The wooer of poverty
Illustration★★★★There was a young Italian keeping feast with his friends one night, seven hundred years ago, and he wearied of the wine and wearied of the jests. Nothing wrong; a friendly feast. He went out and stood beneath the blue Umbrian sky. By-and-by his friends came out, and they walked home together, and they said to him, “You are in love.” But he was saying nothing, and he had that distant look upon his face of a man who is looking into another world. “You are in love. Who is it?” “I am,” he said, “and my bride is called Poverty. No one has been anxious to woo her since Jesus lived, and I am going to serve her all my days” (Matt. viii. 20).-Dr. John WatSON (“IAN MACLAREN”). Appendix III
The point
A wealthy young Italian of seven centuries past chose to renounce his privileged life to serve Poverty itself, dedicating his life to a cause no one else had embraced since Jesus lived.