SAMBO was a big, black man who was soldiering in France, far from his native land. One day he was standing at the door of a shed, looking out on the bleak, unhappy countryside. It was bitterly cold, and Sambo took on almost a bluish tinge, so keenly did he suffer from the weather of that winter afternoon. Now, as he looked, the expression on his face changed. His eyes and mouth were each like a big, round O, so widely were they opened as he saw big, white flakes falling to the earth.
“What’s the matter, Sam?” asked a British soldier who was standing near.
“Ooo! white rain!” Sambo answered, in a hushed voice.
“O, it’s the snow you are watching. Have you never seen snow before?”
“Never, sar, we have no snow in my country.”
Then, as the snow began to fall more thickly, Sambo ventured out, and soon his delight knew no bounds as the fleecy flakes fell upon him and the countryside became beautiful with a coating of pure, white snow. The soldier, who was a Christian, watched Sambo enjoying himself some time, and then he asked:
“Can you tell me anything that is whiter than snow, Sam?”
“Yes, sar,” the other answered, in a serious tone; “the soul that is washed in my Saviour’s blood is whiter than this beautiful snow.”
“Why, Sam,” came the response, in pleased tones, “where did you hear about that?”
“‘Way in my country, mission’ry learn me to love Jesus, and we often sing in meeting, ‘Whiter than the snow.’ See my hands, big black hands. That just like my big black sins. Now look!”
Sam bent down, and when he rose again his hands were completely covered with snow.
“O! the grandness of it! Black sins all gone, never to be remembered anymore, All is pure and white like his beautiful snow.” And there and then the two men, the black and the white, shook hands as brothers in Christ Jesus. They had both learned the great lesson that, no matter what the color of the skin may be, the only thing that can make white the black heart of any one is the precious blood of Jesus.
Have you, found this out for yourself, dear reader? God’s Word tells us:
ML 01/24/1937