# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1888_S23 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) in will find you Out. Some 0 fin England, there _lived a man by the naa John Peters. He y was a cael but 0 1 ee rheumey tism he worked ‘af “his trade hegreat diffi- wW ay . te . -¢<>e- > The Praying Widow of Nuremberg. John Heermagn, born 1585, was pastor in a village on the banks of the Oder in Germany. The death of his faithful wife, his own poor health, the horrors of the Thirty Years’ War, and a pestilence in his own congregation caused the pious pastor a great deal of sorrow and care. In the midst of all these sorrows he wrote some of his most beautiful hymns. He had a son 6 years old, who lay sick with a dangerous fever. While lying on his sick-bed, he prayed so earnestly that all, who saw and heard him, were struck with wonder and awe. As the child was growing worse, the mother asked him how he felt; to which he replied: “T long to see Jesus, my Saviour.’’ The Mother: ‘‘Where, then, my child?” The Child: ‘‘In Heaven; in the life beyond”? The Mother: ‘*When will you see Him?” In the year 1820, there lived at, Nuremberg the widow of a laborer, whose etatdesons were But she was so poor that, when the youngest was about to pass his examinations, she knew not how to ploma. She made known her trouble to her pastor, who advised her to borrow that sum. The widow replied, ‘‘I dare not do it, for I do not know how I can ever repay it.”’ “Well,” said the pastor, ‘‘let us ask the Lord to send but one-meal a day only so they lived in a fine you that amount, relying on this promise, ‘If house, and she could look down on her poor} two of you shall agree on earth as touching neighbors. But her husband thought all this anything that they shall ask, it shall be done was very wrong, and he would not leave the} for them of my Father which is in heaven.’ The Child: ‘‘Soon, very s6on.” The Mother (weeping): ‘‘What has He done for you that you so much long to see Him?”’ The Child (holding out his arms): ‘‘Why, old cottage. Well, Mrs. Peters kept fretting about their poor house, and wondering how she could manage to get out of it. At last she thought ofaplan. It was a very wicked plan. It was this: She would kill her husband and then she could do what she pleased with the money., One night she gave her husband something that made him sleep very soundly. Then she took a long nail and drove it into his head and | to say to him, “Go in and salute them.” He killed him. As Mr. Peters had plenty of hair| knocked, and the woman who opened the door on his head she covered up the nail. The next morning she called in the neighbors and wept and Jamented very much, stating that she had found her husband dead when she awoke. *Nd-| body suspected that she had killed him, and the man was buried without an examination. Not long after this Mrs. Peters bought the fine house and moved into it. She thought that she would never be found out. She for- ‘got that there is a God in heaven who re- vealeth secrets. Now how do you suppose God revealed this woman’s crime to the world? Let me tell you. A good many years after Mr. Peters’ death a stranger was stopping in that town. He took a walk to the grave-yard. The sexton was dig- ging a grave at the time, and had just come to the bones of a human being, who had been buried for years. The stranger asked the sex- ton if he could recognize the corpse. The sex- ton replied that he could, and that it was that of John Peters. Then the sexton#éold of how suddenly he had died. The stranger thentex- amined the bones, and soon found a nail in the skull#! He drew out the nail and inquired where Mrs. Peters lived. He then went to her and, showing her the nail, said: ‘‘I found this in your husband’s head. Can you tell me how it got there?”? The woman grew pale and fainted. On recovery she confessed her great sin. She was afterwards tried, condemned and hung. Let us learn a lesson from this true story. One sin usually leads to another. A proud heart is a dangerous thing to have. We G ‘these twenty-five years He has died for me!’? When he had said this, he fell back and died. : What a blessed death! This can not -be death! It must be a passing out of death into life! May such an end be yours!—Olive Leaf. Go home and pray, and I will do the same in my study.”’ Kneeling down the pastor presented his re. quest in earnest prayer to God. Then he tried to:think of some way by which he could help the poor mother, for he had no money himself. He left his study hoping that his walk in the city would bring some good result. Passing the house of a church-member some one seemed The Railway Guard. “Tcan give you a wonderful answer to prayer,’’ said one of the railway guards to me, as I was waiting at a station. Some slight re- mark of mine showed him the current of my thoughts, and he at once revealed his own. We speedily found that we had one hope, one faith, one Lord, and one God. ‘‘I wilk always ask God to give me something to do for Him,” said he, ‘every day, just to use me for His glory. You know, ma’am, I can conduct my train to His glory. I doit all at the very best, and ask His blessing upon it. Even train-work is blessed work when done for Him. One day my train was all ready to start, but somehow I couldn’t blow my little whistle. God, I be- lieve, kept on saying in my mind, ‘You must wait for such and such a train.’ You know, ma’am, I wasn’t bound to wait, but I felt I must wait. No sooner had the other line train come in, than a poor, excited widow lady rushed out and up to me with, ‘Oh, can I catch the down train to ——? I must, I must! My boy is dying!” ‘Bundle in ma’am,’ I said, ‘here. No room there; bundle into my van, and we are off.’ “T blew the whistle, jumped in after her. Poor thing, she was on her knees thanking and praising God; ‘For,’ said she, ‘all the way from —— I knelt on the floor of the carriage, asking Him not to let the train start without me;’ and I said to her: « the astonished mother how their prayer had been answered, and her anxiety gave place to praise. They both kneeled down and gave thanks to God who had so faithfully fulfilled His promise. a8 5 Selected. The Blessed Death of a Child. “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believeth on me, though he were Wead, yet shall he live.’” John 14, 25. 4 — eo oO i A Bewrtever’s dying day~is his crowning day.