WHAT would be the result if a number of persons were converted, simply through reading the scriptures, in complete ignorance of the various divisions of Christendom? The following extract, just received from Spain, will answer that question.
“We received a letter the other day from a civil engineer, a Spaniard, who was passing through a village in Catalonia, where he came across a meeting of sixteen Christians. This work was the fruit of a Bible, sold seven years ago by a colporteur to a widow. It resulted in the conversion of that family, and so increased gradually. They are in the habit of meeting in one of their houses, when they read six or seven chapters, and pray, and exhort each other; generally spending about two hours.
“They have also composed a few hymns and further, from simply the reading of the scriptures,, they remember the death of the Lord Jesus in participating together of the bread and wine; all this without knowing of any other body of Christians.
“It is wonderful, and yet not so with the Lord. The one who wrote is himself a dear, godly man. How true it is, the entrance of God’s word gives light in the midst of the most intense darkness.”
How cheering to our hearts is this gracious display of the sovereign grace of God How much for Christians to reflect upon. The words of Jesus are as true to the end (Matt. 18:2020For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)) just as true as at the beginning.
C. S.