I SUPPOSE the little reader of GOOD NEWS will guess at once which book is the best book that ever was written or printed. What the world was without this book we learn from the sixth chapter of Genesis; what it would be now we can see from the state that the Chinese and all other heathen nations are in at the present day. And even those countries where the Best Book is kept back by the Romish priests from the great mass of the people show what the world would be without it. Those dreadful scenes, too, of bloodshed, fire, and ruin, which lately took place in one of the first cities of the world, namely, Paris, speak plainly enough. Yet these people consider themselves to be the most refined people in the world! But, then, they do not read the Best Book because their priests teach them to do without it. Well, the first copies of tins book that were ever printed in Philadelphia (in America) were published by a Mr. Aitkins, who kept a bookstore in that city. One day, a man called at his shop, and asked whether he had a book by T. P―, a bad infidel work, full of folly and falsehood from one end to the other. Mr. A. told him he had no such book in his store, but that he had another, the best book that had yet been printed in Philadelphia, and that if he would promise to read it, he would lend it him. The man was an infidel, but his curiosity was roused to know what such a book could be about, and so he promised he would read it. When he had made the promise, Mr. A. brought forth the book; I need hardly tell you it was the Bible, and, on seeing it, the infidel looked disappointed, and smiled in contempt, for infidels are always very full of conceit, and think themselves wiser than all other men. But his own pride of heart constrained him to keep his promise, and so he took the book and left the store, saying he would not break his word.
Time passed on, and Mr. A. had almost forgotten the circumstance, when one day the same man came again. I say the same man, and yet he was not the same. Instead of a gloomy, conceited look, his face now wore a bright and happy smile; instead of being an infidel, he was now a believer. Full of joy, he warmly thanked Mr. A. for what he had done, and told him that he was now what infidelity could never make him — a happy man; for, in reading the Best Book, he had found out his need as a lost sinner, and, “taught of God,” had come to Christ and received forgiveness through His precious blood, and everlasting life in Him. Will not that man have cause to say throughout eternity that the Bible is the BEST BOOK?
But do you know it to be so? Has the Word led you to Christ? If it has, I hope you will prize it greatly, read it often, and so “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Then you will be a happy and fruitful little believer.
J. L. K.