MY mother gave me a Bible for my gift last Christmas,” said a little girl complacency, “and Aunt Lou gave Cousin Harry one at the same time. Just look at them now, and see the difference!”
Harry’s was a little worn. Its gilt edges were tarnished, and the newness was gone from the cover, but it looked as if it had been read very often. Here and there I saw pencil marks near favorite verses, and in one or two places it seemed as if tears might have fallen. Little Harry Gordon had become a Christian lately, and his Bible had evidently been very precious to him.
Minnie said triumphantly, after I had finished my look at Harry’s, “Now, see mine!” She unfolded the tissue paper from it, and there it was just as fresh and fair and uninjured as when it came out of the shop.
“I’ve never had it out of the drawer but once,” said Miss Minnie, “and that was to show it to somebody.”
“Minnie,” said I, “if your father were away from home, and should send you a letter, telling you just what he wanted you to do and be, would it be good treatment never to break the seal, or to lay it away in a drawer unread? Would it not rather be better to take it out every day and to read it over and over, trying all the more each time to obey its injunctions?”
“Yes!” said Minnie, blushing and hanging her head, as she began to see my meaning.
“This is God’s letter to you, my love! Like the man who folded away his talent in a napkin, you have folded up your precious Bible. Hereafter, my child, use it as God wants you to. “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me.”
ML 06/13/1909