Next morning after breakfast the young colporteur went out into the marketplace, carrying his bag. He walked quietly up to one group of men gathered round a donkey that was for sale.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” he said. “Let me read to you about our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“With great pleasure,” replied the men, and they turned away from the donkey.
The colporteur read how Jesus sent two of the disciples to fetch an ass and how He rode on it into Jerusalem. The story interested the men and one of them asked the price of the book.
“One halfpenny,” said the colporteur. “That is cheap. I will take it.”
But before he could get the money out of his pocket a voice shouted: “Bare, friends, this man is a rogue! His books are not fit to read!”
Then a tumult began. Some of the people took the colporteur’s part, but most of them were against him. “Down with the heretic!” they shouted. “Death to the blasphemer! Stone him!” Men and women left their wares and crowd around, yelling and threatening. Things began to look ugly.
Then in the nick of time a horseman came galloping across the marketplace and pushed his way into the mob. He was a tall, dark man with black, upturned mustaches and a black beard. He wore a big cloak, long boots, and spurs. Everybody in that village knew him — most of them were afraid of him.
“Hold!” he cried. “Let that man alone.”
“But, sir, he is trying to sell evil books. He deserves to be stoned.”
The brigand sat there on his horse in the middle of the crowd and talked. He told them what had happened the night before. “The books are good,” he concluded. “Let the man alone. Anyone who hurts him will have to deal with me! Years afterward the colporteur was surprised at receiving a letter from America. It read like this: “My dear friend, You remember the brigand who stopped you one night on the road? I am he, but a brigand no longer. I have never forgotten you nor the words you read to me. They were blessed to my own soul, and they saved me from an evil life, thank God!”
“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy word.”
“I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep Thy word.”
ML 11/08/1959