“If Jesus Christ be God, and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” C. T. S.
What sacrifice will you make for Him this Christmas? What shall your Christmas gift be? The following touching episode happened a day or two ago: —
“YES, BUT I WILL AFFORD IT”
I was visiting an invalid friend the other day and talking about the dear soldiers at the Front who need Testaments sent to them. After a few minutes I saw her fumbling underneath the bedclothes. “Now what can she be doing?” thought I, but soon I knew, for she produced a bright shilling from her scanty store, as she said: “Give this to your fund for sending God’s Word to the soldiers.” “My dear friend,” I replied, with a gladdened feeling, “you cannot afford so much.” “Yes, true, but I will afford it. God’s work must be carried on, so I will give it.” “What made you think of it?” I said. “When I read the October Message you gave me, and the Doctor’s appeal for help.” Don’t you think, dear readers, that some of us too, who think we cannot afford any more, may say to ourselves, as my friend did, “I will afford it”?
Emily P. Leakey
And she will be blest for her giving.
And so will another dear friend, who has denied herself of many things to give to God. She says in her letter:― “I am enclosing a Money Order to buy more books for the soldiers and sailors. I feel I must do this, or I shall ever regret it in eternity. I know I shall rejoice then that I helped to feed the souls of men. It gives me very great pleasure now to be able to send.... I have asked God to help me to send you all the money I can. I do wish I could do more, but God knows even the desires of His children. These splendid opportunities of helping will never come again.”
An invalid writes: — “Seeing in the little book, ‘A Message from God,’ you are badly in need of Testaments for our brave soldiers and sailors, a poor invalid sends one shilling to help forward the great work you are doing for the Master.”
A friend tells us she has had a birthday present of ten shillings given her for some years. This year she wanted to buy a Bible with it. She says in her letter: “Well, I suddenly thought of the soldiers and sailors. What I was going to spend on one Bible would buy sixty Testaments for them, and surely they needed the Word of Life more than I needed a Bible.... I made it a matter of prayer, and became fully convinced that it was the Lord’s will I should send the money to you. When my birthday came I had a Bible given me just the kind I was longing for. The Lord does indeed give above all we ask or think.”
A dear worker at the Front writes: — “I am truly grateful for the three nice parcels of New Testaments and literature received today. I was entirely out of New Testaments, and last night made it a matter of special prayer, and while I was praying yours were on the way.”
Another tells me: — “I received yesterday a parcel of Testaments, etc., from you, and was delighted to receive them. Would that I had possessed such a lot fourteen months ago.”
Another says from the Front: — “We sometimes distribute five hundred Gospels in one day; we never have too many Testaments or too much literature; the work constantly expands.
One more letter from a worker: — “Only last night I spoke to a wounded soldier, and on offering him a Testament he pulled one out of his breast pocket; it was much worn, and many of the pages were loose, but he would not have another in the place of if. ‘This one,’ said he, ‘has saved my life on more than one occasion, and I mean to keep it and read it every day, and when it is too mutilated to read I shall still keep it.’ He said that the Testaments and Gospels were much appreciated at the Front, and many who had never before read them are making a practice of reading them now.”
I want you to read this Christmas number of the “Message from God” by your fireside, and as you read it think of the dear brave fellows a few hundreds of miles away in the trenches. One who had been home on leave and had returned said he had to ride for fifteen miles in pouring rain to get to the trenches, and then stand in mud above the ankles. This is done cheerfully every day for us. Do you want to send these dear, brave fellows a Christmas present? I want you to let me send them one or more of the boxes containing Testaments and Gospels and magazines, etc., from you. If you look at the last page of the Magazine you will see you can send
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One parcel containing Gospels, Testaments, etc., for 5/-
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Two parcels containing Gospels, Testaments, etc., for 10/-
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Four parcels containing Gospels, Testaments, etc., for 20/-
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and so on in proportion.
Ask God how many you shall send, and let me have the joy of sending them for you. You will have a happy Christmas then. We send plenty of “Message from God” in every box, and “How Can I Be Saved?” and Travelers’ Guides, etc., etc. The box is valued wherever it goes, and we want to send one thousand away this Christmas. Please help us all you can to do this. Get all your friends to send us the request for one, two, four, or more boxes.
If only one soul is saved through the sending of a box, think of the blessing of one thousand souls for God this Christmas. We have four hundred willing workers ready to distribute far and wide, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, the Word of God.