Mary sat down in the seat nearest to her. She did not want to move nearer lest she lose the rare expression of the face of the Christ. It had only been a few weeks since she had been standing before the altar of the church, 136 making herself a gift to the Christ. So as she sat and watched the picture, she thought to herself:
“What a wonderful man he was! I should have loved to have had him look in my face as he is looking into theirs. I wish I might have really seen him.”
After a time she moved nearer. Then she could see the faces of the other persons in the picture. From where she had been sitting, only the face of the Christ had seemed to stand out, though one knew the others were there. They were sitting about the table in a home.
What a rude table it was! How roughly they were dressed! Why, they were only poor people, yet the Christ was standing in their midst, giving them to eat.
She studied his face. How beautiful it was! How much she loved him! How eager she was to give him her very best! What could she do to show her love? And as she looked she heard a voice saying to her: “The poor ye have always with you, but me ye have not always.”
Then somehow the faces of the men in the picture seemed like those of the men who worked in her father’s mill and in the face of the woman she saw a likeness to Elizabeth Meeker. But the face of the Christ was still full of love and tenderness.
The head of the girl drooped as she sat long before the picture. What had she against Elizabeth Meeker? Nothing except the fact that she was poor. She was a girl that Jesus would have loved, for she was always dependable. Yet Mary was trying to take away the greatest pleasure that might ever come to that poor girl.
She had no pretty home, she had little time for play; she hadn’t even a mother. Yet Mary knew she had been very, very unkind to her.
And now the face of the Christ seemed searching her very soul: “The poor ye have always with you, but me 137 ye have not always. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me.”
There was a sound of a bell and Mary knew she must leave the room. One last look she gave to the Christ of the picture. Then she smiled and nodded her head.