The story of Mary Jones and her Bible
This is a story that will be very familiar to a lot of you, indeed I believe it has previously appeared in this newsletter.
In 1784 a little girl called Mary Jones was born and lived in a small grey cottage in the shadow of the Cader Idris mountain in mid Wales. Her father died when she was four years old and her mother struggled to provide for the family.
There was no school in the village and no one in Mary’s family could read but Mary loved to go to chapel and listen to the stories from the Bible which she would remember and longed to be able to read for herself. Eventually, when she was nine years old, a school opened in a village about six miles away and every day, Mary would walk there and back. She learned to read and a neighbour, Mrs Evans, would let Mary practise on a Saturday afternoon by reading from her Bible. Mary loved doing this and wished very much for a Bible of her own but knew there was no way her mother could afford to buy one.
So Mary worked to earn the money to buy her own Bible. Mrs. Evans gave Mary some chickens and she sold their eggs. She weeded gardens, collected firewood, she washed clothes in the river, knitted socks, and babysat for the neighbours’ children. It took her six years but, finally, Mary had saved enough money to buy a Bible.
She had heard of a pastor, a Mr Thomas Charles, who had Bibles for sale in Welsh and English – but he lived in Bala which was 25 miles away! Nevertheless, determined girl that she was, she set off across the Welsh mountains for Bala. It was a long and tiring walk and when she arrived, she was dismayed to discover that Mr Charles only had one Bible left, and it was already promised to someone else. However, he took her in and gave her food and lodging for the night and the next day he gave Mary his last Bible and told her that the other person could wait a little longer. Mary was so excited that she almost ran the 25 miles home, clutching her Bible.
Mary’s courage and faith had stirred Thomas Charles and in 1802, at a meeting of The Religious Tracts Society, he proposed that a group be formed to provide Bibles in Welsh. Inspired by the discussion, another minister, Joseph Hughes, cried out: “If for Wales, why not for the kingdom? And if for the kingdom, why not for the world?” The British and Foreign Bible Society was created, now known as the Bible Society which works in over 200 counties and is committed to making the Bible available to all people.