On a large ocean liner it used to be the custom to hold "chapel" on Sunday mornings. On one such occasion the preacher spoke about God's answers to prayer. In the audience there was a man whose cynical expression plainly showed his lack of sympathy with the speaker's views. At the end of the service a friend asked him, "What did you think of the sermon?"
The answer was, "Bah! It's mere child's talk!"
In the afternoon the preacher was asked to speak again on one of the lower decks, and most of his morning's audience followed him. The unbeliever found himself alone. Yielding to a sudden impulse, he went to the steward and asked for an orange.
"Help yourself," he said, pointing to a large bowl.
Slipping two oranges into his pocket, he wandered on until he found himself on the outskirts of the minister's crowd. There sat an old woman with upturned face and eyes closed in sleep. To play a little joke, he gently laid his two oranges in her lap. Later, returning where she was, he found her eating an orange.
"Are you enjoying it?" he asked.
"Oh," she responded, "I was so thirsty from seasickness that I just sat there praying that my heavenly Father would send me an orange. I dozed off, and when I woke up, there were two in my lap!"
"Child's talk"? Exactly! The talk of a child of God, simply telling her heavenly Father of her need—and receiving the answer. The unbeliever was stunned; there was more to this "child's talk" than he had suspected. The scoffer became a seeker, and soon he found the Savior. He became one of the "children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." Gal. 3:2626For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26).