The Old Man’s Love for the New Testament
AN old man died in Japan last year who had been the first to be baptized in his native town, years ago. He was over seventy years of age at the time of his death, which for a Japanese is very old. The missionary had felt that the old man did not take much of the gospel into his head and heart, as he said very little about it. But just before his death, he learned that he had been greatly mistaken. The missionary thus describes his discovery: “Since the day of his baptism he had never been known to be separated from his New Testament, neither by day nor by night. By day he carried it in his bosom, and by night placed it under his pillow. When I visited him, it was still by him, being placed at his head, and his simple life had been the living of this Word. Would to God we all had the faith of that old man, and the like love for our Father’s Holy Word.”