A colporteur was travelling in Brazil with his mule laden with his precious books. The shades of night were beginning to fall, when he saw in the distance a company of merchants who had stopped to camp for the night. He accordingly approached them and asked if they would, allow him to camp with them. They readily agreed and invited him to share their evening meal by the fire.
As they sat around the cheerful blaze after their frugal repast, the colporteur drew a Bible from his pocket and asked if they would allow him to read to them. They gladly consented, and he read for some time, after which a lively conversation ensued concerning the things he had read from the Book of books.
They were on the point of settling for the night, when the sound of galloping hoofs was heard in the evening stillness, and very soon a well-dressed stranger alighted from his horse and begged leave to share their camp also. One of the merchants showed him a place, and the newcomer seated himself by the fire.
During the conversation which followed, the stranger spoke with deep emotion of the troubles of life: he had just lost his wife and was feeling very lonely. A remark by our friend the colporteur elicited the admission that he did not know salvation and wished he had it.
"But," he added, "is it not strange that a man must make so many sacrifices for his own salvation and that of his dear ones, and still has to ask himself all the time whether they are sufficient."
"Well," said one of the merchants, "in this man's book it tells of an altogether different way of getting salvation," and he pointed to our friend who still held his Bible in his hands.
"And what book is that?" asked the stranger, greatly interested.
"It is the Word of God," replied the colporteur. "Although it is getting late, I should like to read you a few passages, if you will permit me."
The stranger listened intently, and learned to his great surprise that it is, not with silver, nor with gold, that we are redeemed, but with the precious blood of Christ, and that he could have the salvation he desired freely, without money, according to the words,
The man seemed dumbfounded on hearing such good news, so different from all he had ever heard before. At last he begged the colporteur to give him the book from which he had been reading, after which each went to rest, and the next morning they all took their several ways.
It was many months ere the colporteur returned to that district. Everybody was talking of a retired sea-captain who had bought a property nearby, and who every day at a certain hour gathered his family, his servants and his neighbors in his house, and read to them from the sacred Scriptures. The colporteur went to the house and recognized in the owner of the estate, the stranger to whom the Bible had been given on that night by the camp-fire. God had in His mercy led that man to Jesus Christ, in whom he found the salvation and peace for which he had longed.
Have you, dear reader, found this salvation and this peace?