The Power of God's Word

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 9, 1906

The Power of God's Word

THE Rev. Dr. Henry Otis Dwight, of the American Bible Society, relates this personal experience which shows that God's Word alone is mightily powerful to convince and convert the soul. He says:—

“I once knew intimately an educated Mohammedan Kurd who believed in Jesus Christ, who earnestly worked for him among Mohammedans, and who died in childlike trust that he would live again with his Lord. This Kurd had his attention called to Christianity while he was studying astronomy in Persia. It was about thirty years ago. The teacher was a fire-worshiper, eminent in all the region as a student of the stars, and master of the old Ptolemaic theories. His beautiful diagrams drawn by hand to illustrate the Ptolemaic astronomy I have in my library. One day the Kurd urged his teacher to break through his pagan blindness and try to see the truth as taught by Mohammed. ‘You call me a pagan,’ said the Parsee with a sad smile, ‘you Mohammedans are the real pagans, for you all worship that black stone down at Mecca. But now that you ask it, let me show you what religion is.’ Then the Parsee took down from a high shelf a ponderous volume. It was Henry Martyn’s Persian translation of the Bible. Opening it, the fire-worshiper, hidden in that distant Persian city and never known by any Christian missionary, taught the Mohammedan what is pure religion. He taught to such effect that the Kurd could not throw off the impression, but followed his strange teacher’s advice and sought out the American missionaries, first at Urumia and afterward at Mosul, and so found the way to believe in Jesus.”—Exchange.