ONCE a boy named David, was given a long portion from the Book of Leviticus to learn to recite in the synagogue.
As he read and repeated to himself the many verses, he wondered why there was so much about sacrifices for sins, and about the blood “to make atonement.” One night he asked his father, who was a rabbi and leader of the Jewish people,
“Why do we not offer sacrifices when we sin?” His father told him that God had said their sacrifices must be made at Jerusalem, and they had no temple there now.
“How then can our sins be forgiven?” asked David,
“God is merciful, and if we repent and pray He will forgive us.”
“But was, not God always merciful; why did He say in those verses an offering must be brought for sin?”
His father then said he must not ask more, but go to bed. So David did not understand any better about the sacrifices, but he kept learning the verses, and on his thirteenth birthday repeated them very clearly at the synagogue and was praised by the teachers.
Soon after, he was alone in his father’s library, and noticed a small book which he had never seen before. He opened it, and read these words,
“Perhaps this book has the answer to my questions,” he said to himself. So he took it with him to his room, and beginning at the first page, was soon very interested in the story of the life of the Jesus.
But before he had read as much as he wanted to, his father missed the book and asked for it, so David brought it back, and was told never to take it again nor to read it. This was strange to David as the little book seemed a good book—you can guess what it was, The New Testament.
David did not forget the words he had read, and when later a man gave him a Testament, he gladly read more of the words of Jesus, and believed He was the Son of God. He was very happy to know that God forgave his sins because of the blood of Jesus and afterward helped many to learn of Christ, the true sacrifice for sin.
ML 11/14/1937