A little boy who regularly attended a Christian Sunday school in Africa was very anxious about his soul. One Lord's Day afternoon he took home by mistake a Sunday school hymn book. One or two of the other boys seeing him with it accused him of stealing it.
To be called a thief was a sore trouble to the poor boy. He was in tears when he reached home, and he poured out his grief to his mother. She told him to take the book to his teacher and apologize for the mistake.
The boy's teacher longed to see the lad rejoicing in Christ Jesus. Sympathetically, she said: "Never mind, Fred. You learn this hymn, and say it to me before all the boys next Sunday." She pointed out a certain hymn in the book. "When you say that, they will see that you have at least made good use of the book."
Studying hard, Fred learned the little song. All that week his mother could not help noticing that all the clouds had left his face. One night she said to him: "Well, Fred, what has come in to make such a difference with you?"
With tears of joy on his upturned face, and without any other comment, he answered in the words of the hymn he had been learning: Precious, precious blood of Jesus, Shed on Calvary; Shed for rebels, shed for sinners, SHED FOR ME!
He nodded his head significantly as he repeated the last two lines.
Thus was Fred truly brought into God's secret as to how a guilty conscience can be set at rest, a troubled heart find joy and peace. God's testimony to the blood had done it.