October 13, 2023 News

October 13, 2023

Wordless Book History

Gloria Paredes shares the Wordless Book at a one-time outreach.

The WB did not originate with CEF. It was introduced by Charles Spurgeon in 1866 in a sermon entitled “Wordless Book”, but was only the dark, red, and clean pages.

Nine years later, D.L. Moody shared the message, “A book with four leaves – black, red, white, and gold”, with an estimated 12,000 people at a children’s service.

Fanny Crosby also used the WB to share the Gospel with children who begged her to tell them a story. “Please Fanny, tell us another!”

And in 1895 Amy Charmichael made a satin flag of the colors and went village to village sharing the colors from her oxen pulled cart. Then, in 1924 Ruth Overholtzer,

the wife of CEF’s founder, Jesse Overholtzer , found it in a bookstore operated by Harry Ironside. Fifteen years later, CEF added the green cover and began mass producing the book.

A few years ago, a children’s pastor looked at me and said, “You are the Wordless Book people”. It certainly is true that CEF has used the WB tool for all of its history, but it was in use long before CEF came into existence!

But a tool is only that. A hammer doesn’t get the credit for a completed house. It only gets the privilege of being used in the process. We are just pleased that we get to train people to use this tool in sharing the Gospel!

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