# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1906_S68
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

68

Avarice.

Luther says in one of his sermons:

“The reason God is so great an enemy of avarice
is because there is no other vice which hinders the
spreading of the Gospel more, and which works
more harm:to the Christian. And yet we see that
the whole world is drowned in it. Everybody is
worrying night-and day whether he will be provided
for in the future. Nobody is satisfied with what
God has given him. If the Lord has given to one
a beautiful home, he soon longs for a castle. If he
succeeds in getting-a castle, he would like to own a
whole town, and so on. No one is content with his
station in life. Pride and avarice are at the root
of it all. These are the cause of all the parsimony
and illiberality among people.

_“Qur blessed Savior warns us against these sins
when He says to us in His Sermon on the Mount:
‘No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate
the one and love the other, or else he will hold to
the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve
God and mammon.’ The Lord feared, we see from
this, lest mammon should hinder us in our devotion
to His service.”

Christians Should Be a Blessing to Others.

Ye Christians have received the blessing of God
not for yourselves alone, but in order that ye should
bless also those that are still under the curse, that
is, pray for them that through your doctrine, pa-
tience, and godly conversation they also may be
brought to faith. The blessing ye are to inherit is
not temporal for this present life, but it is this,
that through Christ ye are in a state of grace, hay-
ing forgiveness of sins and being delivered from
death and the devil, looking forward to the glory
of everlasting life. — Luther.

A Rich Father.

Says a New York pastor: “When a friend of
‘mine, long years ago, urged John Jacob Astor to
subscribe for a certain object, and told him that
his son had subscribed, the old German millionaire
replied very dryly: ‘He can do it, he has got a
zich father? ”

May Christians, when asked for gifts, remem-
ber that they have a rich Father, to whose children
it is said: “Be ye merciful as your Father also is
merciful. Give, and it shall be given unto you.”

- The Lutheran Pioneer.

A Little While.

In a small village there lived a pastor whose
wife had recently died. Great was his grief, and
it was difficult for him to find comfort in his day
of sorrow. On a certain Sunday he held children’s
services, in which he explained to the children the
Bible story of the young man at Nain whom Christ
raised from the dead. “As the dear Lord Jesus
raised that young man from the dead,” said he,
“and turned the mother’s sorrow into joy, so He
will one day raise all the dead and will lead His
children into everlasting glory. We do not yet see
it. We must only wait yet a little while for that
glorious day of His grace.”

On the afternoon of that same day the pastor,
as usual, went to the churchyard. At the grave of
his beloved wife he sat down and wept bitterly.
Soon a hand was softly laid on his shoulder and a
voice whispered, “Wait a little while.’ Almost
frightened, the pastor looked up. Before him he
saw standing a boy twelve years old, who again
softly said, “Wait a little while.”

The pastor then understood the words of the
boy, who wanted to remind him of what he had
said in the children’s service about the Christian’s
waiting only a little while for the glorious day of
divine grace, the day of resurrection. He drew the
child to his bosom and said, “You are right; I will
wait.” Greatly comforted he went home.

“Yet a little while, and He that shall come will
come, and will not tarry,” Hebr. 10, 3%. There-
fore the apostle says, “I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, eoncerning them which are
asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which
have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, even so them also which sleep in
Jesus will God bring with Him,” 1 Thess. 4, 13. 14.

“Oh, false, ungrateful words, to call the grave
Man’s long last rome!

"Tis but a lodging held from week to week,
Till Christ shall come.”

“Sons of the Word.”

The missionary John Williams, the martyr of
Erromanga, so thoroughly drilled the converts in
the knowledge of the Bible, and imbued them with
the love of the Bible, that in after years when a
vessel was approaching their island, and the officers
called to some of them in a-boat who they were, they
replied with united yoices, “Sons of the Word.”