is they have altogether forsaken the law of love.

I'm speaking here in your beloved state. Back some years ago up in the Bengal area, I'm invited by a pastor's fellowship to come and address a number of pastors and their wives. And we have a service one night where everybody gathers in, and I emphasize the importance of love.

Now this particular group of preachers, you know, have the reputation as being what we might call ultra-separatist. In other words, if I have fellowship with someone that they don't like because they assess them as a compromiser, then they won't have fellowship with me either.

It's what we call second-degree separation. And so these guys have a tendency to be very narrow-minded, very strict, and they major a lot on these secondary or peripheral issues. Now that night I addressed them.

And even before we ever came into the auditorium, I went around, greeted everyone, and listen, I really showed them it was a genuine love. I really cared for these men. I listened to them. I appreciated them and their wives.

But when I preached that night, I said, Gentlemen, I know that whatsoever is not of faith is sin. And some of you, you know, there are certain things that are not cardinal doctrines in the Word of God that are very important to you.

Okay, I respect that. If that's what God has shown you, and you've had your conscience bound by those areas, I respect that, and I'm not asking you to negotiate or compromise whatsoever. But I said, Gentlemen, here's the problem.

In the process of upholding your standard of separation in some areas that really are secondary, could it be that you're so strong in maintaining your standards that you have negotiated or compromised a higher standard, and that is you do not love?

And I said, Quite honestly, some of us here tonight, you've lost your own children because you don't love them because in the process of upholding certain things that are so important to you, which are important, you don't want to compromise your conscience.

But in the process of doing that, what you've done is you've shown a mean-spirited disposition toward your own children. And you know what I heard later? Some of them, even though their kids were still in the home, they were 10 ,000 miles in their spirit from their children.

It's interesting. Such a wave of brokenness took place that night. This group is used to having an altar call. I didn't call for an altar call, but the men came. Many of their wives came in tears. This is huge.

You see, throughout the New Testament, particularly in the Pauline epistles, you find it's like Paul is a constant battering ram, underscoring, emphasizing consistently love. I see this in many ranks today.

It's not just among, say, independent Baptists or Southern Baptists, but even some Reformed Baptists and some Presbyterians, I might add, that I fear that while they are contending for the faith, they have become contentious with the faithful.

They're not known as men who allow truth to govern their life, and that truth is couched in love, but they're known more as fighters. Their character is more polemical than passionate. Someone said years ago, you only love God as much as you love the Christian you dislike the most.

Is that true? The Bible says that God is love. And he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Think about it for a moment. You only love God as much as you do the Christian you dislike the most.

Sobering to think of, isn't it? I was in West Virginia one time and preaching in a small church, and I talked about the importance of love and once again, this was more of a reform group. They didn't give an altar call or an invitation, but immediately as soon as the message was over, some of the people went right to their knees and some to their face, and one of them was one of the elders.

He had been bent out of shape toward a family that had been coming to the church. Didn't like this family. Didn't like their ways. And so here he is on his face before the people there, and he begins to confess, and he says, Lord, I am sorry for the way that I've responded to this family, for tonight I've recognized that in your kind providence, you sent this family to our church to teach me to love.

And I missed it. I've missed it. And that's what I'm seeing in my life these days. It's amazing how good God is in bringing some of the most cantankerous, if I could call them heavenly sandpaper, people into my life to perfect the life of Christ in me.

Oh, friend, listen. If I like and love everybody that likes and loves me, what glory for God is in that? You know? My former pastor that I was with a few weeks ago, he was pastoring a church in Virginia.

He said, man, I had a family in the church that just talked behind my back. They would come and shake my hand and sometimes warmly embrace me. But he said I'd get one report after another from different people in the church how they were just chewing me up.

And so he said, I come to the book of Proverbs one day, and I read this proverb, a gift given in secret pacifies anger. And he said, God spoke to me. He said, I ordered this very beautiful and for me a very expensive bouquet of flowers.

There was nothing going on in their life, no anniversary, anything. I just had it delivered to their residence with a note attached, dear so-and-so, I've been thinking of you. I want you to know I love you, and I thank God for you in my ministry.

Sincerely, Pastor. He said from that day forward, it was remarkable. It silenced them. And they turned out to be some of my greatest supporters in the church. And you know what that is? That's New Testament Christianity.

Love for the Unsaved

There's also this thing of the unsaved relationship. Mark chapter 10, listen carefully, we're almost finished. Mark 10, verse 21. Then Jesus, speaking of the rich young ruler, beholding him, Jesus beholding him, loved him and said unto him, One thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven.

Jesus looked upon him and loved him. In Matthew's Gospel, chapter 9, verses 10 and 11, it says, and it came to pass, as Jesus said it, meet in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came, sat down with him and his disciples, and when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eat your master with publicans and sinners?

Because he loved those people. You see, Jesus never looked at eating with sinners as a compromise. His love surpassed what the Pharisees would think about him. I don't know how many of you have read Brother Charles' book, The Law of Christ.

Tremendous illustration there. He draws from church history, from the life of Evangeline Booth. I don't know if you recall or not, if you read the book, but powerful illustration. I want to share a portion of that with you.

Listen to how the story goes. Miss Booth is reporting. She said, One morning I stood outside the large iron gate of a local police court and temporary prison. There were people waiting there, some out of curiosity and some because they had a relative inside.

Let me stop there. Evangeline Booth ultimately took over the army for her father. She was an open air evangelist. How we reconcile that with our theology, we might have some difficulty. But she had a love for souls.

She was faithful in discharging the good news of Christ to those around her. Here she is outside the prison one morning looking for an opportunity to minister. She goes on to say, I waited expectantly for the opening of the gate.

I heard the shuffling of heavy feet. They came close. And then I heard sounds of loud voices and one especially that got louder and louder and more shrill. It was the voice of a woman. The gates opened wide and I witnessed a sight which if eternity could wash away from my mind, time never can.

It was a woman. Two policemen walked in front of her and two behind. One stalwart man firmly held the right arm and the other the left. Her hair was uncombed and matted. Her right temple was blackened with bruises.

Clots of dry blood stood up on her left temple. Her clothes were torn and bloodstained. She tried to wrench her arms from the grasp of the policemen. The very atmosphere of the morning was laden with curses and oaths.

She tossed her head wildly as the six policemen dragged her down the passageway. What, Evangeline Booth asked the question, what could I do? One more moment and the golden opportunity to be of help would be gone.

Could I offer a prayer? No, there was not time. Could I sing? It would be absurd. Could I give her money? She could not take it. Could I quote a verse of scripture? She would not heed it. Whenever the police were taken off their guard by an extraordinary action and relaxed their grasp, she said, I do not know, but with one wrench she freed her arms and she clasped her hands as the wind spread her matted hair and she looked toward the gray skies and said, my gods.