A great fire blazed merrily in the plaza of a little Brazilian town. A crowd of men, women, and children were gathered around as they watched a man tearing a book to pieces and casting it into the flames. A pile of these books lay at his side, all designed for the fire.
Only a few days before there had come to that town a young man with a winning speech and a wonderful story. He had persuaded many of them to buy these books, which according to him, contained the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ. It told them how they might be saved.
One by one the Bibles, Testaments and portions—for such they were—were torn from their covers and cast to the flames. The breeze fanned the blaze and every time a fresh handful of books was cast into the fire, a gust of wind whirled some of the scorched, blackened pages aloft. It so happened that one leaf was whirled away over the heads of the crowd, above the housetops, and fell on the outskirts of the village. It fluttered down into a quiet street, where a final puff of the breeze sent it floating in at the opened window of Dona Manuel. Dona was a devout soul, and as she read the fragment that had come to her in a remarkable way, her heart was strangely moved within her. She showed the scorched leaf from the unknown Book to her husband when he returned in the evening, and he too was deeply interested. But entirely ignorant of where it came from, he came to his wife saying, “Keep it, for it must belong to a very religious book, and some day we might find the rest of the story.”
A year passed away, and the village was again visited by a colporteur. This time he came to the street where Dona lived, and knocking at her door, offered a book for sale, telling her what it was.
“Oh come,” she exclaimed, “Are you selling good books? Perhaps you can tell me about this”—and she hurried off and brought her treasured leaf. “This seems to belong to a very religious book, and we should like to get the rest of the story. Do you know it?”
“Why, senora,” he said as he recognized the familiar page, “that belongs to the Book I am offering you; see here it is.” And he turned rapidly to the New Testament and showed her the precious leaf and its proper place. Where do you think that stray leaf had come from? It was the page containing the third chapter of John’s Gospel. She and her husband had been reading the story of the Lord Jesus and Nicodemus, and “how God so loved the world.” No wonder they wanted the rest of the story.
Gladly she bought the Testament, and when her husband came home she showed him the Book from whence their leaf had come. Together they sat down to read more of that wondrous story. Earnestly and devoutly they pored over the sacred pages until the light of the gospel shone in their hungry hearts. At last they found peace and salvation in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners. One by one the whole family came to know the Lord through the reading of the Word. As the gospel light shone forth in that town, joy, gladness and salvation was brought to many hungry hearts. They turned “to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” 1 Thess. 1:9,109For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; 10And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:9‑10).
ML 12/19/1965