It was a hot summer day in Maryland years ago. A young medical student was busy going from house to house in a farming district selling books to earn money to pay his college expenses. Near the end of the day, hot and thirsty, he called at a farmhouse and was greeted by a bright happy young girl in her teens. Her visitor inquired if she would care to purchase some books.
She answered, “My mother is a widow, and we have no money to buy books.” Then the student asked her if she could kindly give him a glass of cold water.
“Sure,” she said. “We have plenty of milk in the milkhouse. Would you care for a glass of cold milk instead?”
“Yes, I would,” he replied, “if it is not too much trouble.”
“No trouble at all,” said the girl, and she went into the milkhouse. The thirsty student drank the cold milk very thankfully.
“How about another glass, mister?” said the girl.
“I would enjoy another glass very much,” he answered.
The girl brought him another glass, and then he wanted to pay her for it.
“No, no,” said the girl.
“Why not?” he inquired. “Well, my mother always told me to be kind to strangers, and that’s what I’m doing.”
The young student thanked her and went on his way.
Several years passed by. The young medical student was now a widely known surgeon, the head of a hospital in which he had performed some brilliant operations.
One day as he visited the wards of the hospital, his eye fell upon a face he well remembered. He recognized in a moment the young lady who had once given him a drink of cold milk on a hot summer day long before. The patient herself was too sick to recognize anyone but he knew her.
Then things began to happen. Activity seemed to center around the lady from the farm. She was moved into a private room, with nurses to wait on her, and everything known to medical science was brought to bear on her condition. The chief surgeon himself took particular interest in her case.
After a week of medical care and surgery, the patient recovered and was able to sit up. The nurse said to her, “You are going home tomorrow.”
“Oh I am so glad,” she responded, “but the cost of all this worries me—the bill must be immense.”
“I’ll get it,” said the nurse, and she soon placed it in the patient’s hand.
As the poor woman looked over the items in the bill, and read the staggering cost of her operation and hospital care, it made her weep “When will I ever get it paid!” she exclaimed, and then as she read a little further down she caught sight of eight words which dried up her tears.
Those words were: “Paid in full by a glass of milk.—Howard A. Kelly, M.D.”
Yes, the former young bookseller and the great Doctor Howard A. Kelly, the celebrated surgeon and scientist, were one and the same.
In his student days, ambition ruled young Kelly’s life; he aspired to fame in this world. But by the grace of God he had learned something of the vanities of this world, that his interest was in things which pass away. His eyes were opened to see that there is just one thing worthwhile seeking after in this life, that is to know, to love, and to serve God—to know Him in the only way we can really know Him, through His Son, Jesus Christ. He came to know Christ as his Saviour, and from henceforth, all his talents, his energies, were employed in the service of Him who loved him and died for him. As long as he lived, Dr. Kelly sought to encourage young men, boys and girls, and older folks too, to seek the Lord, to know Him as their Saviour, and to live for Him the little while we are on earth. If he were alive today, we know his message to you would be the same. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31).
Dear young believer, you who would seek to please the Lord Jesus and serve Him here below, remember the story of “the glass of milk.” Nothing that you do for the Lord Jesus will be overlooked in that day.
ML 11/14/1965