The Smiling Child

    In London, in 1872, one Sunday morning a minister said to me, "I want you to notice that family there in one of the front seats, and when we go home I want to tell you their story." When we got home I asked him for the story, and he said, "All that family were won by a smile." "Why," said I, "how's that?" "Well," said he, "as I was walking down a street one day, I saw a child at a window; it smiled, and I smiled, and we bowed. So it was the second time; I bowed, she bowed. It was not long before there was another child, and I had got in a habit of looking and bowing, and pretty soon the group grew, and at last, as I went by, a lady was with them. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to bow to her, but I knew the children expected it, and so I bowed to them all. And the mother saw I was a minister, because I carried a Bible every Sunday morning. So the children followed me the next Sunday, and found I was a minister. And they thought I was the greatest preacher, and their parents must hear me. A minister who is kind to a child, and gives him a pat on the head, why the children will think he is the greatest preacher in the world. Kindness goes a long way. And to make a long story short, the father and mother and five children were converted, and they are going to join our church next Sunday."