“Paper. Paper. Morning paper, sir?”
There was nothing new in the words. Most of us have often seen and heard these boys selling papers on the streets, but this time it was a little different, and it was the beginning of a story which I shall never forget. I was sitting in a railway train, just waiting for it to start, when I heard the little newsboy’s voice. There was something about that voice that made me look up at once, and there he stood looking at me and holding out the morning paper. The dear lad looked just so much like my own little boy who had gone to be with Jesus that I could hardly keep back the tears.
“What is your name, my boy?” “Johnny.”
“Can you read?”
“Oh, yes, sir; I’ve been to school a little.” Here Johnny glanced out of the window to see if he ought to jump off. Just at that moment the whistle blew and I knew Johnny was going to run for the door. There was no time to lose. Quickly I reached into my pocket and took out my own little leather-bound Testament and put it in Johnny’s hand.
“Will you read it, Johnny?”
“I will, sir; I will.”
A quick dash, and he was gone. I looked eagerly out the window as the train gained speed, but I could not see him. So I just closed my eyes and asked the Lord to use that Word of Life in blessing to Johnny.
Two months later I was again on the train as it pulled into the same station, and I was thinking about Johnny and wondering if I would see him again.
“Paper. Paper. Morning paper, sir?”
“Hello, Johnny!”
“Oh, hello, sir. I wondered if I would ever see you again. I wanted to tell you that it’s all in that little book.”
“What’s all in the little book, Johnny?”
“Oh, things are just so different now, and I know it’s that little book that has done it. I took it home that day you gave it to me. Father was out of work then, and Mother cried when she read it. Uncle lives with us, and he was quite frightened when he saw Father and Mother both crying as they read it. I thought at first that it must be a wicked book to make them cry like that and I asked them what was wrong. They told me that they were sinners. But then one day they were singing instead of crying, and they told me that Jesus had washed their sins away. And, sir, He is my Saviour too, and my sins are washed away too, in His precious blood.”
Dear little Johnny. He had to talk so fast, and he kept his sparkling eyes looking out the window so that he might know when to jump off. All too soon the whistle blew, and Johnny reached out to shake my hand.
“Thanks again for that wonderful Book, sir.”
Another moment and he was away with a bound, and I have not seen him since.
Dear reader, it is a wonderful Book. It has told me that I was a sinner, so that I felt like the poor sinful woman who said, “Come, see a Man, which told me all things that ever I did.” John 4:2929Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? (John 4:29). But that wonderful Book not only tells us that “all have sinned” but it also tells us the glorious news that “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” I John 1:77The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. (John 1:7).
Read that wonderful Book for yourself. Believe its truthful message, and you will have the joy of knowing that your sins are gone.
ML 06/14/1953