TWO HUNDRED LIVES

A few years before the war, a humble villager in eastern Poland received a Bible from a colporteur who visited his small hamlet. He read it, was converted, and passed the book on to others. Through that one Bible two hundred more became believers. When the colporteur, Michael Billester, revisited the town in the summer of 1940, the group gathered to worship and listen to his preaching. Billester suggested that instead of giving the customary testimonies they all recite verses of Scripture. Thereupon a man arose and asked, "Perhaps we have misunderstood. Did you mean verses or chapters?" "Do you mean to say there are people here who can recite chapters of the Bible?" asked Mr. Billester in astonishment. That was precisely the case. Those villagers had memorized, not only chapters, but whole books of the Bible. Thirteen knew Matthew and Luke and half of Genesis. One had committed all the Psalms to memory. Together, the two hundred knew virtually the entire Bible. Passed around from family to family and brought to the gathering on Sundays, the old Book had become so worn with use that its pages were hardly legible. - Sunday School Times