# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1885_S31 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Lutheran Pioneer. 31 An Opium Story. Opium is one of the chief productions of India and ‘‘Christian England’’ has opened a market for it in China. The misery it produces there is beyond the power of the pen to de- scribe. The Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade recently held a meeting in London. At this meeting a missionary from China said that one out of three of the inquirers in the preaching halls was a confirmed opium sot. He then related the following incident to illustrate the great difficulty which the mission- aries had to-contend with in their work: “T will not now allude to the fact that the Chinese are continually shouting out to us in our preaching-halls, ‘Who brings the opium?’ Of course, that is a stock-story which you do not want to hear again to-day. But one day a@ young man came into my preaching-hall. His name was Tong. He had been a slave to opium-smoking for five or six years, but he had been impressed at our preaching services. was an habitual sot, as was evident from his appearance. In every other respect he was a very honest young man, upright, gentle and teachable. He at once determined to give up the opium, but then came ‘the tug of war.’ I watched his struggles day after day while he was in the fierce grip of the opium demon. One day he would smash his pipe to pieces, and the next day he would buy another. I have seen him come to our preaching-hall cry- ing bitterly, as he has confessed to me his sin and weakness. He would go, perhaps, for a week, or a few days, without touching his pipe; but he has told me how he has felt himself carried almost involuntarily in a half-dream to the fatal den. The intolerable craving and gnawing hunger for opium, added to the re- morse which he felt, caused him great bodily and mental suffering. Finally, however, the power came, as we hoped, to drag himself free from the drug. He went two weeks without a taste of the pipe. Altogether he seemed to be a changed person, and in two months I had hoped to admit him to Christian baptism. Every evening he would come into the preaching-hall and attend the services, and he would spend his spare time in reading the Scriptures, and in conversation about good things. But’alas! he was seen to grow weaker and weaker every day. His eyes were sunken, his face had a deathly pallor, his gait was unsteady, and his appetite for food was gone. He told me one day how his friends and fellow work-people had been beseeching him to return to the opium-pipe for relief, and how nearly he had yielded. Now I want you to remember that these are the usual effects in China of a confirmed opium sot breaking free from this noxious drug. He went for two or three weeks, I say, without any taste of the drug; but he was getting weaker and weaker and completely emaciated. After a short conversation with him, in which I ex- horted him to courage and patience, he said, ‘Well, sinshang, I am determined what to do. pe feed A a ee a a God that we hoped he had learned to love. We have since made attempts to save him, but in yain, and it is to be feared that the poor man has long ago abandoned himself to opium and death.’ I know that to return to the pipe would pro- long my life for perhaps a month or two, but the end must come. Sooner or Jater it must be death, and Iam resolved what to do.’ He stood up, and in my fancy I can see him now. He said, ‘I am resolved what to do. Come what may, I will never smoke again; and if I die—well, better die than sin against God.’ [Applause.] Please do not cheer yet. You have to hear something more; you will ask, perhaps, what became of that young man? Well, sir, I hoped to admit him in two months to Christian baptism. One Sunday,:soon after this conversation which I have just been relat- ing, we missed him from his place. It was the first Sunday which he had missed attending our chapel for two months. I became a little suspicious and very anxious about him, and we immediately sent to inquire where he had gone. We went to his home; he was not there: we went to his workshop; he was not there. ee ee A Happy Home. A pretty story about a German family dis- closes the secret of 2 happy home, wherein joy aboundeth, though there are many to feed and clothe. A teacher once lived in Strasburg who had hard work to support his family. His chief joy in life, however, was in his nine children, though it was no light task to feed them all. His brain would have reeled and his heart sunk had he not trusted in his heavenly Father, when he thought of the number of jackets, shoes, stockings and dresses they would need in the course of a year, and of the quantity of bread and potatoes they would eat. His house, too, was very close quarters for the many beds and cribs, to say nothing of the room required for the noise and fun which the merry nine made. But father and mother managed very well, and the house was a pattern of neatness and order. One day there came a guest to the house. As they sat at dinner, the stranger, looking at the hungry children about the table, said com- passionately : ‘«Poor man, what a cross you have to bear!”’ ‘I? I a cross to bear!’’ asked the father, wonderingly; ‘“‘ what do you mean?”’ ‘Nine children, and seven boys at that!’ replied the stranger, adding bitterly, ‘‘I have but two and each one of them is a nail in my coffin.”’ “Mine are not,’’ said the teacher with decision. ‘