# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1879_S28 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 28 The Lutheran Pioneer. drink: ‘I have done with all the ministers; I have not been inside a church for the last ten years.” And he straightened himself and looked proudly in his wine-glass. An elderly gentle- man who, seated apart, had silently listened to the conversation, now stepped up to the group, saying, ‘‘O, sir, only for ten years not in church? —that amounts to nothing at all. There isa man in my neighborhood, who is forty-six years old, and he has only been in church once in his life, and that was when he was baptized.”” All looked astonished. ‘What is the reason?’ asked the bonster. ‘The reason is’’, answered the stranger, tapping his forehead significantly, “the poor fellow is not right here.’’ That finished the boasting infidel. Luther’s Faithfulness. doing business. We would advise the eloquent | save the money paid for his salary. Their plan Ryan to go to Cincinnati and preach on ‘‘The | was that each male member of the congregation pennies of the poor!”’ should preach in turn. For the first sermon they selected one of the more intelligent breth- ren. At 10 o'clock of a certain Sunday the church was crowded with a congregation curious to hear their plow-neighbor’s sermon. After giving out a hymn, reading a prayer and Scrip- ture lesson at the altar, he ascended the high pulpit, read his text, and preached the following sermon. Looking to one side of the church, he said: ‘‘Weare, and we are.’’ Then he turned his remarks to the other side of the church: “We are, and we are’’; and as his eyes turned to every corner of the building, he went on saying: ‘“‘We are, and we are.”” One of the hearers who could stand this no longer, cried out: ‘‘What are we?”’ “Why, fools’, said the preacher, ‘‘else we would let those preach who are able to do it.” That congregation was cured. They called a regular pastor, whom God had given the necessary talents and who had been educated for the ministry. And there was no more trouble about the salary. ——~>—~ o<2> o> The One Leaf. Ix the same sermon Mr. Ryan said that there was more morality among the Roman-catholics than among the Protestants. Now, please don’t laugh. The poor man had come all the way from St. Louis, and he perhaps thought that at least in New York the Roman-catholics led very moral lives. He was aroused out of his sweet dream by the ‘‘New York Times’, which, after investigating the matter, showed that in the last seven years 356,539 Roman-catholics were arrested, and only 106,499 Protestants. Among the 200,000 Irish Catholics of New York there were 242,893 arrests made, so that many of them must have been arrested more than once. We wonder if the police of New York are in the habit of arresting men leading moral lives. In 1516 the plague prevailed in the city of Wittenberg, and Luther was advised to flee. He answered, ‘‘Where shall I go to? I hope the world will not crumble to ruin if brother Martin leave it. When the pestilence increases I will scatter the brethren in all directions, but Iam placed here and dare not flee. I do not say this because I have no fear of death, for I am not the apostle Paul, but only his interpre- ter; nevertheless I hope that God will deliver me from all my fears.’’? Luther did not leave the city during the pestilence, but visited the sick, and brought consolation to the dying. God in His mercy protected him against all danger. THEY HATE THE Brste.—In a certain district of Ireland the pope’s people are creating trouble. A Protestant mission school-house was attacked by a mob of thirty persons; the house was wrecked, the windows were broken, the doors and printing presses destroyed, and the bibles thrown into the sea. They hate the Bible. There was once a caravan crossing, I think, to the north of India, and numbering in its company a godly and devout missionary. As it passed on, a poor old man was overcome by the heat, and, sinking down, was left to perish on the road. The missionary saw him, and kneeling down at his side, when the rest had passed on, whispered into his ear: ‘‘What is your hope?’’? The dying man raised himself a little to reply, and with a great effort succeeded in answering: ‘‘The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin’’, and immediately expired with the effort. The missionary was greatly astonished at the answer, and looking at the calm and peaceful appearance of the man, he felt assured he had died in Christ. ‘How, or where’’, thought the missionary, “could this man, living among heathens, have got this hope?’”’ And as he thought of it, he observed a piece of paper tightly clasped in the hand of the corpse. He succeeded in getting this out, and what do you think was his surprise and delight when he found it to be a single leaf of the Bible containing the first chapter of the First Epistle of John, in which these words occur: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.’’ (John 1, 7.) On that page the man had found the Gospel. OBE. One of the 19 graduates of our Lutheran Teachers’ Seminary has accepted a call to our *mission-school at Little Rock. May the Lord bless his labors among the colored children. —_—— +? oo “I wave taken much pains’’, says a very learned man, ‘‘to know every thing that was thought worth knowing amongst men; but with all my readings, nothing now remains with me to comfort me, at the close of life, but this passage of St. Paul: ‘It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.’ To this I cleave, and herein I find rest.’’ +o o> He who preaches most of Christ to sinners may expect to preach most sinners to Christ. THE ‘‘Mission-Dove’’, our German mission- paper, has already over 13,000 subscribers. Our ‘‘Pioneer’’—well, our little friend seems to get along rather slowly. He seems to have a harder road to travel, and the little ‘‘Dove’’ has soared far above him. We know our little ‘‘Pioneer’ is doing well enough for his size and age. Still we would like to see him ‘‘brace up”, and get along a little faster. We wish to state here in reply to some inquiries, that the money made by the sale of the ‘‘Pioneer’’ does not go into our pocket. Oh, no, no! It is all put into the mission-box, so that all the readers of the ‘‘Pio- neer”’ help along our mission among the colored people. We are sorry that some people thought We were making money, we are very sorry, and welatiec our window. —— Po ee A short, but striking Sermon. Vorrati Voot’s Brste History for Christian Schools, revised; together with a Short Church History and_a map of Palestine. _Rewritten by B. J. Muus, Pastor. Published by Lutheran Pub- lishing House, Decorah, Iowa. Price per single copy bound in cloth 30 cents. Hymw Boox for the use of Evangelical Lutheran Schools and Congregations. Lutheran Publishin; House, Decorah, Iowa. Price per single copy boun: in cloth 40 cents. TERMS: Tne Lurieran Pioneer is published monthly, payable in advance at the following rates, postage included, tows 1 The members of a certain congregation in the country were rather close with their money. The good pastor had at first been receiving a bare support, and as time passed on his little salary beeame less every year, at length to about forty dollars. With this he could no longer support his family. A congregational meeting was called to see what the members would do about it. They were not only opposed to an increase of salary, but adopted a resolu- ‘tion to do without a regular pastor, and thus - ——_s- +o oo oe A Mocker Silenced. Several gentlemen and ladies belonging to what is called highly-refined society, were at a fashionable watering place discussing different subjects, among others that of religion. They talked all kind of nonsense, while drinking their lemonade and wine. One of the set, a pompous gentleman, remarked, after taking a good Vey GD crerrecronceonnmncnay 4.00 Club rates only allowed if all copies are to be sent to one address. All business communications to be addressed to »Luth. Concordia Publishing House“, M. C. Bar- THEL, Agt., St. Louis, Mo. . yee All communications concerning the editorial de- parunent to be addressed to Pror. R. A. Biscnorr ‘oncordia College, Fort Wayne, Ind.