One Sunday afternoon, as a very tall soldier was passing along a street, he was met by a little boy returning home from Sunday school. This little boy was a worker for the Lord Jesus, and he held some tracts in his hand, one of which he offered to the soldier, with the words,
“Please have a tract, sir.”
The soldier willingly took the tract, and after reading the title,
“Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” he began to say something to the little giver. But his voice sounded so deep and gruff that the little fellow was quite frightened, and took to his heels and ran off home.
Thoroughly amused, the tall soldier quickened his pace, and, keeping the boy in sight, saw him enter a house. Then he stepped up to the door hirnself and gave a rat-tat-tat. The door was soon opened by the father of the boy, and the soldier was invited to come inside.
Then an interesting talk took place about the tract and the little giver; and at the close the soldier was asked to come again and take tea.
On his second visit, the soldier’s manner was so gentle that his little friend was now not at all afraid of him, but sat on his knee and answered his questions about the Lord Jesus Christ. Almost the last one he asked was,
“Do you recollect the question which was on the tract you gave me?”
“Yes,” answered the little boy, “it was,
“Dost thou believe on the Son of God?”
“Well,” said the soldier, “I wanted to tell you that on the day you met me I did not believe; for I knew nothing of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But now (and as he spoke tears came up into the big man’s eyes), “now I do trust Him, and I have eternal life.”
Soon afterwards the regiment was ordered away, and he had to say good-bye to his little fellow-believer in Christ. But the little boy’s friends said, some time later that the converted soldier, through the power of Christ’s love, carried the gospel message wherever he went, pleading with his comrades to accept the Lord Jesus as their own Saviour Who had been so precious to Him.
ML 08/30/1942