A YOUNG boy was recently selling magazines in a small town, and presenting a copy before a gentleman who was standing on the sidewalk, pressed him to buy one.
“Please buy a magazine; it’s only 10 cents, sir.”
“I prefer to read what is true,” said the gentleman.
“O,” the boy quickly replied, “these stories are all true. At least, they could be true.”
“Ah, no,” the gentleman said, “you know that they are just stories made up about men and women who never lived at all. I have not time to read them. I used to read them, but I found they did not satisfy my heart, and I longed for something that was true. Now I like to read the Book that was written by God Himself, and that must be true. In that Book, God tells us what He has done in the past, and what He is going to do in the future. Do you know what Book that is?”
“Yes, sir,” it is the Bible, but please, buy a magazine!”
“But I want to read what is true, and I know that the Bible is true, because it tells me all about my sinful, wicked heart: it tells me the whole truth about myself, and that is why I know it is true. It tells me what my sins deserved, and it tells me of the love of God for such a poor sinner as I am; how He sent His own Son whom He loved, the Lord Jesus Christ, into this world of sin and misery, and death, to be a Saviour. How He gave His life for sinners that they might live with Him eternally. And that Book is all true, from the first word to the last word. Wouldn’t you rather sell the Bible, seeing it is all true, instead of magazines, which are not true?”
“O,” said the boy, “then everybody would laugh at me.”
Dear boys and girls, are you ashamed of the Bible? Ashamed to be a little follower of the Lord Jesus in this world that has cast Him out and crucified Him? Well, you must first get to know who He is, and that is by owning yourself a sinner, and confessing Him as your Saviour.
We read in the Gospels how that Peter was ashamed of the Lord Jesus, and how he sorrowed so deeply, even to weeping bitterly after it was brought to his mind by the look of Jesus.
You dear young people, who have believed on Jesus as your Saviour, is not this what brings you such bitter sorrow when you find you have denied your precious Saviour? It is from this same apostle Peter that we get the much needed exhortation:
ML 10/22/1922