The effect which the Word of God sometimes has is illustrated in the following incident related of Robert Moffat, missionary in Africa:
In the large kitchen, where the service was to be held, stood a long table, at the head of which sat the Boer, with his wife and six grown children. A large Bible lay on the table, and underneath it half a dozen dogs. The Boer pointed to the Bible as the signal for Mr. Moffat to begin. But, after vainly waiting for others to come in, he asked how soon the working people were to be called. “Work-people?” impatiently cried the farmer; “you don’t mean the Hottentots—the blacks! You are not waiting for them, surely, or expecting to preach to them; you might as well preach to those dogs under that table!” A second time, and more angrily, he spoke, repeating the offensive comparison.
Young as Mr. Moffat was, he was disconcerted only for a moment. Lifting his heart to God for guidance, the thought came into his mind to take a text suggested by the rude remarks of the Boer. So he opened the Bible to the fifteenth of Matthew and twenty-seventh verse: “Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” Pausing a moment, he slowly repeated these words with his eyes steadily fixt on the face of the Boer; and again pausing, a third time recited the appropriate words. Angrily the Boer cried out, “Well, well, bring them in.” A crowd of blacks then thronged the kitchen, and Moffat preached to them all the blessed Word of God.—Pierson, “The Miracles of Missions.”
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The following incident shows how an apparently chance occurrence may bring conviction through the word of Scripture:
While in the St. Louis jail, Burke had obtained a copy of a city paper which published a sermon by Mr. Moody, then preaching in St. Louis. This paper announced the topic of Mr. Moody’s sermon in a sensational headline, “How the Jailer at Philippi was Caught.” Burke thought the reference was to the town of Philippi in Illinois, a place of which he knew; and he began to read what he supposed to be jail news. He became interested as he read on. Nine times in the sermon he came upon the text, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” It imprest him so deeply that in the cell that night for the first time Burke prayed. Soon after he believed, and was assured of salvation. The jailer thought Burke was playing the “pious dodge,” and only suspected him the more. When the case came to trial, however, he escaped conviction, and was released. For some months the ex-convict could find no one so to trust him as to give him steady work. He finally was given a position under the sheriff of the county, made the collector of the office, and until he died some time afterward, Burke never disappointed the confidence reposed in him.—H. C. Mabie, “Methods in Evangelism.”
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Texts—See [Fitness].
Thankfulness—See [Unselfishness].