Mr. Moffat, the English missionary, told the following simple story to show the earnestness with which some of the unconverted heathen sought to possess copies of the Scriptures: Not long ago a woman came to me, bringing a boy with her. They had traveled fifteen miles on foot, and she said she wanted a New Testament. She brought the payment in her hand. I said to her, "My good woman, there is not a copy to be had.”
"What!" said she, "Amos I to return empty-handed?”
"I fear you must.”
"Oh," said she, "I borrowed a copy once, but the owner has come and taken it away. Now I sit with my family, sorrowful because we have no Book to talk to us. My boy can read, and he is teaching me to read. He reads, and I pray. We live far from anyone else, at a cattle outpost, and we have no teacher but the Book. Oh," said she, in true Sechuana style, "go and seek a book. Oh, father! oh, mother! oh, my elder brother! Do go and seek a Book for me; surely one can be found! Do not let me go back empty.”
I felt for her, for she spoke earnestly and feelingly, and I began to feel my own eyes grow a little misty. "Wait," I said, "wait a little, and I will see what I can do.”
I sought here and there. At last I found a copy and brought it to the good woman. Oh, could you have seen how her eyes brightened, how she clasped my hands and kissed them over and over again!
Away she went with her Book, rejoicing and with a heart overflowing with gratitude.
"Oh," she said, "I knew you had a heart. I told you, you had a heart.”
Is your heart touched by the thought that thousands and thousands of lost souls throughout the world do not yet know the gospel?