# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1893_S7 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Lutheran Pioneer. ean not. The children can not be got together every day for Bible study alone, and if not got into week-day schools, the children of heathen parents can not be got, to any great extent, to attend Sunday Schools; and even if they could be got to attend the latter, it is impossible to do in one day all that might be done in seven. ‘The measure of success in this work will depend upon the consecration of the missionary and the native helpers, and the ability of each to combine religious truth with secular knowledge. ‘Then, too, to some the results are immediately apparent in the conversion of pupils, while to others the re- sults are not seen until years later, when some other missionary or native preacher may reap a harvest from the soil prepared by an equally faithful Christian whose gift of service lay only in school teaching. s+ oe oe How God Provides. It was a season of great scarcity on the hill regions of New Hampshire, when a poor woman, who lived in a hut by the woods, had no bread for her family. She was sick, with- out either friends or money; there was no helper but God, and she betook herself to prayer. She prayed long—she prayed in earnest; for she believed that He who fed the young ravens would feed her. On rising from her knees one morning, her little barefooted girl opened the door to go out. Something shining on the sill stopped her. The child stooped down, and behold, a silver dollar! She ran and took it to her mother. It.really was a new, round, bright silver dollar. They looked up and down the road; no one was to be seen, and neither footsteps nor wagon wheels were to be heard. Where did the dollar come from? Did God send it? Doubtless it was from His hand; but how did it get there? Did it rain down? No. Did He throw it from the windows of heaven? No. Did an angel fetch it? No. God has ways and means for answering prayer without always sending special messengers. Our being taken care of, ever since we were born, comes from Him alone, only He employs so many people to do it—fathers, mothers, teachers, and others, that we are apt to lose sight of Him and fix our eyes only on them. But how did the silver dollar get on the door sill? some of our little readers may ask. It happened that a pious young blacksmith was going down to the seashore, in quest of business. It was several miles before he could take the stage coach; so, instead of going in the wagon which carried his chest, he said he would walk. ‘Come, ride,’’ they said, ‘‘it will be hot and dusty.’? He kept answering ‘No’? to all his friends. ‘‘I’ll walk and take a short cut through the pines;’’ and off he started with a stout walking stick. As he was jogging on through a piece of woods, he heard & voice from a little lonely hut by the roadside. It drew his notice, and he stepped towards it on tip-toe; then he stopped and listened, and found it was the voice of prayer, and he gathered from the prayer that she who offered it was poor, sick, and friendless. thought the young man. go into the hut. pocket and drew out a dollar—the first silver dollar he ever had, and a dollar was a big sum for him to give; for he was not so rich then as he is now. poor woman must have it. silver, and likely to attract notice as soon as the door was opened, he concluded to lay it on the sill and go away, but not far; for he hid behind a large rock near the house, to watch what became of it. satisfaction of seeing the little girl come out and take the dollar, when he went on his way rejoicing. hand for this very purpose; for, you see, a paper dollar might have blown away. And the young man was led to walk instead of ride— why, he did not exactly know; but God, who directed his steps, did know. and we are the instruments to carry out His plans. own business when we are about His, answer- ing, it may be, the prayers of His people. ‘*Because you are aged and can not live long, and you don’t know the way to heaven.’’ ‘What! Do you know the way to heaven ?’’ ‘*T know that Jesus has saved me, and he will save you.”’ ‘*Who is Jesus?’’ asked the old man. The boy told him the story of God’s love, and the man’s heart melted as he listened. ‘*Boy,”’ he said, ‘*I am over sixty years of age, and I never heard such words. Have you had dinner?”’ ‘*No, sir, not yet.’’ ‘Come home with me, then, and you shall tell the old lady the story you have told me.”’ The boy went home with the old man and told the story of the love of God, while the aged couple listened with great interest. He was invited again and again, and stayed in their house nearly the whole of his holiday ; and the result was that, through this youthful servant of Christ, they were both led to the Saviour before they ever saw or heard of a missionary. Four years after, Mr. J. Hudson Taylor, who recently related this story, accompanied the youth to the home of this aged couple, and found them truly devoted Christians, and, naturally, warmly attached to the lad. Said the 6ld man, ‘*But for this boy, my wife and I would have died in darkness.’’ (one ee Hidden and Safe. “What can I do to help this poor woman?’’ He did not like to He put his hand into his But no matter; he felt that the The dollar being Soon he had the The silver dollar came into the young man’s So God plans, Oftentimes we seem to be about our ——> -o~=m eo - What a Chinese Boy Did. A boy was admitted into a missionary school in China, his mother being dead. He remained several years, and not only learned the truth, but received it into his heart. When only four- teen years of age he went to his friends during what we call Christmas holidays. One after- noon he went into a village temple. As he looked at the idols an old man (sixty-five years of age) came in with tottering steps, and lay- ing a few incense sticks before an idol, knelt down and began to pray. ‘Then he passed to the next idol, and so on the whole round of them. The little boy thought to himself, ‘‘ Here’s an old man who has not long to live, and he does not know the way to heaven. But I’m only a boy. I can’t tell him.’? The young people in China are taught to treat the aged with very great respect, and it would have been very impertinent for the little boy to attempt to teach the old man. ‘© What is to be done? he has no one to teach him,’’ thought the boy, as he saw him pass from idol to idol, and, as he thought, the tears ran down his cheeks. ‘These tears were eloquent, as the boy felt forced to go to the aged man and say—‘*Would you mind a boy speaking to you? Iam young, you are very old.”” ‘‘What are you crying for?’’ said the old man. ‘Can I help you?”’ “Sir, I am crying because I am so sorry for you.”” -**Sorry for me! What about??” One morning a teacher went, as usual, to the school-room, and found many vacant seats. Two little scholars lay at their homes cold in death, and others were very sick.