It's been around a long time now--well over a hundred years. That little Wordless Book. Whose brain-child was it? When did it first make an appearance?

"Give me 26 lead soldiers and I will conquer the world," exclaimed Benjamin Franklin. He referred, of course, to the alphabet from which he could form words and sentences, print a newspaper, produce a book. But the Wordless Book conquers without any words. It speaks through the universal language of color.

That little book started with but three pages---black, red and white. In 1866, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon entitled "The Wordless Book." In it he told of an old unnamed minister who had put three pages together and often looked at them to remind himself of his sinfulness, of Christ's blood poured out for him, and the cleansing provided. Spurgeon then said, "I want you, dear friends, to read this book this evening....may God the Holy Spirit help us do so to our profit."

When was the gold page added? We do not know but it brought another dimension to the book, depicting the glories of Heaven. We do know it was there nine years later when D. L. Moody used it. In the biography written by his son, William R. Moody, and published in 1900, he records:

One of the most interesting meetings at Liverpool (January/February 1875) was the children's service, where Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey were both present. Some of the papers put down the number in the Victoria Hall at twelve thousand, with an overflow meeting of about two thousand in the Henglers Circus. Mr Moody gave an address founded on a book with four leaves, black, red, white and gold, a sort of running inter-change of simple yet searching questions and answers. Responses were very promptly given.

Who hasn't heard of blind Fanny Crosby, the author of Blessed Assurance, Saved by Grace and hundreds more old hymns? Fanny loved children. "Tell us a story, Fanny. Tell us another," they begged. Fanny would take from her purse a Wordless Book and tell them the story of which they never tired.

In 1895 the book traveled to India with Amy Carmichael. In Elisabeth Elliot's recent biography of her, A Chance to Die, she tells how Amy and her helper made a satin flag of gold, black, red and white, hoisted it in the cart pulled by oxen and went from village to village in southern India telling the Gospel. "A most useful text for an impromptu sermon," Amy commented. In smaller groups she used the little book itself.

My first acquaintance with the book came in 1924. "Look what I found at the Bible bookstore," a fellow-student exuded as she burst into our training class one morning. "It will be great to show the boys and girls the way of salvation and lead them to Christ." The bookstore was operated by Dr. Harry A. Ironside before he became pastor of Moody Memorial Church in Chicago. The book was published by Pickering and Ingles in London.

When Child Evangelism Fellowship began to print that little book 15 years later, they added the final color, green, to represent Christian growth. They also published a leaflet telling how to use the book and giving Scripture verses for each page. In the ensuing years the message has been taken to over 80 countries by missionaries to boys and girls. Thousands of national workers have been taught how to use the Wordless Book with their own children.