A WIDOW woman was mourning over a son who had enlisted to be a soldier. One day another young man from the same town was going to join the army, so he called on the widow, and asked her if she had any message he could take to her son.
She replied that she was very poor and had no money to send, but that she would send him a Bible.
She also added: “Give my love to him, and tell him it is my earnest wish that he would read in this book, and, beginning at Matthew, read one chapter every day.”
The young man took the Bible, and, after joining the army, found his friend, who asked him if he had seen his mother, and how she was.
“She is well,” he replied, “and has sent you this Bible with the request, which may perhaps be her last, that you would read a chapter of it every day.”
“Well,” said he, “I will do so if you will join with me in reading it.”
The agreement was made, and they started reading chapter by chapter till they reached the third chapter of John’s Gospel, which seemed to strike them both. A Christian soldier explained the chapter to them, and God by His Spirit blessed it, so that they both had the joy of knowing their sins forgiven. The peace of God filled their hearts.
O, dear children, do read the Bible; it is God’s letter to us, letting us know how much He loves us, and what He in His wondrous love has done in order to save our souls from an endless eternity of sorrow. We are sinners and cannot dwell with Him with our sins upon us, but “Christ died for us,’’ and took upon Himself the punishment that we deserved. We have now only to believe it, and. thank Him for it.
ML 08/06/1916