Perhaps you are wondering how little Mary came to have two Bibles, and what she did with them.
Mary was born in that far away country of India. It is often very, very hot in India, and very few white children seem to be able to live there. So when Mary was just six years old, her parents, who were missionaries, sent her all the way back to England to stay with her grandmother. Her grandmother was very kind to her, and often told her Bible stories, and did everything to make her happy.
Mary was learning to read, and one day she received a letter from her father. In the envelope was some money, and a birthday message like this. “My dear little Mary: you will soon be having your seventh birthday, and. I am sending you some money to buy yourself a Bible.”
“Just what I wanted so much,” cried Mary with pleasure.
In a very few days the birthday came, and Mary went with her grandmother to buy the precious Bible. She looked at the many different sizes and at the nice gilt edges and the beautiful leather covers. All at once she became very quiet and then she turned to the man behind the counter and said, “Would this money buy two Bibles?”
“Yes, my girl, it would buy two Bibles. But not the nice ones you have been looking at.”
Grandmother heard this and she stepped up. “Mary, what do you want two Bibles for?”
“Because,” replied the little girl, “I want one for myself, and one to send to a little girl in India, just uiv age, so that she may learn about Jesus too.”
So Mary bought two Bibles. They didn’t have gilt edges or beautiful leather covers but as Mary explained, “The inside is just the same.”
As soon as Mary reached home, she printed her name in one of the Bibles, and then wrapped up the other and sent it to her father, asking him to give it to some little seven-year-old girl in India.
Mary read her Bible every day, and through it, she learned more and more of the love of Jesus. Her favorite verse was “We love Him, because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:1919We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19). Each day she prayed for her unknown friend in India, that she too might learn to know the love of Jesus.
Years later, Mary herself returned to India to be with her father and mother, and to help them in their miionary work. Not long after she aived, she was introduced to a young Indian girl, and found that she was a bright and happy Christian.
“How did you learn to know about Jesus?” asked Mary.
“When I was seven years old, I was given this Bible,” said the native, “and through reading it, I learned to know and love the Lord Jesus.”
And there Mary found her unknown friend, for the Bible was the very one which she had sent from England years before.
Have you a Bible, dear young reader? In it you will find the love of God made known in the gift of the Lord Jesus. And if you know the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, may you be encouraged to seek to win others for Him.
ML 06/24/1951