One of the most highly valued possessions of the British and Foreign Bible Society is a little old Bible that once belonged to a small Welsh girl, named Mary Jones.
In the year 1800 Mary lived in a small village in Wales. She had learned to read at a school three miles away. Usually she spent her Saturday afternoons on a farm owned by a Mrs. Evans who possessed one of the few Welsh Bibles in the community. In those days Bibles were not nearly so plentiful as they are now, and so it was mostly the well-to-do people who owned copies.
Mary read chapter after chapter in Mrs. Evans’ Bible, and there was nothing in the world she wanted so much as a Bible of her own. But she was poor, and very few pennies came her way.
One day Mrs. Evans gave Mary two hens. Mary sold the eggs that the hens laid and saved every penny. After many weeks she had enough money with which to buy the treasured Book. Away she trudged on foot one morning to Bala, a town 16 miles away, where she had heard that a minister, Mr. Thomas Charles, had Bibles in the Welsh tongue to sell.
Mr. Charles had sold all his Bibles but two, and, when Mary arrived, she found that even these two copies had been promised to friends. The sorrow of the tired little girl who had walked so far to buy a Bible touched Mr. Charles’ heart so much that he decided one of his friends must wait for his copy, and so he let Mary have the Book.
Mary’s joy knew no bounds as she returned home with her treasure. Many an hour she spent reading the precious volume alone, and after supper, before the blazing fire, in the dim light of a candle, she would read to her parents the wonderful stories in the Old Testament and of the Saviour’s life and death in the New.
After Mary had left with her Bible, Mr. Charles got to thinking of her and the joy she had found in possessing a Bible all her own. He went up to London to the tract society and urged upon them the need of Bibles in Wales. One to whom he spoke remarked, “If Bibles for Wales, why not for the whole world?” As a result, plans were made for sending copies of the holy Book to many parts of the world. Since that time, the Bible has been printed in many hundreds of different languages, and millions of copies of Bibles and Testaments have been distributed world-wide.
Do we treasure our Bibles as Mary Jones did hers? Can we say with the psalmist, “The law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.” Psalm. 119:72.
ML-11/28/1976