The Bible was once compared to a great tree, with its books as
branches, its chapters as twigs, and the verses as leaves. A
minister, addressing a Sunday-school gathering, announced his
text as “on the 39th branch, the 3d twig, and the 17th leaf.” He
said to his great audience, “Try to find my text.” A little lad
who was in the pulpit, owing to the crowded state of the church,
answered “Malachi, third chapter, and seventeenth verse.” The
minister said, “Right, my boy; take my place and read it out.”
It so happened the boy’s brother had died recently, and the
sight of the little curly-headed lad, only eleven years old,
with his little black gloves reading in silvery tones, “And they
shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make
up my jewels,” brought tears to many eyes. The minister laid his
hand on the boy and said, “Well done; I hope one day you will
be a minister.” The lad was Henry Drummond, afterward the loved
teacher of thousands in America and Great Britain. (Text.)
(849)
See RELIGION, EARLY.