# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1927_S47
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

46

; THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

“When I think of India,” said a third, “I always
think of the picture of a man lying on a bed of
spikes.”

“India always suggests to me,” said a fourth,
“the pictures of famine sufferers which were so
familiar years ago, more like living skeletons
than men.”

And then the question was put to a Christian
woman, for years a teacher in an Indian college for
women. Her eyes glistened as she made her answer:

“T think of Christ going up and down through
His native land, healing the sick, the blind, the
deaf-and-dumb, cleansing the lepers, raising the
dead, and preaching the Gospel to the poor.”

The hut of this man was in very good condition.
His wife and his children had plenty to eat and
to wear. Is that the way a beggar’s house and
family look?

You should have seen the man work. Instead
of a spade he used a piece of oakwood to dig the
ground in his field. When he had dug up the field,
he would smooth it down with the stubs of his
arms and set out the plants. Is that the way
beggars do? Why did this man beg if he had to
work so hard?

Once Missionary Williams passed by on the road
near this beggar’s house. He heard some one
greeting him: —

Lying on a Bed of Spikes.

Dear Christian, as you think of the toiling, suf-
fering, hungry millions of India, as you think of
its millions of wronged children and defrauded and
depressed women, will you not also think of the
merciful Christ and remember that you are His
follower? F.J.L.

A New Kind of Beggar.

The beggar about whom I want to tell you
lived on the island of Rarotonga, which is near
New Guinea. A disease which is common there
had eaten away his legs and his hands. He had
trouble crawling about on his knees. Have you

" ever seen a beggar who looked like that?

(Left panel.)

“Welcome, thou servant of the Most High!
You brought light to this dark island; and to you
we owe the Word of Life.”

Missionary Williams sat down on a stone and
asked the man what he knew about Jesus and the
Word of life.

“I know,” said the beggar cheerfully, “that
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
I know that He is the Son of God, that He died on
the cross in great pains to do away with the sins of
all men, to save their souls from damnation, and
to make them eternally happy in heaven.”

“Do all men go to heaven after their, death ?”
asked the missionary.

“O no,” he answered, “only those who believe in