One Sunday afternoon in summer, a little girl named Mary, going home from Sunday school in the country, sat down to rest under the shade of a tree by the roadside. While sitting there, she opened her Bible to read. As she sat reading, a man well-known in that neighborhood as Jacob, the charcoal carrier, came by with his donkey. Jacob used to work in the woods making charcoal, and then carry it in sacks on his donkey’s back, and sell it. He was not a Christian, and was accustomed to work with his donkey as hard on Sunday as on week-days.
When he came by where Mary was sitting, he stopped a moment, and said in a good-natured way: “What book is that you are reading, my little maid?”
“It is God’s book—the Bible,” said Mary.
“Let me hear you read a little in it, if you please,” he said, stopping his donkey.
Mary began at the place where the Book was open, and read: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work.”
“There, that’s enough,” said Jacob, “and now tell me what it means.”
“It means,” said Mary, “that you mustn’t carry charcoal on Sunday, nor let your donkey carry it.”
“Does it?” said Jacob, musing a little. “I’ll tell you what, then, I must think over what you have said.”
And he did think it over. And the result was, that instead of going with his donkey to the woods on the next Sunday, he went with his two little girls to Sunday school. And later Jacob, the charcoal carrier, became a Christian, and God’s blessing rested on him and his family.
ML 06/25/1961