Bill was spending his holidays in a pretty glen. Before he left home, an arrangement was made with a school-mate that they should exchange letters every week, telling each other all the news of fishing, and other matters that boys like to know about. The first and second letters passed with nothing striking in them. Bill and his sister Bessie stood by the roadside, awaiting the traveling postman on a Monday morning, eagerly expecting their letters from home.
“One for me,” shouted Bill, as he took the packet from the postman’s hand, “and a jolly big one it is, lots of news from Tom I guess.”
Bill burst open the envelope, and sat down on the grass to read his companion’s letter, while Bessie quietly read one from her mother. When Tom had finished reading, he handed part of Tom’s letter to Bessie, saying in a bewildered tone,
“That beats all. Tom Gray converted! That’s my last companion gone now.”
Yes, Tom had been saved, and turned to the Lord, and his first work for his new Master, was to write and tell his companion what God had done for his soul, closing with an earliest appeal to Bill to turn to God.
For several days Bill went about very unhappy. Tom’s letter had upset him, until unable to endure it any longer, he started by an early train on Saturday to see his companion. I cannot tell you all that passed between them but I know that Tom led him to Jesus that day.
Bill returned to the glen, singing the glad new song of one who knows his sins forgiven, and when his holidays were over, he joined his companion at school, where the two boys testified for Christ, and let their light shine for many days.
There is nothing half so grand as being saved in early days. Reader, are you? There are hundreds of schoolboys and schoolgirls who are saved, and on the way to heaven. I meet with some of them every day, and they are the truly happy ones.
ML 07/03/1938