A Doer and a Hearer

One day a young Christian came into a mission station in Korea to visit the man who had been instrumental in his conversion to Christ. After the customary greetings, the missionary asked the reason for his coming. “I have been memorizing some verses in the Bible,” he said, “and I want to quote them to you.” He had walked hundreds of miles just to recite some Scripture verses to his father in the faith.

The missionary listened as he recited without error the entire Sermon on the Mount. He commended the young man for his remarkable feat of memory, then cautioned that he must not only “say” the Scriptures but also practice them. With glowing face, the man responded, “Oh, that is the way I learned them. I tried to memorize them but they wouldn’t stick, so I hit on this plan. First, I would learn a verse. Then I would practice what the verse said on a neighbor who was not a Christian. After that I found I could remember it.”