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More than seventy years ago the King of Prussia, Frederick William III., found himself in great trouble. He was carrying on expensive wars, he was trying to strengthen his country and make a great nation of the Prussian people, and he had not money enough to accomplish his plans. What should he do? If he stopped where he was the country would be overrun by the enemy, and that would mean terrible distress for everybody. He therefore asked the women of Prussia, as many of them as wanted to help their king, to bring their jewelry of gold and silver, to be melted down into money for the use of their country. Many women brought all the jewelry they had, and for each ornament of gold or silver, they received in exchange an ornament of bronze or iron, precisely like the gold or silver ones, as a token of the king’s gratitude. These iron and bronze ornaments all bore the inscription: “I gave gold for iron, 1813.” These ornaments became more highly prized than the gold or silver ones had been, for they were a proof that the women had given up something for their king. It became very unfashionable to wear any jewelry. So the Order of the Iron Cross grew up, whose members wear no ornament except a cross of iron on the breast, and gives all their superfluous money to the service of their fellowmen.
Is there not a suggestion here for many of us? If all the girls and women who love and own the Lord Jesus as their King, and want to help him in the war against sin and ignorance and suffering which he is carrying on – if all these Christian girls and women were to give up their jewelry for his cause, how full the Lord’s treasury would be!