Have you ever used a dictionary? In your school or homeschool you have probably looked up the meaning of a word, either on the computer or in a big book called a dictionary. You may even have a dictionary book at home. If so, it may be a Webster’s Dictionary.
Noah Webster was the man who put together the first American dictionary. If it were not for this book, people in New York might be speaking a completely different version of English than people speak in California, because language changes very quickly and easily.
Mr. Webster was born in 1758 on a farm near West Hartford, Connecticut. He loved to read, even as a boy. His father had to really work to get him away from his books to help with the farm chores. Although his family did not have much money, Noah somehow earned enough money so he could go to college. Shortly after graduating, he started teaching school.
While teaching school in the 1780s, he wrote a beginner’s spelling book, a grammar book and a book to teach reading to school children. Millions of copies of the spelling book were sold, which helped everyone in the United States to spell and pronounce words the same way. It took him more than 30 years to write what is called the dictionary, since the English language was changing very fast because of new discoveries in almost every area of life.
When he was about 40 years old, he began to wonder if all his work was what mattered most in life. He wondered if he had been building his hopes on what he had done, rather than on God’s mercy toward him. One day he told his wife and three children, “Starting today, I’m going to study the Bible until I find out what really counts!”
This was the beginning of a very important change in Mr. Webster’s life. He studied the Bible as carefully as he had worked on his dictionary. God was working in his life. The more he read, the more he understood what a proud sinner he really was. Late one night he kneeled down and asked God to forgive him. He confessed that he was a sinner and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. He believed that the work that the Lord Jesus had done on the cross was everything and that his own life and works were nothing. “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-98For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8‑9)).
The very next morning Mr. Webster told his family about his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. They began to read the Bible and pray together each day. Soon his whole family believed on the Lord Jesus as their Savior.
Mr. Webster found out what many of us have learned, that we can’t trust ourselves or our own ideas about what is right or wrong. Instead, we need to know God’s standards that He clearly shows us in the Bible. It is there we see what we are in God’s sight — “gone astray” and in need of His salvation. Have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord [has] laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:66All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)). What are you trusting in to get you to heaven? The Bible tells us there is only one way of getting there, and that is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Messages of God’s Love 9/3/2023