The Book will Tell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 29, 1864

The Book will Tell.

A YOUNG man had traveled two thousand miles to recover his brother, a sick soldier, but arrived to learn that he had been discharged from the service of his country, three weeks before by the hand of death. Wishing to secure as keepsakes the few effects of his deceased brother, he visited the camp where the regiment was stationed. A fellow-soldier conducted us to a tent that was only large enough to contain two bunks and a small table. Beneath one of the bunks were two or three soiled and dusty knapsacks. The weeping brother proceeded to open one of these, and began the examination of its contents. Every little article of soldier's wardrobe was scrutinized as well as blinding tear-drops would permit. He thinks he recognizes sundry articles as the property of the deceased one. At the bottom of the knapsack lay a Bible. The thought uppermost in our minds at this discovery was instantly ejaculated by our attendant, in these words, "The book will tell." The trembling hands of the bereaved brother grasped the Bible and, unclasping it, we read, "Presented to ——, by his brother, ——, N. Y., ——, 1862." Yes, these were truly the effects of the deceased one. The words, "The book will tell," uttered indifferently by one accustomed to such scenes, struck a chord which has often since vibrated with peculiar emotion in our breast.

Yes, the Bible, the book of all books, the "book of life," will tell the name and the fate of many a brother dying away from home. More than this; its perusal will influence the destiny of such, and when, according to the prophecy it contains, the Archangel's voice shall wake the caverns of earth and sea, in search of those who shall have part in the first resurrection, many a one shall be found responding to its life-giving energies whose name was first written by the fingers of affection in some keepsake Bible, the true prototype of the Book of Life.—Home Evangelist.