A HOME missionary was walking down the road in the mountains of Kentucky one day when a boy came driving along and offered him a ride. He gladly accepted. The boy told him that he was hauling mail to the next village and that he got $20.00 a month for this job.
“How do you spend your money?” the missionary asked.
“Well,” he replied, “I help support my mother and sister, and the rest I’m saving up to buy a rifle.”
“A rifle? What do you want with a rifle?”
“The day I get it I’m going to shoot old man Sanders. If he dies before then I’m going to shoot his oldest son; and if he jumps the country I’ll shoot the next one.”
“What in the world do you mean, my boy?” the missionary asked in amazement.
“Just what I tell you,” was the reply. “Old man Sanders killed my dad, and the day of the funeral I swore I would fix him. I’ve got nearly enough money to get the rifle; and when I do, someone is going to drop over yonder!”
The evangelist was nearly speechless with astonishment. “My young friend,” he said kindly, “don’t you realize if you kill that man you will have to flee from your home, probably go to prison, and may be hanged? Don’t you know what an awful thing murder is? What does God’s Word say about it?”
“We ain’t got no Bible at our house,” replied the boy.
The missionary talked earnestly and tenderly with him, and spoke of forgiveness as told out in the gospel of God. The poor boy was deeply moved, and tears came into his eyes. Before they parted he promised to give up his dreadful plans. The missionary took a Bible from his bag, wrote his name in it and gave it to him. The boy read the blessed Book and some months after it was the means of his conversion to God. His mother and sister were saved through it too.
Oh how it pays to teach the Word of God to the young! That little Bible was the means of saving the young fellow’s life. It saved him from the worst of crimes and through it he found Christ and salvation, for time and eternity. Yet it only cost 50c.
O Cling to the Bible, My Boy!
It’s a message for you that is sent from above;
It tells of redemption accomplished in love.
O read it, my boy; God has sent it to you;
O cling to the Bible, my boy!
Believing in the love of Him
Who died upon the tree,
We shall in His fair likeness shine.
When we His face shall see.
ML-06/04/1972