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The Church Wounds Its Own

Cover of Margaret Bottome’s Crumbs from the King’s Table

Today's Devotional

You will be beaten in synagogues—Mark 13:9 (ESV).

Beaten in church, by church members? It sounds very strange, but it is dreadfully true that there has been a great deal of beating from Christ’s day to this; not always the body, but blows are felt sometimes far more when they fall on the spirit. Think of the long line that have been beaten to death. The best this world has ever seen have died of broken hearts, beginning with the Master Himself; and down to our very day this beating goes on, and in the church! Frederick W. Robertson is quoted more largely, perhaps, today, than many other celebrated characters, by the very church that hurt him, so that he died before his time; and all came through standing as a witness, bearing his testimony, being true.

About the author and the source

Margaret McDonald Bottome (1827–1906) was an American religious organizer, founder of the King’s Daughters which (after the admission of men and a change of name) boasted half a million members in Canada and the United States within twenty years. She wrote a column in the Ladies’ Home Journal for members. She wrote several books, including this devotional Crumbs from the King’s Table.

Margaret Bottome. Crumbs from the King’s Table. New York: Willis McDonald & Co., 1888.

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