Joe received a pretty sheet Almanac from his teacher in the Sunday School, with a text for every day in the coming year. He promised to read a text each morning, and to learn and repeat the seven texts for the week to his teacher the following Sunday. Joe got his mother’s permission to tack the Almanac on the wall, where it was read and re-read by the whole household, and spoken of by neighbors when in the house.
At spring “cleaning” tune, it was carefully dusted, mounted on two pieces of gilt red, and put up again to speak for God till the end of the year. Joe learned his Daily Texts. His sister Annie was aroused to think of her soul through the words,
“After this, the judgment,” on the Almanac.
Joe’s mother, who had for years been anxious, was saved by means of the text,
“Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out,” which stood in bold letters before her every day. His father—who had spent his Sundays in bed before—saw a notice on the Almanac, of Gospel Meetings to which all were “heartily invited,” and said he “might go.” He did, and was favorably impressed by the welcome he got. Poor folks such as he, are sometimes allowed to come and go without a kind word being spoken to them, but it was not so in that little meeting.
The Christian workers were in their “first love,” their hearts were yearning to lead sinners to Jesus, and they lost no opportunity of speaking to those who came to hear the Word.
Joe’s father was awakened to see himself a sinner, and by means of a word spoken at the close of a meeting he was converted. All this was accomplished by God’s own Word, silently doing its work in the conscience and heart.
Verily it is “the Word of life.” Let all who love it, scatter it far and wide. If you have not proved its power, receive its message, and believe its record, “Hear, and your soul shall live.”
In Joe’s home the “Almanac,” year by year, finds a hearty welcome, and an honored place. It tells the “old, old story” all the year to all who enter.
ML 02/06/1944