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A stray leaf |
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A GREAT
fire blazed merrily in the praça of
the little town of |
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The
watching crowd did not quite approve of the proceedings, whilst the children
chased and frolicked with the fragments that the wind ever and anon whisked
out of the burning mass. Only a few days before, there had come to their town
a young man with winning speech and a wonderful story; and he had persuaded
many of them to buy these books which, according to him, contained the very
words of Christ, and told them how they might be saved. |
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The priest,
however, had terrified them all by denouncing as false, wicked, and dangerous
the books which they had bought, and had ordered them to deliver them up,
under threat of dire penalties for disobedience. This they had reluctantly
done; and there they stood watching their purchases go up in smoke. |
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What they
had read of the book had not seemed very dreadful, but the priest assured
them that it was so: and, as they listened to his bitter denunciations, some
of them felt that they had only narrowly escaped. |
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One by one
the Bibles, Testaments and portions – for such they were – were torn from
their covers and cast to the flames; and the breeze fanned the glowing mass
to such an extent that the crowd was glad to fall back from the heat. A gust
whirled through the spreading crowd as a fresh handful of leaves was cast,
with a malediction, to the fire which seized them greedily – all save one
which, scorched and crinkled, was tossed aloft by the wind and whirled away
over the heads of the crowd, and above the house-tops, till on the outskirts
of the village it fluttered down into a quiet street, where a final puff of
the sportive breeze sent it floating in at the open window of Dona Maria’s
little cottage. |
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She was a
good soul and devout; and as she read the fragment that had come to her in so
remarkable a way, her heart was strangely moved within her. She showed the
scorched leaf from the unknown book to her husband when he returned in the
evening, and he, too, was deeply interested. But entirely ignorant of its
source, he gave it again to his wife, saying: “Keep it, for it must belong to
a very religious book, and some day we may find the rest of the story.” |
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A year
passed away, and the village was visited again by the colporteur. This time
he came to the street where Dona Maria lived, and knocking at the door
offered a book for sale, at the same time explaining its nature. “Oh,” she
exclaimed, “are you selling books? Perhaps you can tell me about this” – and
she hurried off and brought her treasured leaf. “This seems to belong to a
very religious book, and we should like to get the rest of the story. Do you
know it?” “Why, Senhora,” said the colporteur, as he recognized the familiar
page, “that belongs to this book that I am offering you; see, here it is.”
And he turned rapidly to the New Testament and showed her the precious leaf
in its proper place. And where, think you, had that stray leaf come from? It
was the leaf containing the third chapter of St. John’s Gospel, and she and
her husband had been reading of Christ and Nicodemus, and of how “God so
loved the world.” No wonder they wanted to hear “the rest of the story”! |
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Gladly she
bought the Testament, and when her husband returned she hailed him joyfully with
the news that she had found the book from which their leaf had come; and
together they sat down to read more of that wondrous story. Earnestly and
devoutly they pored over the sacred pages until the light of the Gospel
shined into their hungry hearts, and they found peace and salvation in Jesus
Christ. One by one the whole family came to know God through the reading of
the Word, and a centre of Gospel light and testimony grew up in that town
through the very action of the ignorant and fanatical priest who thought to
destroy the good seed of the Gospel, but only succeeded in effectually
planting it in one home at least, thereby bringing joy, gladness, and
salvation to many hungry hearts. |
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From:
Anon. True Stories Re-told. |