Mark's Remarks 11/9

Rose O’Neil Greenhowe was a confederate spy. On August 23, 1861, Allan Pinkerton, head of the recently-formed Secret Service apprehended Greenhowe and sent her to prison. Her 8-yr.-old daughter, having no other family, went with her. As she was a socialite with many caring friends in high places, on May 31, 1862, Greenhowe and her daughter were released from prison and deported to Richmond, Virginia.
Greenhowe was hailed as a heroine by Southerners. Jefferson Davis welcomed her home and soon enlisted her as a courier to Europe. The South was loved by European aristocrats. While in France, Greenhowe was received in the court of Napoleon III at the
Tuileries. In Britain, she had an audience with Queen Victoria and became engaged to an English lord. Two months after arriving in London, Greenhowe wrote her memoirs, titled My Imprisonment and the First Year of Abolition Rule at Washington, which sold well in Britain.
In September 1864, Greenhowe left Europe to return to the Confederate States, carrying dispatches. She traveled on the Condor, a British blockade runner. On October 1, 1864, the Condor ran aground at the mouth of the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, North Carolina. A Union gunboat, USS Niphon had been pursuing the ship. Fearing capture and re-imprisonment, Greenhowe fled the grounded Condor by rowboat. The rowboat was capsized by a wave, and Greenhowe, with $2,000 worth of gold from her memoir royalties, intended for the Confederate treasury, sewn into her petticoats, drowned.
We work hard to make a good living. Sometimes, however, what we’ve made grasps us instead. Like Rose, we drown beneath it. This is a matter for consideration today as we come to the consecration table. Do we own our wealth, our property, and our things? Or do they own us? Does what we have accumulated take our time and talent, do we worry over it at night and spend our days protecting it? That’s one more aspect of the stewardship of our lives for Christ. What really makes us happy? What really matters for eternity?