(Continued from last week)
ONE DAY a colporteur heard of Giovanni’s zeal and love for the Word of God and encouraged him to become a Bible seller in his country. Quite delighted, Giovanni set out in a few days with a pack of Bibles and Testaments on his back, and for a time he sold his Bibles quickly.
It was market day in Glaris and Giovanni was urging his listeners to supply themselves with the Word of God, when a young man came forward from the crowd and with a scornful voice declared if he were in want of a Bible he could get one for nothing, and that too in Glaris. Once he had plastered one up in the wall of a house and he was sure that in spite of the fire, the devil had not been able to get it out again!
Much astonished and greatly moved, Giovanni looked the young man in the face, and replied: “Yes, that is true, in spite of the fire, that Bible was taken great care of — it was saved by a miracle!” Then he related how God (and not Satan) had permitted the precious Book to fall into his hands, and what a great blessing it had been first to himself and afterward to many others.
Now it was the young man’s turn to be astonished. “What!” cried Antonio, for it was none other than he, “you mean to say you found the Bible I put in the wall! Let’s see the Book! I can tell it from the dents in the cover.”
Giovanni drew his beloved Bible from his pocket, and showed it to Antonio who was not a little surprised and troubled to behold again the Book he had treated with such disrespect.
“Come now,” continued Giovai, “buy the Bible from me, read it, and learn how to become a true Christian.”
But the old hatred against the holy Book still burned in Antonio’s heart, and he cried, “Go away with your Bibles! Who gave you permission to come here?” With that he stirred up his comrades till they overthrew Giovanni’s table and inflicted some severe blows upon the poor colporteur. Nor did they rest until he with his Bibles had quitted the district. Poor Giovanni, weary and discouraged, returned home, turned in his little stock of Bibles to his employers, and went back to his trade for a living.
But the patience and long-suffering of God in seeking to save men from destruction of their own choosing, is truly astonishing and beyond all measure. Twice had Antonio rudely and wickedly refused to accept this same Bible, by means of which the God of love would have drawn him to Himself and made him eternally happy. Nevertheless a third time did this compassionate love of a gracious and long-suffering God cross his path and again in the form of this selfsame Bible, to see if perhaps this time he might bend his stiff neck and permit himself to be snatched from perdition.
Years passed, and the now aged Giovanni had obtained work in one of the Swiss towns, when he discovered that his stubborn antagonist, Antonio, was also working there. Ashamed, and awkward at first, Antonio was anxious to make Giovanni forget the ill-treatment he had suffered from him years before. Giovanni willingly forgot the past, and began to take a great interest in the young man.
One day while carrying a heavy piece of stone up an unsteady ladder, Antonio slipped and fell backwards, breaking his hip in the fall. They carried him unconscious to the hospital and there he lay for weeks and months on a bed of suffering. Giovanni often visited him, and with tenderness and affection, he directed the unhappy young man to the Good Shepherd who was in this great affliction, seeking to bring this wandering sheep to Himself.
One day he left Antonio his old precious Bible to read. Antonio at first cared not for the Book, but on one of his weary days he chanced to take it up and began to read it. Some Christian women encouraged him to read Hebrews 12 and this proved soothing to his dark and murmuring heart. As he read day by day, by degrees, he began to make progress in Christian knowledge, and to love the Word of God itself.
It was six months before he could drag himself about on crutches. The fall left him a cripple for life and he could never go back to his trade as a mason for a living. So he applied himself to study, and grew in spiritual things. He acquired the deepest and most important knowledge one can get: he learned that he was a great sinner, deserving judgment, but that the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, could cleanse such a sinner as he from all sin. From hereon he experienced peace and joy in spite of the severe trial which bowed him down. He could even thank God for the affliction in which it had pleased Him to bring him to Himself.
In the fall Antonio was at last able to return home. He became a teacher in a Christian school, and would spend his leisure days holding meetings and trying to spread the knowledge of the Word of God, getting about with the aid of a stick.
Our old friend, Giovanni, whose wife and daughter also had become Christians, consented to the marriage of his daughter to the young school teacher, Antonio, to whom he had become much attached. He knew of no greater joy than to read in his beloved and precious Book, which he promised at his death should become Antonio’s treasure.
ML-10/10/1971