MR. ROBERTS was an infidel, one of those men who say the Bible is not God’s book. His wife became a Christian soon after their marriage and loved the Bible and tried to serve her Lord and Saviour. But Mr. Roberts was angry whenever he saw a Bible, and would throw it into the fire or out of the window. His poor wife did not dare let him know she had a Bible or ever read one. But she had a little pocket Bible, and kept it hid in the bottom of her trunk, and when her husband was away on his trips down the river—for he was the captain of a boat—she would take out her Bible and read it every day.
Mrs. Roberts had three small children, and she spent much time each day in speaking to them about the precious things in the Word of God. She told them of the Saviour, God’s Son, Who came down from heaven to save sinners, and that all who know Him as their own Saviour can call His Father their Father, His God, their God, and that God hears and answers the prayers of His people.
Mary, the eldest of the three children, at the age of ten years had accepted the Lord Jesus, and she loved to pray.
She continued this habit of prayer, and her father, as he returned from one of his trips, overheard her several times, but she was his pet, his idol, and he could not be angry with her, though he thought it was a childish whim, and she would soon get over it. Calling her to him, he took her on his knee, and asked,
“Mary, why do you go about praying as you do? what does a little girl like you know about prayer?”
“Father, I like to pray,” said the child. “But what do you pray for? What is it you are wanting?”
“I’ll tell you, father, what I pray for; but you must promise me something first.”
“Well, what must I promise?”
“Well, father, if you will promise to go to meeting with mother and me tonight I’ll tell you what I pray for.”
She put her little hands caressingly down his cheeks, and said,
“Father, I pray every day that God will save your soul, and make you love His Bible too.”
With the last word she put her little mouth to his, and gave him an earnest and loving kiss; as she did so, he felt as if something had struck him on the head.
He became faint, and trembled, and afterward declared it seemed as if God had smitten him.
He said nothing then, but went to meeting that night; and his conviction of God’s holiness and power and his sins increased, until he humbled himself before God as a sinner, and was enabled by faith to trust in Christ for his salvation. How ashamed and sorry he was when he remembered how he had fought against God’s word, the Bible. But he was happy to know that God remembered his sins and iniquities no more. God had forgotten all, because he had accepted Christ as his Saviour.
Mr. Roberts went away very soon after this on his boat. When he came back it was dark, on Saturday night, as he reached the wharf; but before going home he went to a bookstore and bought an elegant and large Bible, and carrying it home, laid it on his wife’s table.
As you may suppose, Mrs. Roberts and her children were very happy, especially Mary, who had first come to the Lord Jesus, and then brought her dear father to Jesus through her prayers.
Are there some of our little readers who have parents or other loved ones, unsaved? You, if you know Jesus as your Saviour, can do as Mary did, —just go and tell Jesus about them.
The Lord attends when children pray;
A whisper He can hear;
He knows not only what we say,
But what we wish or fear.
ML 08/17/1924