A few years ago a Christian gentleman was traveling in England and shared a compartment with a clergyman, two ladies, and a man who proved to be an infidel. A little later a cattle drover entered the coach and joined the group.
When the train moved on again, the clergyman distributed gospel tracts to each. The infidel alone refused them, saying that he never read such trash, and that he would not even allow his two daughters at home to read the Bible. For fully ten minutes he then assailed God's Word, professing to disprove it.
The clergyman finally interrupted to say: "Pardon me, sir; but you say this Book is not fit for your daughters to read. Yet for the last ten minutes you have been quoting extracts from it before these two ladies. If, as you say, the Scriptures are unfit for your children, you are most inconsistent.”
The clergyman quoted verses to refute the infidel's argument, but all was rejected by him.
At last the drover said: "I am just a cattle drover. Sometimes I drive sheep, and sometimes I drive pigs. My master went to market one day and bought some sheep, and I had to drive them home. Near our farm there is a lane, with nice green grass all along and a pond at the far end. You should have seen those sheep go for the grass when I got them in the lane. How they nibbled at it, bleating, as though cheering one another on; and when they put their noses in the pond, they seemed as fresh as if they had not been on a journey!
"My master says to me: 'Jim, those sheep look fresh.'
“‘Of course they do, Master,' said I. 'They have been filling their bellies as they came along.'
"Well, the next week my master sent me to drive some pigs home from market. I was vexed when I got them into that lane to see how they began rooting up the juicy green grass to get at the worms and dirt, and I drove them on as fast as I could. When they got to the pond, in they went, stirring up all the mud. They got home filthier than when they started.
"Now, sir," said the drover, "you are like those pigs. Thousands of people find comfort and food in God's Word, but you do not. It doesn't suit your stomach, so you try to spoil it for those who live on it. And as God made worms to do His work in nature, so He has been pleased to write down in His Word—the Bible—things that you call unfit for reading. As far as I can see, He has faithfully written down these dark sins in the lives of men (things that we would leave out if we had to write their lives) to show that it is vile sinners His grace can save.
"Yes, sir, He shows them up just as He sees them. Yet He says, I can save the vilest, for the 'blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth from all sin.'
"Take my advice, sir-give up finding fault with God's blessed Word! But believe its message, when it says, 'All have sinned and come short of the glory of God' and accept His offer of salvation. It can be had only through faith in Christ Jesus. If you will not do that, at any rate stop spoiling the grass for God's sheep.”
The infidel sat silent and listened, nor did he open his mouth again. May God open his heart to the truth.