In a village in the Philippines many years ago there lived a young boy who had learned to read. His favorite Book was the Bible, and he was the only one in the village that possessed one.
Those were days when some men in the village did not like the people to read the Bible; in fact one man had threatened the boy with trouble if he did not destroy his Book. So he hid it in a hole down by the river, and from time to time, when no one was looking, he would steal away down there and all alone he would read the stories of Jesus that he loved so well.
One day after a great rain the river flooded and his precious Book was washed away down the river.
How sad he was when he found it was gone!
However, in another village farther down the river, there lived a man who was famous among the people as a storyteller. He was out on the river the day after the big rain when he noticed something black in the water. Picking it up he discovered it was a book. After drying the pages he read into it, and found it to be full of wonderful stories. He began to tell these stories to the people and he became more famous than ever.
By and by when the Philippines became a United States possession, the American missionaries began to arrive and they gave the people Bibles. They were not afraid to read them now.
A Pilipino Christian came to the village one day and he began to tell them wonderful stories about Jesus, about David and Joseph, and others we read in the Bible. Some of the people said, “We have heard those stories before. Are they true?” The preacher told them they were, and asked where they got them from. “From the storyteller,” they replied. “Where did he get them from?” They went to bring the storyteller, and when he came he told them about finding the black Book in the river.
Sometime later the same preacher visited the first village where the young boy lived and told him the story of how a black book had been found down the river. Together they went to visit the storyteller, and what was the boy’s delight to find that it was his own precious Bible that the other had found floating on the water. How happy he was when the storyteller gave his treasured Book back to him again.
“Thy words were found, and I did eat them.” Jer. 15: 16.
So the Word of God grew and multiplied in that land, and many of the Pilipinos have found Christ as their Saviour.
“For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: “So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isa. 55: 10,11.
ML 11/05/1967