LAWYER named Mr. Bartlett was on his way to work, and nearing his office he stopped in the street to get a paper. Charlie, the paper boy, was no stranger to him, but this morning he was unusually silent. The lawyer missed his bright remarks, and began to joke with him, when suddenly the boy looked up in his face, and said:
“Mr. Bartlett, do you love God?”
The lawyer was honest and upright, a good-living man, but he was not a Christian. “Why do you ask me that, Charlie?” he asked.
“Well, I’ll tell you, sir,” replied the paper boy. “Me mother an’ me’s got to get out; for the place we live in ‘ll be tore down pretty soon, an’ a fellow like me can’t pay much rent. Mother does all she can, but you see there’s three of us, an’ me grandmother’s lame. I dunno what to do. Yesterday I heard two men talkin’, and one of ‘em said God would help anybody that love Him if they’d tell Him they were in trouble. I made up my mind I’d lay for somebody that knew Him well enough to ask Him.”
Mr. Bartlett was embarrassed. All he could say to the threadbare boy was that he had better ask someone else. He thrust a half-dollar into the boy’s hand and hurried away.
But all that day he found his thoughts reveling to the boy and his strange question. “A fine position for an educated man in a Christian country!” he said to himself. “Struck dumb by an ignorant street Arab! I could not answer his question! Why not?”
That evening Mr. Bartlett went, for the first time in many years, to a prayer meeting, and told the whole story without sparing himself. From that day life had a new meaning for him, for he received into his heart the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, God’s gift to sinners. For “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23). “And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” 1 John 4:1414And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. (1 John 4:14). “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” 1 John 5:1212He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:12).
Such an incident could not be allowed to end there. The boy was helped to better living quarters, and to work, which enabled him to provide better for his “family.” At last he had found someone who loved God: and in time he learned to love Him himself, for Charlie accepted the Lord Jesus as his Saviour too.
May it be so with our dear reader as it was with the well-to-do lawyer and the poor paper boy of our story. Both found Christ as their Saviour and started on their way home to heaven.
“Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world...; the weak things...; And base things...; and things which are despised, ... that no flesh should glory in His presence.” 1 Cor. 26-29.
ML-05/15/1960