Shoshi father and mother died when he was a very little boy, and he would have had to beg or starve, had it not been for the Orphanage. Mr. Vaughn was a missionary who was spending his life in India, telling the native heathen about the love of God. There were many boys and girls like Shoshi, who had neither father nor mother, and so Mr. Vaughn built a home for them which he had called an orphanage.
In this comfortable home, the boys and girls were taught to read and write, and do many useful things the things which you learn in school. But he knew these boys and girls knew nothing at all about the true God and of His Son the Lord Jesus. I expect you could tell many things about the Lord Jesus and about heaven. Mr. Vaughn told the children that there was a part of them that never dies, and he often read to them from the Bible of the beautiful. place which is waiting for all whose sins are washed away in the blood of Jesus.
Shoshi was very young, but he listened carefully to all that was said, and one day he told Mr. Vaughn that he now believed in the Lord Jesus, arid that he knew that all his sins were washed away in the blood which was shed on the cross. Maybe the reader of this story has a Christian father and mother, but can you say, as Shoshi did, that all your sins are gone too?
Not long after this, Shashi began to get thin and pale. The doctor was called and he told Mr. Vaughn that the dear boy had consumption and should be taken away from the Orphanage.
In a day or two, Mr. Vaughn packed up Shoshi’s clothes and a Bengali Testament, and he and Shoshi started out for the hospital. The dear little boy was sorry to leave his kind friend, but he knew that the Lord Jesus loved him and that made everything so much brighter. A few days later Mr. Vaughn went to visit the little fellow and found him very weak, but still very happy. He pointed to another man in the room and said, “Sahib, go and speak to that man. I am sure he wants to be a Christian.”
When Mr. Vaughn went to speak to the stranger, he found that Shoshi had been reading to him from his Testament, and telling him of the love of Jesus.
“I never heard such words in my life,” said the poor sick man. “Will you give me a book like it?”
“I will gladly do that,” said the missionary, and soon the sick man had a Bengali Testament of his own.
As soon as Mr. Vaughn had another chance, he went again to the hospital and went right to Shoshi’s bed. But somebody else was in it! Yes, Shoshi had been called away by the Lord Jesus to that home where nobody ever says “I am sick.” Sadly the missionary turned away and stepped over to the other man’s bed. It was empty! The nurse told him that the man was so sick that they could do nothing for him and he had gone away.
Two years later Mr. Vaughn was visiting the “Home for Lepers.” Suddenly a man came up to him with a happy face. “Sahib, don’t you remember me? Don’t you remember little Shoshi and the sick man to whom he read and spoke of Jesus? I am that man and I thank God that He brought that child to my bedside. I am now a poor leper, so have come to this home, but thank God, I have been reading that Testament, and now I know Jesus as my Saviour.”
This man’s name was David, and for three years he lived in this Home, always ill in bed, but no one ever saw him unhappy or cross. Day by day, the other lepers gathered round his bed, and he read to them the wonderful stories about Jesus, and told them of the free salvation offered to every one of them. When at last the Lord called David home to heaven, the others in the Home said that they had lost their friend and teacher.
What about the one who is reading this story? It is not likely that you have either consumption or leprosy, but you are most certainly going to leave this world someday. Can you say that you are trusting in the Lord Jesus as your own Saviour as both Shoshi and David did?
ML 05/21/1950