The White Stone by J. B. Thompson

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 28, 1873

The White Stone.

By J. B. Thompson

A ROUND pebble lay by the roadside on the bank of a running brook. A little girl washed it in the brook and it was white as the driven snow. Awhile she looked upon its beauty, and admired it in her play, and then left it where she found it. The next day it was again all covered with dust and dirt from the passing wheels. Again she washed it, and again it was white and beautiful as before. Again she left it on the bank by the roadside. The next day again it was polluted and defiled. The third time she washed it, and enjoyed its beauty in her play. But this time she left it lying in the running brook. Wheel after wheel passed by as before. The dust flew thick as ever, but the sweeping water carried it all away as it fell, and the white pebble remained white, and clear and beautiful as when first washed. And day after day as the little girl came, she rejoiced in its beauty which was never tarnished, being always washed in the flowing stream.

Faith takes the heart to Jesus, time after time, day after day, and its pollutions are washed away in the flowing fountain of the water of life. But faith takes back the heart into the busy highways of life, and leaves it there to contract defilement, to be washed off again when faith finds opportunity to put it into the stream. Suppose faith should leave our purified heart in the flowing stream?—J. B. Thompson, D. D.