John Moulton was a merchant in a small New England village. He was considered to be an honest man, especially when he was obliged to be, but he was an avowed atheist. He despised the Word of God, Christians and Christianity. He would secretly open his store on Sunday for a godless, reckless set among the villagers, who met therein behind the closed shutters to drink, smoke and play cards. Consequently, it was not surprising when his father died and left him, among other things, a handsome Family Bible, that he should at once declare his intention of using it for wrapping paper (Prov. 13:1313Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded. (Proverbs 13:13)).
“In the first place,” said he, “Father made a fool of himself in buying that old Bible, and in the second place in giving it to me. It has never been read―none of any consequence―and it isn’t of any account now surely in a literary or a religious way, I couldn’t sell it for more than a dollar, if I should try; but it will bring me in much more than that, if I retail it out by the ounce and pound. Its thick heavy paper is just the thing to weigh up for small and costly parcels”
“I don’t believe I should dare to use the old Family Bible in that way, John,” said his wife. “It seems, somehow, as if it would be wicked. Besides, it would make talk among the go-to-meeting folks, and some of them are your customers, you know.”
“Let the soft-headed hypocrites mind their own business,” snapped John Moulton. “Mine is the only store in these parts, and they’ve got to trade with me”; and this open reviler of God’s Word stripped off the handsome cover from the old family keepsake, and putting the mass of heavy leaves under his arm, strode across the street to the store.
It did indeed make talk in every house in town, when small parcels from John Moulton’s store were brought home wrapped with the awful utterances of Jehovah and the inspired words of Moses and the prophets (Luke 24:27-4127And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. 28And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. 29But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. 30And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. 31And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. 32And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? 33And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, 34Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. 35And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. 36And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 37But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. 38And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? 39Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. 40And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? (Luke 24:27‑41)).
John Moulton, however, was studiously left alone so far as any controversy with words was concerned, until one evening a godly old farmer from the outskirts of the town came into the store to get an ounce of nutmegs. The storekeeper had placed a leaf from the old Bible in the scales, and, having weighed out the nutmegs, was proceeding to do them up, when the farmer called out in an abrupt manner characteristic of him, “No, no, Mr. Moulton, no, no. Don’t use that to wrap up anything I buy here. That won’t do at all for my nutmegs.”
“I have nothing else handy,” replied the storekeeper, with a contemptuous and a coarse jest.
“Hand them right over to me, then; I’ll put them loose in my packet,” and suiting the action to the word, with a grieved and sorrowful look towards the storekeeper and the torn Bible lying on the counter, he turned towards the door. He had proceeded but a few steps, when John Moulton, standing with the rejected leaf in his hand, and exchanging sly glances with a few of his cronies who were in the store, called after him, “A good many of our brethren and sisters in this vicinity, sir, have their parcels done up in that kind of paper, and you are the first person who has ever objected to it.” And folding the leaf, he put it carefully into his pocket.
After every customer had left the store for the night and John Moulton had finished posting his books, he found that folded leaf in his pocket; and smoothing it out very carefully upon his desk, he read it over slowly and attentively. The leaf contained the last chapter of the Book of Daniel. The hardened infidel read it over again and again, and his lifelong willful ignorance of God’s Word made it all the more puzzling to him. The last verse in particular arrested him: “But go thou thy way till the end be; for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days” (Dan. 12:1313But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. (Daniel 12:13)).
He read these words over and over until he seemed to feel them like coals burning into his heart. He sat at his desk with bowed head, pondering upon them, until his wife became alarmed and crossed the street to the store to see what had detained him. He heard her rap gently at the locked door, and, opening it, let her in. Pointing to that last verse, the letters of which now seemed to stand out from the crumpled page, he asked her, with trembling voice and blanched face, “What shall my lot be at the end of the days?”
“Alas, John, that you should ask me such a question, and that I should be utterly unable to help you,” she replied, bending in turn over the leaf. “This verse has marginal references to Isaiah and Psalms and to Revelation; let us look them up,” and she turned to the coverless mutilated old Bible. He knows nothing, and she very little of the order of the books, but after considerable search, they found Isaiah and Psalms were missing. Presently they came to the Revelation, and eagerly read the verse referred to: “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them” (Rev. 14:1313And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them. (Revelation 14:13)).
“I do not know,” said the wife beginning to weep, “but I do believe this is God’s Holy Word, and in what there is left of it, we can learn the way of life” (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)).
“We will earnestly study this Bible to find the way to live, so we may be ready to die.” And carefully placing the remnants of the soiled, torn Book in a basket, he took it home.
He carried out his purpose. The precious Bible was studied, first the old, torn one, then a new copy, until the way of life was found; and his wife gladly joined him in the new sweet exercise of prayer, praise, and study of the Word of God, they now knew it to be. And so that old Family Bible accomplished its mission, and all that was left of it, up to the time of the protest of the stranger customer, lies on John Moulton’s table.