SHE was only a fruit-seller—this girl of fourteen—and as she sat behind her neatly arranged stand, she improved the time when trade was slack in reading her Bible. So absorbed did she become that she did not hear the footsteps of a man who was passing by, and was startled by his question:
“What are you reading that interests you so much?”
“The Word of God, sir,” she replied.
“Who told you that the Bible is the Word of God?”
“God told me Himself.”
“God told you? Impossible! How did He tell you? You have never seen Him or talked with Him.”
For a moment the girl sat confused and silent. The man, who was an unbeliever, and took delight in destroying the faith of people in the Scriptures, thought he had won an easy victory. But he was mistaken. Suddenly she looked up with a flash in her dark eyes, and asked:
“Sir, who told you there is a sun yonder in the blue sky above us?”
“Who told me?” replied the man, smiling somewhat contemptuously, for he thought the girl was trying to hide her ignorance. “Who told me? The sun tells me this about itself. It warms me, and I love its light. That is telling me plain enough.”
“Sir,” said the girl, “you have put it right for both Bible and sun. That is the way God tells me this is His Book. I read it, and it warms my heart and gives me light.”