IN AFRICA one night a lion crept into a native’s hut and carried off a little girl. Her screams brought her parents running after the lion, shouting and making a great noise. After carrying her for some distance the lion dropped the child and ran off.
Dreadfully wounded by the lion’s great sharp teeth, her parents carried her back to the hut. But as they were sure that she would die, the next day they decided it was not worthwhile to have any more trouble with her.
So they gave her the choice, either to be buried alive at once, or to be carried into the jungle and left there. That was the native custom in that dark land in those dark days. How true it is as the Bible says, that “the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty"! Psalm 74:2020Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. (Psalm 74:20).
The little girl chose to be put in the jungle. Here she was left all alone, with only a little rice and water.
As she lay there, the poor child remembered that there was a missionary station not far off, and decided to try to crawl there. But as she crept painfully along, God sent the missionary himself that way.
He picked her up and carried her home where he and his wife looked after her. Under their tender care her wounds healed. She got well. She attended the mission school. Here she learned of Jesus and His great love for children and she was saved by simple faith in Him.
Then she learned to read and write, and Afterward became a teacher in the school. Finally she gave her whole life to helping spread the gospel among her own countrymen.
“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Rom. 10: 13.
ML-05/12/1974