A Christian hiker one day stopped at a cottage to ask for a drink of water. Coming to the open door he found the parents cursing and quarreling, and the children crouched in a corner, trembling. Wherever he looked he saw only marks of despair and poverty. Greeting them, he asked, "Why do you make your home so miserable?"
"Well," the man answered, "you don't know the life and trials of a poor man when everything goes wrong, no matter what he does."
The stranger drank the water they gave him, and, noticing a Bible in a dark and dusty corner, he said: "There is a treasure here in your house. I know it would help you. Search for it."
And so he left them.
At first they thought he was joking, but then they began to consider it seriously. When the woman went out, the man began to search and even dig that he might find the treasure. When the man went away, the woman did the same. Still they found nothing, while increasing poverty brought only more quarrels, discontent, and strife.
One day, as the woman was alone, she was thinking about the stranger's words when her eyes fell on the old Bible. It had been a gift from her mother but since her death it had been unused. A strange conviction seized her mind―this was what the stranger meant!
She took it from the shelf, opened it, and found a verse written on the title page in her mother's handwriting: "The law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver." Psalm 119:7272The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. (Psalm 119:72). It went straight to her heart.
"Ah!" she thought, "this is the treasure, then, that we have been seeking." From that time, without her husband's knowledge, she read the Bible daily and prayed and taught the children to pray.
One day he came home quarreling as usual and in a rage. Instead of meeting his angry words with angry replies, she spoke to him gently and kindly. "Husband," she said, "we have sinned greatly. We have ourselves to blame for all our misery."
He looked amazed. "What did you say?" he exclaimed.
She brought the old Bible and, with tears, said: "There is the treasure. See, I have found it."
The husband's heart was moved. She read to him of the Lord Jesus and His love. The next day she read again and each day she continued reading to them all. She, her husband, and her children drank in the blessed Word of God, and the change was wonderful to see.
A year later the stranger returned that way. Seeing the cottage, he remembered his previous visit and decided to call again. He entered the gate but could scarcely recognize the place; it was so clean and neat.
At the door he at first thought he was mistaken, for the man and his wife greeted him so kindly. The peace of God beamed in their faces. "How are you?" he asked. Then they recognized the stranger, and for a moment they could not speak.
"Thanks, thanks, dear sir; we have found the treasure," they cried out at last. "Now the blessing of the Lord is in our home and His peace is in our hearts."
It was indeed a transformed home the stranger entered. They had found that precious treasure, the Word of God, and as they searched through it they found that supremely glorious treasure, the Lord Jesus, and had received that Savior as their own. They learned, too, that sin had caused their misery and wretchedness, but that God "hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Are your sins gone? The Lord Jesus Christ, God's well-beloved Son, has taken the guilty sinner's place and was condemned in our stead, for "Christ died for the ungodly." Admit that you are ungodly and accept the Savior who died that you might live.