AH, perhaps my young readers will think this was between deaf and dumb people, who talk to each other with their fingers. But no, that was not it. The conversation was between two persons who could both hear and speak, and yet they did not speak a word. And if you were to guess a long time, I do not think you could tell how it was done. So I will tell you.
A long time ago an English soldier was stationed at a place in Holland. He was lodging with another soldier at a large farmhouse, and at first the people were afraid that these soldiers would be rude and noisy; but to their surprise they both behaved very well. One evening one of them was seen to be reading a little book, and a girl out of curiosity looked over his shoulder, and seeing it divided into chapters and verses called out, “De Bibel, de Bibel.” (The Bible, the Bible.) It was now known that these soldiers were readers of the Bible, and this led to the conversation I want to tell you about.
The soldiers used to sit in the kitchen of the farm-house, where there was a good fire; one evening the door of the room opened, and in walked an aged woman of seventy or eighty years of age. She brought with her a large family Bible. She could not speak a word of English, and the soldiers could not speak Dutch. But she opened, her Bible and pointed to a portion of the New Testament, and did the best she could to ask them to explain what it meant. One of the soldiers opened his Bible at the same place, and having read the passage, turned to another passage which he thought would answer her question, and shewed the old lady the place. She turned to her Bible and read it. This pleased her so much that she turned to another passage, and the soldier gave an answer in the same way, and so they conversed for nearly an hour. At length the old lady rose and lifting up her hands uttered a prayer in Dutch, and took an affectionate farewell of the soldiers.
Thus God’s book spoke to their hearts. They both loved the Saviour, and they were cheered and comforted and felt at home, though they could not speak a word to each other.
Selected.
ML 09/09/1900