Three lovely birch trees! How their pretty white bark shines in the sunlight, and it is a wonderful sight to see whole forests of them. Perhaps some of our readers have trimmed off some of this “birch bark”, and made a little photo folder, or a toy canoe. It is sometimes used to write on, and one time a letter came to our home written on this birch bark with the envelope made from it too. Many hundreds of years ago when there was very little paper, and very few people could write, they used skins or parchment for writing letters. The Bible was written in this way, and these parchments which were called manuscripts were very valuable. There weren’t any printing presses, and anyone who wanted to read the Word of God had to go where one of these manuscripts were kept, and read there. They could not buy a copy, and the only way they could have the Word in their homes, was to copy parts of it for themselves. If they could not write they would have to pay a “scribe” to copy it for them.
We should be very thankful for the open Bible we have in these lands, and we can buy one at a very reasonable price in the book store. We have almost all learned to read and write too, so that we can read it in the quiet of our own homes. What a wonderful message it brings to us of God’s great love in sending His Son into this sad. world to die for sinners. But thousands of people have the Bible in their homes, and yet they have never believed this precious message. The only way to be saved is to take your true place as a sinner before God, and accept the Lord Jesus as your own personal Saviour. Dear reader, have you done this?
ML 07/06/1947