William Barton

It’s a story about a poor Scrub Lady and a Millionaire who, in the author’s words, was “a self-made man who worshipeth his maker.” This Millionaire walked past the Scrub Lady often but never noticed her, “for his head was high in the air, and he was thinking of more millions.” It came to pass one day that he should walk down the stairs. On the top stair was a cake of yellow soap, and the millionaire stepped on it. I’ll let the author tell his own story, “Now the foot which he set upon the soap flew eastward toward the sunrise, and the other foot started on an expedition of its own toward the going down of the sun. And the millionaire sat down on the topmost step but did not remain there. As it had been his intention to descend, so he descended, but not in the manner of his original design. And as he descended, he struck each step with a sound as if it had been a drum. And the Scrub Lady stood aside courteously and let him go…Since that day, he taketh notice of the Scrub Lady and passeth her with circumspection.” Could it be that the Scrub Lady was smiling in her suds?  There’s a moral to his story: do not think of thyself too highly above the humblest children of God.
The story is one of three hundred twenty-six parables William Eleazar Barton (1861-1930) included in a syndicated column he wrote in 1917-1925 that was later published as a book series. William was pastor of several churches including First Church, Oak Park, Illinois for twenty-five years. In words that introduce his first volume, he writes, “All the truth is in parables.” My former church history professor, Garth Rosell rescued eighty of his parables from obscurity into book form, Parables of a Country Parson. They are entertaining stories with a serious purpose. We close with a prayer that accompanies one of William’s parables: