July 16

Faithful witnessing rewarded

“Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life”(Acts 5:20).
“Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord” (2 Tim. 1:8).

Some years ago, during a revival meeting, a very timid lady felt moved to go and speak to a couple of young men whom she saw in the back part of the church. It was a great cross to her to do it, but in the Name of Him Who had worn the crown of thorns for her, she arose and started. When she came to them, and began to talk about Jesus, they burst out laughing in her face. Utterly crushed and humiliated to the lowest degree, she went back to her seat and sat down in sorrow. She felt that her mission had failed, and almost resolved that she would never again speak to anybody about salvation. It happened that those two young men were roommates. In the small hours of the night, one of them heard the other sobbing.


“What’s the matter, Ed.? Are you sick?” he asked.
“No, but I despise myself for the way I insulted that dear old lady. It was a dreadful hard thing for her to come to us as she did, but she wanted to do us good, and to think that I was mean enough to laugh in her face makes me hate myself. I never would have believed that I could have been so mean. If anybody should insult my mother in that way I would thrash him if it was the last thing I ever did.”
“That’s just my case exactly,” responded the first speaker. “My heart looks blacker to me than it ever did before. I wish I were a Christian.”
It wasn’t long until those boys crawled out of bed and began to hold a prayer-meeting. The result was that they were both converted before morning, and they have remained that way ever since. They have both been valiant workers for God from that day to this, and have done great good in His service. The timid little woman who was laughed at that evening for Christ’s sake, was made almost too happy to live the next day when the joyful tidings came to her.

“If they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings” (Jer. 23:22).

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