The little boy whose story I am about to tell you was, born in France about two hundred and fifty years ago. His father and mother were very rich, and very worldly. They did not fear God, awl spent their time in pleasure with no thought of the eternity that was before them.
Happily for little Theodore, he was not brought up by his ungodly parents. He was a thin delicate little fellow and so he was given into the care of his mother’s cousin. This cousin was one who had early learned to know and love the Lord Jesus. She belonged to those persecuted, but godly people, the Waldenses. They lived hidden away amongst the mountains, where they could read their Bibles and worship God in the way in which they believed pleasing to Him.
It was a very happy Christian how, where Theodore was brought up. He learned to call these kind people who were caring for him, Father and Mother. Maria, his new mother, often prayed that he might grow up to be a true servant of God. She soothed him to sleep by singing sweet hymns, and she taught him, when a very little child about the love of God in sending His only begotten Son into the world to die for poor sinners. God heard Maria’s prayer, for when Theodore was yet very young, he accepted the Lord Jesus as his Saviour, and showed by his obedient and gentle behavior that he wished to live to please the Lord Jesus.
It was a happy peaceful life with kind Maria, her Christian husband Claude, and their two little boys. They were not rich, but they all helped together with the work of the home. Every day Claude gave them lessons in reading and writing, and he taught them to sing psalms and hymns. When the work and the lessons for the day were over, the boys often went with Claude to visit some of the poor people who lived in the cottages scattered through the valley. There they would listen while he was speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His love to sinners. He told them of the sinfulness of the heart of man, and bow it was not possible to save themselves; then now God loved us and sent His Son the Lord Jesus to die for sinners.
On the way home, Claude would teach the boys the names of the trees and the flowers and the birds. And he would always tell them that all these things spoke to us of God’s wisdom and power.
Thus Theodore passed his days until he was twelve years old when a great change came into his life, but I must wait until the next chapter to tell you about it.
ML 04/01/1951