"I was reading of three women who were in rivalry about the appearance of the hand. And the one reddened her hand with berries and said the beautiful tinge made her hand the most beautiful. And another put her hand in the mountain brook, and said, as the waters dripped off, that her hand was the most beautiful. and another plucked flowers off the bank and under bloom contended that her hand was the most beautiful. Then a poor old woman appeared and looking up in her decrepitude asked for alms. And a woman who had not taken part in the rivalry gave her alms. And all the women resolved to leave to this beggar the question as to which of all the hands present was the most attractive, and she said: "The most beautiful of them all is the one that gave relief to my necessities," and as she so said, her wrinkles and rags and here decrepitude and her body disappeared and in its place thereof stood the Christ, who long ago said: "Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these, ye did it to me."

T.DeWitt Talmage - Photo by Henk Jacobs