A CERTAIN clergyman was in the habit of purposely not taking his Bible with him when he visited his parishioners, his object being to find out what place it had in their households.
He would say, “Mrs. — I should like to read a chapter of God’s Word with you before I go, but I have left my Bible at home. Will you lend me yours?”
Then would often follow some such scene as this. Mrs.―, much embarrassed, would tell her daughter to go and find a Bible.
The Vicar would hear sounds of rummaging and running about in the adjoining room, and after a time the daughter would reappear.
“Mother, I can’t find it anywhere. I never remember having seen it. Where is it?”
And the Vicar would catch the mother’s whisper, “I think it is on the top shelf in the kitchen. You must get the steps, and mind you dust it well before you bring it in.”
Alas! how many a Bible is kept on the “top shelf,” whilst its owner lives his life without knowing of the salvation God is offering him through its life-giving pages, and that without knowing that his acceptance of that salvation is what alone stands between him and a lost eternity!
That Bible lying on the “top shelf” would show such their danger as unforgiven sinners before God, but it would also tell how “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)), and that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)), and that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth “from, all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)).
That Bible would show him that Christ had died, and shed His blood on Calvary’s Cross to atone to God for sin, and that, in virtue of this, God offers full forgiveness, if only the sinner comes as repentant, and turns to Him in simple faith.
But who is to blame if the owner of a “top shelf” Bible fails to read it, and knows not of the tremendous issues for eternity, which hang on his acceptance or rejection of the forgiveness God offers?
F. A.