AT a public examination of the pupils in one of the great schools for the instruction of the deaf and dumb, was a fine little boy whose pleasant countenance and attractive manner so much interested a gentleman present that he was induced to write upon the boy’s slate the following question: — “My dear little boy, you see all the stars, and the sun, and the earth around you; can you tell me how they all came there?”
To this the little fellow at once wrote this reply, “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.”
The gentleman then wrote, “But whence come all the misery and death that you see on all sides?”
“Sin came into the world, and death by sin,” wrote the little boy.
The gentleman was surprised, and wrote, “Can you tell me any way in which man may be delivered from all this sorrow?”
“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth from all sin,” wrote the little fellow.
Still more surprised, the gentleman again wrote, “I will ask you only one question more. Can you tell me why you can neither speak nor hear, when so many around you can do both.”
“Even so, Father,” wrote the little boy, with a happy smile, “for so it seemed good in Thy sight.”
The gentleman was amazed; and well he might be; for here was a little deaf and dumb boy who had answered these four hard questions in a way that none of the philosophers of the heathen world could have done, and who was happy, peaceful, and contented, because he believed in these great truths, which he had learned from the Holy Scriptures. Now what a precious book must that be from which may be learned truths like those that made the little deaf and dumb boy so’ happy in believing! The Bible is full of instruction for all. And let not little children think that they are not able to understand it, for if they love it, and read it attentively, asking God to instruct them, He will not refuse the teaching of His Holy Spirit, whereby they will be enabled to better understand it, and to apply it to themselves; thus will they love and prize it more. The smallest child who can read the Bible may learn from it what not any of the wise men of the world can know without the Bible.
“Not all the books on earth beside
Such heavenly wonders tell.
A.