Alfred Bell, when the excitement was at its height, did not escape the contagion, and though not nineteen years old, nothing would do but he must leave a pleasant home, and a kind mother, and a little sister, and go to dig for gold in the newly-found State.
After three years he returned, when his mother and sister greeted him with warm embraces.
“I have something pretty for you in my trunk, Minnie,” he said to his little sister. “You see I have but little baggage; that one small trunk has been with me through sunshine and storm.”
“Let me unpack it, please,” said Minnie; “I will be very careful, and not tumble any of your nice clothes;” and, taking the key from Alfred’s hand, she proceeded to take out carefully one article after another, and then put them on one side, until she came to the bottom of the trunk. She paused a moment, and, seeming to distrust herself, she put her hand first upon one article, then upon another; then looking up earnestly in her brother’s face while she still sat upon the floor beside his unpacked things, she said: “Where is your Bible, brother?”
“I have none,” he said quickly.
“No Bible, Alfred?” said Minnie, as she rose, and put her hand upon his arm, “No Bible, brother?”
“No, Minnie,” he said, a little impatient at her questions. “I left all my books, they took up too much room.”
“And have you had no Bible for three whole years, brother?”
“No, Minnie,” he answered.
“Whose did you read at night, then, brother?”
“I did not read anybody’s. Come, don’t bother me now. Let us find that pretty, fine dress I have for you.”
“No, stop brother. Have you not read the Bible for three whole years?”
“No, Minnie, I have not; and I don’t know that I have ever seen one since I have been away.”
Minnie stood and looked at him in utter astonishment, while the tears poured down her cheeks. At length she said in a low earnest voice,
“O brother! were you not afraid that God would forget you?”
What an appeal to the brother’s heart! He took the little Minnie in his arms, and kissing her, he said,
“I am almost afraid I have been forgetting God, Minnie.”
The earnest pleading of the little Minnie touched Alfred’s heart. That night he opened the sacred volume, and read aloud from its pages.
“Pray for me, mother, for I have wandered far from God; I fear He may forget me.”
Night after night the earnest prayer ascended to the throne of grace. The brother was reclaimed from his wanderings, and now lives to be a blessing, to his home, a Christian man, fearing God, and walking in His ways.
“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” Matt 11:28.
ML 07/12/1936