IT WAS war-time and supplies for wounded soldiers were very much needed. Boxes were constantly arriving at Constantinople, and were speedily sent on to the crowded hospital at Scutari.
It is not surprising that one box, addressed to a missionary in Turkey, was left in the storehouse for months and months, since the war needs were so pressing that no one bothered about it.
At last, a curious Turk began to wonder what was in this box but he did not dare to open it. One day he saw a large rat scuttling away from the spot. “There must be something good in there,” he said to himself and so there was! When he stooped down, he found that the rat had gnawed a hole large enough for him to put his hand in. Very cautiously he reached in, and what do you think he drew out? A Turkish Bible!
He read the Book, and the more he read it, the more beautiful it seemed, for God taught him to receive the Word into his heart. Soon he thought it too good to keep to himself, so he lent it to a friend in the next town.
Gradually the box was emptied, and the precious Word of God was sent from village to village to be a light shining in many a dark place where perhaps no Christian had ever been. How these poor Turks must have wondered when they saw such words as these — “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” 1 John 4:1414And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. (1 John 4:14). It was a new thing to a poor Mohammedan to learn that God so loved sinners that He spared not His own Son, and that the Son of God loves them and gave Himself for them.
ML-05/02/1971