of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” He listened rather r e s t l e s s l y . When I finished I asked him how he felt about God and eternity. “ Oh, God is all right for those who feel the need of Him. But I don’t. All I want is gold. And as to eter nity that doesn’t concern me at all just now. I’m just concerned about the present.” I really felt very badly because I had failed to help him see the wisdom of accepting God’s Word seriously and abiding by it. I left the next morning and as we parted I said, “ Zeke, whether you want me to or not, I’ll be pray ing that some day before it’s too late you’ll realize that having God is much better than having gold.” His name was added to a list of others I kept in my Bible, and I remembered to pray for him during the two years that disappeared over the hills of time before I saw him again. During those two years he kept on digging in his mine. It was a very lonely life, especially during the winter months when he’d be snowed in and couldn’t see anyone for weeks at a time. In the spring of that second year Zeke really thought his long sought for rich strike had been found. He hit a vein of very promising ore. How ever, after yielding several thou sand dollars, it gave out. But Zeke was thrilled beyond words. After years of going from place to place, searching, digging, seeking and then suddenly finding that much gold, he just couldn’t possibly keep it to himself. Who could blame him for being so excited and for want ing to share his joy with others? He didn’t have a horse, only a burro which he used in the mine. So he walked through the snow over the rugged countryside to Arlington Crossing. O r d i n a r i l y , Zeke didn’t drink. But this was a special occasion and so he decided to celebrate. Then while under the influence of whiskey, he told a couple of strangers about his gold mine and where it was located. As you can imagine, that was a mis take. The two men knew that Zeke wouldn’t be leaving until the next day. So they left immediately, got to the mine that night, took all the
MEDICINEBOW
a man I met in Wyoming years ago. Zeke came West with his folks in a covered wagon. They were on their way to Oregon to establish a home as farmers. Zeke never liked the idea of farming. To him it was too slow a way of getting ahead in the world, but he came along be cause he figured that somewhere along the way he’d get a chance to start out on his own and do things his way. While his family was camping at Fort Laramie for a couple of days, Zeke heard about a gold strike in the Black Hills country and he with a few others got the fever — gold fever. A ll the plead ings from father, mother, sisters and brother didn’t cure him. He turned his back on them all and headed for the Black Hills. Zeke spent several years there but never did strike it rich. So he drifted to Colorado where rumor had it that men were finding gold all over the place. Zeke found enough to increase his fever but never anything big. Finally he wound up on a mining claim in the Medicine Bow Moun tains of Wyoming. No rich strike had ever been made in that part of the country but Zeke was driven by the ambition that he was at last on the spot where he would find what he had been seeking all these years. And he did. But it all turned out
very differently than what he had planned. Naturally, it took money for Zeke to be able to carry on his pros pecting. So during the summer months he’d work on the nearby Diamond Cattle Ranch. And that was where I got acquainted with him and learned all about his plans. He had big dreams, all hing ing on his finding gold. He insisted that I visit his mine when he got back to it in the fall and I prom ised that I would. True to my promise, I rode in to his camp the following fall. His shack was located near Arlington Crossing at the mouth of a long tunnel he had dug and which led to his mine, way back in the side of the mountain. It was evening when I arrived so I figured on spending the night. After supper we sat by his little stove and talked about many things. He told me about his boyhood days and his parents; how religious they were; how they had B i b l e r e a d i n g every day and prayer. “ In that case,” I said, “ you won’t mind if I read my Bible and pray with you before we go to bed.” He didn’t respond too favorably but he did say, “Well, no — no, of course not. Go ahead.” I turned to the same chapter in Matthew from which I read to you today, boys and girls, and finished with “ . . . seek ye first the kingdom
The King's Business/September 1957
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