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THE INFIDEL'S SHEEP

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 9, 1879

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 53, No. 2.

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THE INFIDEL'S SHEEP.

Away among the hills of northern New England were two infidel neighbors who had lived to man's estate, sinning and blaspheming against God. One of them heard the gospel message, and on hearing believed unto eternal life. A short time afterward the converted man went to the house of his infidel neighbor, and said to him,—
“I have come to talk to you; I have been converted.”
“Yes, I heard that you had been down there and gone forward to be prayed for,” said the skeptic, with a sneer; “and I am surprised, for I thought you were about as sensible a man as there was in town.”
“Well,” said the Christian, “I have a duty to do to you, and I want you to stop talking and hear me. I have not slept much for two nights thinking of it. I have four sheep in my flock that belong to you. They came into my field six years ago, and I knew they had your mark on them, but I took them and marked them with my mark, and you inquired all around and could not hear anything of them. But they are in my field with the increase of them; and now I want to settle this matter. I have laid awake nights and groaned over it, and I have come to get rid of it. And now I am at your option. I will do just what you say. If it is a few years in State prison, I will suffer that. If it is money or property you want, say the word. I have a good farm and money at interest, and you can have all you ask. I want to settle this matter up and get rid of it.”
The infidel was amazed; he began to tremble.
“If you have got them sheep you are welcome to them. I don't want anything of you, if you will only go away; a man that will come to me as you have—something must have got hold of you that I don't understand. You may have the sheep if you will only go away.”
“Oh,” said the Christian, “I must settle this matter up now, and pay for the sheep. I shall not be satisfied without; and you must tell me how much.”
“Well,” said the skeptic, “if you must pay me, you may give me what the sheep were worth when they got into your field, and pay me six per cent on the amount, and go off and let me alone.”
The man counted out the value of the sheep and the interest on the amount, and then doubled the dose, and laid as much more down beside it, and went his way, leaving a load on his neighbor's heart almost as heavy as that which he himself had borne.
The full results of that scene are known only to God. One thing is certain, the infidel was seen to frequent the house of prayer, and we may be sure that he afterward believed that there was some power in the gospel, and that all Christians were not hypocrites.—Sunday Magazine.