Robert Moffat, the great missionary to Africa, once told this story: He said that a woman came to him after having walker fifteen miles and said that she wished for a New Testament. Mr. Moffat said to her, “My good woman. There is not a copy to be had.
“What!” exclaimed the woman, “Must I return empty-handed?” “I fear you must,” said Mr. Moffat.
“Oh,” she said, “I borrowed a copy once, but the owner came and took it away, and now I sit with my family, sorrowful, because we have no Book to talk to us. Now we are far from anyone else. We are living at a cattle outpost with no one to teach us but the Book. Oh, go try to find a Book! Oh my brother, do go and try to find a Book for me! Surely there is one to be found. Do not let me go back empty.”
Mr. Moffat felt so deeply for her; for she spoke so earnestly, and he said, “Wait a little, and I will see what I can do.” Mr. Moffat searched here and there and at last found a copy and brought it to the good woman. Mr. Moffat, as he told the story, said, “Oh, if you could have seen how here eyes brightened, how she clasped my hands and kissed them over and over again. Away she went with the Book, rejoicing with a heart overflowing with gratitude.
We need a greater love for God’s Word! “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” Proverbs 4:20-22