Rose Sank

By David Bragg

    She was well-known in Washington D.C. social circles even before the Civil War. In the early days of that conflict she played a pivotal role as a spy. It is suspected that information Rose Greenhow funneled to Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard contributed to his victory at the First Battle of Bull Run. Although evidence of her involvement led to her arrest, she still was able to use her contacts to aid the Southern war effort.
    When she was finally released, Rose received a hero's welcome in Richmond, Virginia. Then Jefferson Davis, CSA President, sent her to Britain and France to build support for the Southern cause. While returning from this mission carrying $2,000 in gold, the ship she was on ran aground in the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, North Carolina. She tried to escape capture in a rowboat that capsized and, being weighed down by the gold she was carrying, she drowned (Smithsonian.com).
    Judas Iscariot was also feeling the weight, not of gold but silver, 30 pieces of it. In his hand was the blood money for betraying Jesus. But after Christ’s arrest and condemnation, regret and guilt weighed down upon him. Judas returned to the Jewish leaders and threw the coins on the Temple floor (Matt. 27). But rather than returning to God, who could have forgiven him, he was pulled down to eternal destruction by sin.

- David Bragg serves as one of the ministers at the Northwest Church of Christ in Greensboro, NC and is co-editor of BulletinGold. He may be contacted through the congregation's website: http://www.nwchurchofchrist.com/ or his blog: http://davidbragg.blogspot.com/