A LONG row of beds, most of them occupied, and a great many pale faces that seemed familiar with pain, met the eyes of the old gentleman and the little girl as they stood in the large ward of a hospital. This scene of suffering was no strange sight to them. They went there often to visit the sick and the friendless, to bring some words of comfort and cheer, as well as fruit and delicacies to the sufferers.
“Who is that man in the last bed?” asked the man of the nurse. “It is a new face, and he looks like a foreigner.”
“Yes, sir,” the nurse answered, “he is a French sailor, who met with a fearful accident a few days ago. They brought him here, but he understands only a word or two of English. His ship has left, and he has no one to speak to him in his own language. I sometimes listen to him muttering to himself, but of course, I do not understand. Perhaps your little girl would not mind speaking in French to him. I am sure that would please him.”
The gentleman looked down at his little girl who was holding his hand.
“Will you go, Anna, and speak to the poor fellow? You could speak a few words to him in French.”
“O, father! I know so little French.”
“Afraid to attempt it, I suppose,” he said, “I cannot speak a word of French myself, or I would speak to him.” A bright idea had struck the little girl.
“Father,” she whispered, “shall I repeat to him my French text?”
“Yes, do! That will be better than anything else you can say.”
Her French text was one that she had learned by heart from a French Bible that was given her but a week or two before. It had been some little labor to learn it, but at last it was fixed firmly in her memory; and how glad she was now that she could leave her text with the poor sailor, for perhaps he had never heard it before.
Timidly she approached the bed in the farthest corner, for had not the nurse said he had met with a fearful accident? She shrank from the thought of what suffering he must be going through even now, for his eyes were closed, and the mouth was drawn, as if with pain.
She paused. What if he were dying? The face was very death like, and he lay there very still. But no; the sound of footsteps soft and quiet though they were, had caught his ear; the weary eyes opened, and fixed their gaze upon the child as she stood beside the bed. Slowly, very slowly, the little voice repeated the words,
“Car Dieu a tant aime le monde, gull a donne Son Fils unique, afin que quiconque croit en Lui, ne perisse point, mais qu’li ait la vie eternelle.” John 3:16.
(“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”). Then she turned away.
Strange that this little girl should have given that message to him; stranger still, he had heard those very words before. But where? His memory was clouded, he could not remember. These words were ever sounding in his ears. O! where had he heard them before? Strange, he could not help thinking of them. Then came days when the pain was easier, days of calm and quiet, and the mind before so clouded, was clear at last. Again, and yet again that vision seemed to come before him. It was, he thought, a little angel face that had appeared for such a brief moment, and the soft voice kept sounding in his ears the words he could not forget. It was a message to him—a message from God.
At last it came clearly before him he saw it all. The little village church, the old minister, and he, a boy sitting at his father’s side listening to the very words that had now been told to him again. He had not heeded them much then, but now he remembered the solemn question that the preacher put to the congregation years ago,
“If you were to die today, should you perish, or have everlasting life?”
Someone had placed a French Bible by his bedside, and in this he read that God is love; that Christ, his beloved Son, had come to die for sinners, that He would freely bestow forgiveness of sins on all who would come to Him, for He is saying, “Come unto Me.” This broke down the sailor’s heart, and he came to the Lord Jesus, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding entered his heart. The message that the little girl had brought to him, had not been in vain. The text of Scripture had done its work, the seed had fallen into good ground, and had borne fruit for God.
“He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:24.
ML 05/24/1925