ABOUT twelve years ago, narrates a missionary from India, a native came to me saying, “I have often heard you speak. I believe what you say, but I would like to know more. Please sell me a Bible.”
“But neither you, nor any in your household can read,” I answered; “to what use would you put it?”
“Oh! I know several people who can, in our village, and they will be glad to read to me.” I sold him the Bible and left the country. For several years I lost sight of him, until a few months ago, while on a trip to the interior, I came to his house. I remembered him and asked him what he had done with his Bible. He immediately went in to get it, and 1 Saw at a glance that it had been used a great deal.
His nearest neighbor who was in the habit of reading to him was sent for, and he said to me: “I have often read the book, and its contents are precious to me!”
I put several questions to him and wondered at the clear understanding he had of the Scriptures. He had read the whole Bible, and said he believed fully that the Lord Jesus was his Saviour. A little later I went back to the village and found that the one to whom I sold the Bible was happy in the Lord, and clear as to his salvation, and the members of his family as well. I had the joy on that occasion to baptize seven adults and three children—fruits of the simple reading of the words of life.
In another town (Bookapalnam which is one of my stations) is now found a company brought together by a young man who had never received any instruction from Christians, but, who, having found a Bible, read it, believed its teaching, and went to preach the glad tidings to his friends and neighbors.
In that meeting was an old man who, on account of trials and circumstances, had been absent several weeks. First he had lost his wife, then his eldest son on whom he had counted as the stay of his old age. At each trial his neighbors would say: “The curse of the gods is upon you. The gods of your fathers, whom you should worship, do not allow you to prosper. The new God whom you now serve is unable to deliver you out of their hands.”
He was so under the weight of his trials that he could not be induced to go outside of his house. One day a Christian native woman came to see him, and asked: “How is it that we have not seen you at our meetings these past weeks?”
He very simply stated his doubts and fears, to which she answered: “Have you forgotten the history of Job and of all his trials? Yours are not compared to his, for even his wife was against him. But what did he answer? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? And later he said to his friends: Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him.”
The words of this Christian woman fell as dew on the soul of the poor simple man, and he answered: “Yes, though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him!”
This same woman was greatly persecuted by her husband because of her faith in the Lord. I knew the facts, but never heard a word of complaint from her. One day I asked her: “What do you do when your husband illtreats you because of your faith?”
“I seek to show him that a Christian should be more patient, more kind and loving than one who does not know the Lord, and that the Words of Life are bearing fruit in my heart.” Her husband became dangerously ill. During that time, she devoted herself wholly to him, thinking especially of his need of a Saviour. At his death she said to me, her eyes shining through tears of joy: “I believe, sir, that my husband died full of trust, and faith in our Lord Jesus.”
Until then, she had not been baptized, for her husband had forbidden it. But as soon as she was free, she spoke about it for herself, and her young daughter. Then she said: “I shall have to give up our farm and the ground which produced our income.”
“Why so? can you not cultivate it yourself?”
“I cannot do it,” she replied, “for the ground was given my husband for services which he rendered in the idol’s temple, and as I cannot conscientiously do that, I shall not touch the ground.” “What shall you do to live?”
“I have two hands and am strong; I can carry burdens, work as a laborer, and at whatsoever my hand findeth to do. We do not need much to live.”
And so she did, and her life is a witness for Christ.
ML 08/15/1909