# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1905_S52 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 52 The Lutheran Pioneer. What Must I Do? An aged Christian, worn out by sickness, was traveling to the sea coast with the hope of regaining his health. Behind him in the car sat an elderly lady and her daughter. The mother, observing the pale face of the man, expressed her concern for him in language he could overhear, and then said she would like to know if the man was a Christian. She was for a moment confused when the man turned and thanked her for her sympathy and at once confessed that he felt the deepest interest in his soul’s eternal welfare. ‘‘Since you have been so kind,”’ he said, ‘‘to speak of the subject, will you be kind enough also to tell me what I must do to be saved?”’ “Oh, yes,’”’ was her reply, ‘‘I will gladly tell you: you must pray to God.” “But,”’ asked the sick man, ‘‘how long must I pray before God will be merciful to me, and how can I know when I am forgiven?”’ The lady seemed a little perplexed, and then said, ‘‘Well, you must become a better man.’’ ‘‘Again allow me to ask,’’ he gently answered, ‘‘How good must I become before God will have pity on me?”’ Of course she was silent, and after a pause the man said, ‘‘Have you no book that can show a poor man, drawing near to the grave, how he can be saved?”’ She at once drew from her bag a tract, which she placed in his hands. It was carefully read, and he turned once more with the remark: ‘‘This does not contain one word about the way of salvation for a lost sinner. Have you no Bible?” She had none, and he drew forth his own pre- cious Bible, and, handing it to her, earnestly said, ‘*Will you be so good as to show me where we are told to pray and to make ourselves better in order to be saved?”’ The lady took the book of God, and having turned over the leaves for a while, she impatiently said, ‘‘I cannot find the place now, but when you reach the city, call on the Rev. Dr. ——and he will tell you where to find it.’’ ‘*No,”’ the man solemnly, replied, “‘the Rev. Dr. —— cannot tell me, nor can any other Rev. Dr. —— tell me; for there is no such place in the - ‘Bible. But this I find: ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoso- ever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (John 3, 16); “To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins’ (Acts 10, 43); ‘By Him all that believe are justified from all things’ (Acts 18, 89); ‘BrLievE on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved’ (Acts 16, 31); ‘To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the wngodly, his faith is counted for right- eousness’ (Rom. 4, 5).’’ Many other passages were read, and with a joy- ful heart the lady, who did not know the Gospel way of salvation, though she had been a church member for many years, listened to the aged Chris- tian, as he unfolded to her from the Bible the blessed truth of salvation by grace alone through faith in Christ Jesus, the Saviour of sinners. =o — “Who Cares for Me?’’ A poor, lone woman sat one evening thinking how sad was her condition. She was old and al- most helpless, with little of this world’s goods which she could call her own. ‘‘Who cares for me?” thought she. Suddenly this verse of the Bible came to her mind: ‘‘For we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our in- firmities.’”’ It was like a flood of golden sunshine. Her doubt and fears were all gone. What need of earthly. friends to cheer her declining years? Jesus knew her every care and sorrow, and He, the ascended Saviour, “‘the Lord of Glory,” was touched with the weakness of her infirmities. How precious is the thought that we can all have such a friend in every hour of trial and distress! ‘*T will not leave you comfortless,’’ are the Saviour’s gracious words. ‘‘My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”’ A Picture Card in Africa. Three years ago a Mohammedan merchant from Timbuktu went for trade to the English settlement of Bathurst, on the Gambi River. Some one gave him a text card in Arabic. The next year he traded again in Bathurst, and asked for the book from which that wonderful text was taken. When the Bible was shown him, he bought it and went away. The third year the merchant came to Bathurst and bought eighteen Bibles for friends who wanted the book. Now the British and Foreign Bible Society is ar- ranging to open a Bible depot in Timbuktu—the synonym in all the Sahara for Mohammedan exclu- siveness and fanaticism.— Indian Witness.