A STRANGE HARVEST. It is related that a Bible Colporteur in Spain one day entered the village of Montalborejo in Toledo province and offered his Bibles for sale. Among others he sold a large Bible intended for family use. The village priest heard of his presence, and ran to the colporteur. He tore the book out of the buyer's hand, and angrily exclaimed, "These books of the devil shall never enter my parish.'' He aroused the peo- ple, and especially the pious women, to anger, and they took up stones and cast them at the inoffensive man. Six weeks later, the colporteur was again on the road leading to the self- same village. Gladly would he have avoided it had be been able to find a roundabout way. Approaching the vil- lage at dusk, he hoped the inhabitants would fail to recognize him. To his as- tonishment the very first man he met at the city gate detained him with the question: "A re you not the man who sold the Bible?" ' ' Yes, I am the man.'' "Then welcome to our village; every one of us desires to purchase your book," was the amazing reply. In his utmost astonishment, the man inquired.- "A re you not the selfsame people who only a few weeks ago cast stones at me ?" "Most certainly," answered the man, " b u t a great change has come over us, so that each and every one de- sires one of your books." A merchant of the village had picked up one of the books in the market- place, concluding that the paper might be nsed. Accordingly leaf after leaf was torn out to serve as wrappers for salt, sugar, rice or other groceries, thus entering every hut in the village. Through this means, the people be- came acquainted with the gospel, and were burning to learn more of the won- drous message which had been con- veyed to them by the leaves of that Bible, which the priest thought he had destroyed beyond recall. The village ultimately became a center of religious activity.—Selected. The nearer I get to Christ and His cross, the more do I long for direct contact with the heathen. The one wish is to be entirely spent for Christ, working, consumed in His love.—Jas. Chalmers.
THE WORK OF THE WORD. " Do you see this Bible?" said the chief man of a village to a missionary. ' ' I was a rough blasphemer a few months ago; men trembled before me; boys Tan to hide when they saw me; no men dared to stand before me. To- day my arm is broken, my heart is wax; I am a little lamb; the children look upon me with wonder. That book has done it all." Another said: "Un t il a few weeks ago I used false weights and measures. I got a Bible from the hand of a boy in the street, and took it to my shop. Immediately there commenced a din which nearly drove me crazy; the con- troversy between the Bible and my false measures made my head ring. I seized the Bible and would have flung it out of the door, but with a loud voiee it spoke, saying: 'With me you drive God from you.' I could not do that. I destroyed my false measures, and im- mediately the uproar ceased, and now I sleep like a child, and my neighbors always see me happy." A Bible used at the first Protestant communion service held in an Armenian village had a most interesting history. It was secretly purchased at a high price from one who had com« by it dis- honestly. By night it was smuggled from house to house by a knot of eager searchers after the truth. In darkened rooms, in the solemn stillness of the night, with a covered light, they used to pour with growing courage and de- light over its life-giving pages. That volume became a light in the village and in the whole conntry-side, and sev- eral flourishing Protestant communities trace their origin to its wondrous power. " I should not like you, if meant by God to be a great missionary, to die a millionaire. I should not like, were you fitted to be a missionary, that yoa should drivel down and be a king. What are all kings, all your nobles, all your diadems, when you put them to- gether, compared with the dignity of winning souls for Christ?"—C. H. Spurgeon. The weakest believer is as precious to Christ, and as safe as the strongest. —Romaine.
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