Twilight And Dawn | Page 4

nearly twelve,
but I am quite sure that if you are younger than any of my elder
children, you will be able to understand some of the lessons which we
had from the Bible every morning.
Before the holidays we had been reading in the New Testament, and
had finished the Acts of the Apostles; and it was settled that when they
came back to school we should read some of the Old Testament, and
begin at the beginning. The children remembered this, and were just
going to open their Bibles and find the first chapter of Genesis, when I
said that I should like to ask them one question before a word was read.
I should like you, too, to think about it, and try to give an answer; for
my question--
Why is the Bible different from any other book?
concerns you as well as the children of whom I asked it.
They all said at once that the Bible is different from every other book in
the world because it is God's Book. Yes, that is the great difference; the
Bible is God's own Book, in which He has spoken to us His own words,
and it is the only Book in the world which tells us all the truth.
How wonderful it is to think of this, that every child who can read, and
has a little Bible of his own, can learn what God has said!
Will you try to remember when you open that beautiful Bible, which
was given you on your birthday, that there God is speaking--speaking
to you just as much as if you were the only person in the world?
If you think of this it will make you very still and quiet, that you may
hear what He says to you.
When we say that God has spoken to us, we mean that long ago He told
those holy men whom He allowed to write His Book exactly how He
would have them write. When you read in your Bible, you do not read
what Moses and David wrote out of their own minds. God gave them
His words to write for Him, so that we might know for certain, not
what they thought God meant them to say, but what He really did say.
Do you understand this?
Perhaps not quite; so I will tell you a story to make it plainer.
I know a boy who is very fond of running errands, and a very useful
boy he is. If I give him a message he is off like a shot, and back again
with the answer almost before I know that he has gone. So willing and

quick a messenger is Willie, that it is a pleasure to send him anywhere.
But there is just one thing that has sometimes hindered him from being
a really good messenger. Can you guess what it is? You will soon find
out if you remember that, besides being willing and quick, a messenger
must deliver the exact message entrusted to him. He must give it just as
it was given to him if he would deliver it faithfully.
Now Willie prefers to give his messages in his own way, and so,
although he is willing and quick, he cannot always be relied on as a
faithful messenger.
One day, when his mother said "Willie, run to the nursery and give
Nurse a message for me," the little boy hardly waited to hear what the
message was, but ran upstairs as fast as his feet could carry him. Very
quickly back he came and went on with his play--I think he was just
then building a fine house with wooden bricks. Now, as the message
was an important one, his mother wished to be quite sure that it had
been correctly delivered; so presently she said, "What did Willie say to
Nurse?"
"The right thing," said he, going on with his building, quite
unconscious that this was not enough for his mother, who must know
exactly what Willie had told Nurse, or go upstairs to see whether she
was doing what she had desired her to do.
You understand now, I am sure, that we could not be quite certain that
we had God's message--and the Bible is a message or letter from God
to us--we could not be sure that we had it right, if we did not know that
He had given it to us in His own way and in His own words.
So, then, our question is answered. The Bible is different from any
other book because it is God's Book, in which He speaks to us. Now I
am going to ask you one more question.
If it is God who is speaking, and if He speaks