# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1886_S3 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Lutheran Pioneer. Too Late! . The Jate Rev. L. Harms relates the following warning incidents: . Tat one time stood by the dying-bed of a man.who had not attended church for ten years and had not come to the Lord's Supper for twenty years. He now lay trembling upon’ his bed. I spoke to him for some time, but his only reply to all that I said was: Ir ts Too LATE. I knelt down and prayed for his poor soul, and when I had said Amen, he turned towards the wall and whispered: It is too late; it is too late. A half an hour Jater he was a corpse. It is too late! These words have ever since been ringing in my ears and I would sound, the note of warning for all those who despise’ the preaching of God’s Word and the Lord's Sacrament. At another time I saw a man weeping in church. He had attended the ser- vices and had come to the Lord’s Sup- per regularly. He told me that he had been a hypocrite and that he had now ished my look at Harry's, ‘‘Now, see mine!’’? She unfolded the tissue-paper from it, and there it was, just as fresh and fair and uninjured as when it came out of the shop. “‘’ve never had it out of the drawer but once,”’ said Miss Minnie, ‘‘and that was to show to somebody.”’ “Minnie,” said I, ‘‘if your father were away from home, and should send you a letter, telling you just what he wanted you to do and be, would it be good treatment never to break the seal, and to lay it in a drawer unread? Would it not be better to take it out every day and to read it over and over, trying each time toobey its injunctions?” ‘‘Yes,’”’ said Minnie, blushing, as she began to see my meaning. “This is God’s letter to you, my love. Like the man who folded away his talent in a napkin, you have folded up your precious Bible. Hereafter, my child, use it as God wants you to.® ‘Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are come to see that his going to church and the Lord’s Supper without faith in the heart would do him no good, and that there must be a change. But he had a trial in court which must be brought to an end and he had a journey to make and after his return home from that journey he would surely at- tend to the matter. I warned him earnestly r and reminded him of the word of the Holy Spirit: ‘‘To-Day if ye will hear his voice, they which testify of me’.”’—C. W. ———_— ——- oa oe God calling yet! | | - How it is Done. \ 0 Fs i t S ; od calling yet !—and shall I never hearken, eo) But still earth’s witcheries my spirit darken ? G This passing life, these passing joys, all flying, And still my soul in dreamy slumbers lying! I remember a man who had been a Christian for two years, but who was bemoaning his hard and sinful heart. Isaid to him one day: ‘‘Did you ever know a sinner who had not a hard heart?” 2. God calling yet /—and I not yet arising, So long His loving, faithful voice despising, So coldly His unwearied care repaying,— PeGHEED not eben one Bue ely Mb He calls me still, and still I am delaying! “No,” he said, “but mine is getting n0 ing was in vain. Two days later this man was better.” 3. God calling yet !—loud at my door is knocking, And I my heart, my ear, still firmer locking; He still is ready, willing to receive me, Is waiting now, but ah! He soon may leave me. taken sick with typhoid fever. When I came to see him, he was unconscious and raving. He did not understand what I said, he did not hear my prayer. I, however, heard him every now and then utter those terrible words in the midst of his raving: Now Iv IS TOO LATE. Again these words pierced the very marrow of my bones and I would sound the note of warn- ing for all those who push off their conversion from day to day. The voice of God is saying: ‘Behold, Now is the accepted time; behold, Now is the day of salvation’? (2 Cor. 6, 2). Listen to the voice of Jesus: ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock.’ And the Holy Spirit says: ‘‘To- Day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts”’ (Heb. 3, 7). ————>—-oa oe om LT arose and closed all the shutters, and made the room quite dark. “‘ Why do you do that?’’ he asked. “J want to teach you how to drive away the darkness,” I said; so I handed him a long broom and a duster. ‘‘Now I want you to sweep out the darkness.” ay can't,” he said. “Can't you if you try very hard? Will no amount of physical force do it?’ “Certainly not,’’ he said. Then I opened the shutters and the room was beautifully illuminated. ‘‘So you see that, if you want the darkness and dreadings of your heart to be dispelled, it is not by any amount of effort of your own, but by letting in the light of the Sun of Righteousness. But now that we have such a beautiful light in the room, we may close the shutters again; we shall want no more, I suppose for a month,’’~ I said. = ‘What do you mean?”’ “‘T mean that we are not to expect to have a stock of grace laid up, on which we may draw; but that, if we would continue in the light, we must keep looking up to the Sun, and receiving his blessed rays into our souls.” ; — Selected. 4. God calling yet /—and [ no answer giving; I dread His yoke, and am in bondage living; Too long I linger, but not yet forsaken, He calls me still; O my poor heart awaken! 5. God calling yet /—I can no longer tarry, Nor to my God a heart divided carry ; Now, vain and giddy world, your spells are . broken! Sweeter than all, the voice of God has spoken! G. Tersteegen. ————+ +o or Minnie’s New Year’s Gift. “Mother gave me a Bible last New Year's,” said a little girl, complacently, “and Aunt Lou gave Cousin Harry one at the same time. Just look at them now, and see the difference!” Harry’s was worn. Its gilt edges were tar- nished, and the newness was gone from the cover, but it looked as if it had been read very often. Here and there I saw pencilmarks near favorite verses, and in one or two places it seemed as if tears might have fallen. His Bible had evidently been very precious to him. Minnie said triumphantly, after I had fin- Wuatsorver is good for God’s children, they shall have it, for all is theirs to further them to heaven. If therefore, poverty be good, they shall have it; if disgrace be goad, they shall have it; if crosses be good, they shall have them; if misery be good, they shall have that; for all is ours to serve for our main good. —_—_ oa or —__ : SEPARATION unto Christ is the only true way of being separated from this world.