Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-03-28
THE DIVIDED BIBLE.

"Take it and readf' said the voice
TO Augustine, as he lay in the garden
with a roll of the Gospels by his side.
He obeyed, and the dissipated skeptic
became Christian preacher.
The best way to acquire faith in the
Bible is to read it. The book is its own
evidence.
A few years ago, a Bible distributor,
while passing through avillage in West
ern Massachusetts, was told of family
in whose home there was not even the
cheapest copy of the Scriptures-so in
tense was the hostility of the husband to
Christianity.
The distributor started at once to Wis
1t the family, and found the wife hang
ing out her weeks washing. In the
course of a pleasant conversation, he
offered her a neatly-bound Bible.
With a smile which said Thank
you!" she held out her hand, but in
stantly withdrew it. She hesitated to
accept the gift, knowing that her hus-
band would be displeased if she took it,
A few pleasant words followed, in
which the man spoke of the need of the
mind of Divine direction, and of the
adaptation of the Bible to that need,
gift. Just then, her husband came from
behind the house with an AK on his
shoulder.
Seeing the Bible in his wifc's hand,
he looked threateningly at her, and then
said to the distributor: "What do you
want, sir, with my wife?'
The frank words of the Christian
man, spoken in a manly way, so far
softened his irritation that he replied to
him with civility. But stepping up to
his wife, he took the Bible from her
hand, saying:
1--WE have always had everything in
common, and we'll have this, too "
Placing the Bible OH the chopping-
block, he cut it in two parts with one
blow of the AK. Giving one part to his
wife. and putting the other in his pocket,
he walked away.
Several days after this division of the
Bible, he was in the forest chopping
wood. AT noon he seated himself on a
log and began eating his dinner. The
discovered Bible suggested itself. He
took 1T from his coat-pocket, and his eve
fell on the last page. He began read
ing, and soon was deeply interested in
the story of the Prodigal Son. But his
part ended with the sons exclamation
. will arise and 90 to my father"
AT night he said to his wife, with af-
fected carelessness: LET me have YOUR
part of that Bible. I've been reading
about boy who ran away from home,
and after having hard me decided to
60 back. There my part of The book
ends, and l want to know if he ever
got back, and how the old man received
him."
The wife's heart beat violently, but
she mastered her JOY and quietly hand
ed the husband her part, without word.
He read the story through, and then
re-read it. He read on, far into the
night. Bot not a word did he say to
his wife.
During the leisure moments of the
next day, his wife saw him reading the
now-;oined parts, and at night he said.
abruptly:
Wife! | thiLk that's the best book
ever read"
Day after day he read it, His wife
noticed his few words, which indicated
that he was becoming attached to it,
One day he said:
''Wife. I'm going TO try and live by
that book: i guess it's the best sort of a
guide for man.
And he did. A strong prejudice
against religious truth, growing out oe
partial conviction of its necessity, is
often followed by changed life, and
such was this mans experience
Youth's Companion.