The Wonderful Book

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 18, 1912

The Wonderful Book

From time to time we see reports of the wonderful work that has been accomplished by the Bible alone in localities where no human preacher had ever been heard. One of our exchanges has the following interesting account of such a work:—

Last December a colporteur of the American Bible Society in Brazil was summoned to a remote interior district. On arriving, he found a village which had never had a missionary, but had adopted the Bible as its guide. Three years earlier a political refugee, named Manoel Bispo, wandering on the frontiers of the state of Sao Paulo, heard the people speak of the Word of God to men, a few copies of which had been scattered through that section by the Bible society’s agents. Later, while hiding in the woods, in great loneliness and distress, his thought returned to what he had heard, and he determined to secure for himself a copy of the wonderful Book. This required a journey of a thousand miles to Rio de Janeiro and back. On his return to his home he read the Bible, by himself and to those of his neighbors who would listen, and the Spirit honored the Word by giving it a hold upon reader and hearers. A church has been organized from those whose hearts have been changed by its influence.

This victory of the Word unaided in a land of darkness demonstrates anew its power over the hearts of men to purify and uplift. Where it has free course, superstition and heathenism must give way. Where it is hidden away from the people or denied them, idolatry, superstition, darkness, and misery flourish.