# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1902_S19 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Lutheran Pioneer. 19 SSS ———————— “1 Must Have the Clock.” When he had gone, the miser returned to the place to see whether his treasure was still safe. To his horror he found the money gone and the rope left in its place. His money being dearer to him than his life and his im- mortal soul, he took the rope and hanged him- self on the same limb which the spendthrift had chosen for the same purpose but a little while before. A. B. a oe “Thou, God, Seest Me.’ James and Anna were at home alone. James said to his sister, ‘‘Come, let us look for some- thing good to eat and have our fill while we are alone.’”? Anna said, ‘If you can show me a place where nobody will see us, I'll go with you.” ‘Well, then,” rejoined James, ‘‘let us go to the milk pantry and have a dish of sweet cream.”? Anna said, ‘That will not do, for there the neighbor will see us from his yard, where he is splitting wood.’’ ‘Then we’ll go into the kitchen,” suggested James; ‘in the cupboard is a potof honey.” To this Anna objected: ‘There the lady of next door can see us, for she is sitting at her win- dow.’? Then said James with some impa- tience: ‘‘Pshaw, let us then go down into the cellar and eat some apples. It is dark down there, and I am sure no one will see us.”’ Said Anna, ‘‘Oh, dear James, do you really think that nobody will see us there? Do you know nothing of that all-seeing Eye above us that can pierce the walls and see into the darkest corner?’ James was overcome with fear and shame, and said, ‘‘You are right, dear sister, God can see us everywhere. Let us not do evil anywhere.’’ —Sel. —+ +a or eo He Laid down His Life for His Friend. In a certain district in Russia, in a solitary place, stands a pillar bearing the inscription: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man Jay down his life for his friend.’? What prompted its erection forms a touching story. A little party was traveling through a wild region infested with wolves. Soon a pack of these were on the travelers’ tracks. Pistols were fired, horse after horse was sacrificed to the ravenous beasts, but nearer and nearer they came, until it seemed impossible to es- cape them. At that critical moment the serv- ant, in spite of repeated remonstrances of his master, leaped from the sled to be devoured by the wolves, and to afford his master an op- portunity of being saved. The plan succeeded. While the hungry wolves were detained by the sacrifice of the faithful servant, the master got a sufficient start to reach a place of safety. The pillar mentioned above marks the spot where the bones of that heroic servant lay scat- tered about when he sacrificed his own life to save that of his friend. , We know, however, of a love surpassing that. ‘'God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners’? —enemies of God—'‘'Christ died for us.”” A. B. Bad Wages. A story is told of a poor colored man of the days when opportunities for an education were slim, who came to a watchmaker, and gave him the two hands of a clock, saying: “T want yer to fix up dese han’s. Dey jess doan keep no mo’ kerec’ time for mo’ den six munfs.’’ ‘‘Where is your clock?’’ asked the watch- maker. “Out at my house, down on Injun Creek.” “But I must have the clock.” “PDidn’t I tell yer, der’s nuffin de matter wid de clock ’ceptin’ de han’s? Dat’s why I didn’t done brought ’em to yer. Yer jess wants de clock so yer kin tinker wid it an’ charge me a big price. I knows yer. Gimme back dem han’s.’’ And, taking the hands, he went off to find some other watchmaker. Foolish as he was, his action was much like that of those people who try to regulate their conduct without being made right inside. They go wrong, but will not have it that the trouble is with their hearts. They are positive that it is not the clock, but the hands that are out of order. They no more believe the need of a change in their spiritual condition than this poor man thought that it was the works of his clock that needed overhauling. They are not willing to have the Holy Ghost work upon their hearts; and their reason for not giving themselves into the hands of the Holy Spirit, who alone can regenerate them and make them capable of running in the way of the Lord’s commandments, is very much like the reason the colored man gave. They are afraid the price will be too great. They say, “We only wish to avoid this or that bad habit.’’ But God says: ‘‘My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways,’’ Prov. 28, 26. F. J. L. ———+ +o or oe “