The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1879, Page 24

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24 The Lutheran Pioneer.

only, who die in the Lord. To them death is
“but the door through which they pass into a
life of eternal joy and bliss to be ‘‘forever with} A minister of the Gospel was asked to visit
the Lord”. Their grave is but a bed in which|a poor dying woman. The messenger being
the body sleeps until the morning of a blessed] ignorant, could give no account of her state,
resurrection. except that she was a very good woman and
Asleep in Jesus! blessed sleep! very happy, and was now at the end of a well-
From which none ever wakes to weep; spent life; therefore sure of going to heaven.
A calm and undisturbed repose, The minister went, saw she was very ill, and
Unbroken by the last of foes. after a few kindly inquiries about her bodily
LACT EN One condition said: ‘Well, I understand you are

To be for such a slumber meet! > 2 2 - :
in a very peaceful state of mind, depending

With holy confidence to sing eee f
That death has lost his cruel sting. upon a well-spent life.’’ The dying woman
looked hard at him and said:

Oh, my dear readers, remember and follow

your Lord’s advice: “Be ye also ready; for ye “Yes, Iam in the enjoyment of peace. You
know not the hour when your Lord cometh.’’} 4re quite right, sweet peace, and that from a
Matth. 24, 44. well-spent life. But it is the well-spent life of

He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear] Jesus; not my doings, but His; not my merits,
it! . but His blood.”

Yes. Only Jesus has spent a life that has
met all the requirements of God’s holy law, and
on which we can rest before God in life and in
the hour of death. Yet it is true that they

God is to be trusted, but not tempted. who rest thus on the merits of Christ alone, are

We were not redeemed to be idle, but to those who, by His grace, so live as to have the
serve God and to be zealous of good works. testimony of their conscience to their sincere

He that followeth the Lord fully, will find| tim to “live holily, righteously, and godly in
goodness and mercy following him continually. this world,” and, as in this case, to win the

The best of men have their infirmities, and| testimony of others to their “‘well-spent life”.
their failings are sometimes very conspicuous. (Selected.)

Heaven is made up of perfect peace, unity,
holiness, and love, all these, and all in perfec-

tion. : Perhaps many of our readers have heard of
Whom God loves, He employs: every saint| the gentleman who took a friend to the roof
has something to do or to suffer for God’s glory. | of his house to show him the extent of his pos-
God’s mercies should not be buried in forget-| sessions. Waving his hand about, “There”?
fulness, but be recorded for our comfort and ;
His praise. : distance on one side, ‘‘Do you see that farm?
Former mercies should encourage us to ex-| Well, that is mine.” Pointing again to the
pect further favors: to him that hath shall be) other side, “Do you see that house? That also
given. : : belongs to me.’”’ In turn, his friend asked,
He that hath Christ for his leader and cap-| «Do you see that little village out yonder?
tain, may follow him with confidence, courage, Well, there lives a poor woman in that village
and comfort. who can say more than all this.”’ ‘‘Ah! what
: ene can she say?”? ‘Why, she can say, ‘Christ is
Unbelievers Rebuked. . mine!’’? Reader, ae was the ree of the
two?
“How vain a toy is glittering wealth
If once compared to Thee?
Or what’s my safety or my health,
Or all my friends to me?
Were I possessor of the earth,
And called the stars my own,
Without Thy grace and Thyself,
I were a wretch undone.”

A well-spent Life.

—_—- + o-< 0+

Good Words for the ‘‘Lutheran Pioneer.”
By the Rey. R. Pork.

——s +e eo oe

“Christ is mine.’’

said he, ‘‘is my estate.’’ Pointing to a great

A venerable minister with compassionate
earnestness once preached a sermon upon eter-
nal punishment. On the next day some thought-
less men agreed that one of their number should
go to him, and, if possible, draw him into a dis-
cussion. He went accordingly, and began the
conversation, saying: ‘‘I believe there is a little
dispute between you and me, and I thought
that I would call this morning and try to settle] Dear reader, how is it with you? Can you
it” “Ah!” said the minister, “what is it?”|S#y: “Christ is mine’? Can you say with
“Why,” he replied, ‘‘you say that the woe of David: ‘The Lord 1s my shepherd’? If s0,
the finally impenitent will be eternal, and I do happy then are you, then you can likewise
not think it will.” ‘Oh, is that all?” the) Continue and say with David, ‘J shall not want,”
minister answered; “‘there is no dispute be-| Psalm 23. v. 1.
tween you and me. If you turn to Matthew SS
26, 46., you will find that the dispute is between} ‘Our of Christ as the way, there is nothing
you and the Lord Jesus Christ, and I advise} but wandering; out of Christ as the truth
you to go immediately and settle it with him.’’} nothing but error; out of Christ as the life,

* Reader, look at the 25th chapter of Matthew | nothing but eternal death. — Look unto Him
and read verse 46.— OBE. | and be saved.’’

God’s Mission-Ways.

At the anniversary of the American Mission-
Board, Mr. William E. Dodge, a highly re-
spected citizen of New York, made an address
in which he said that after reflecting upon all
that had been done by the missionaries and
then looking at the vast number of people still
to be converted from heathendom he felt like
crying out, “How long, O Lord, how long!”
Still he was confident that all was coming out
for the best, as God was conducting the work
in his own way. Many people thought that
all the great inventions and discoveries were
the work of human skill and enterprise, but such
was not the fact. It was God, and not Mr.
James Gordon Bennet, who sent Stanley into
Africa, and his object in sending Stanley there
was to open a way for the Gospel. The tele-
graph, the printing-press and the steam-engine
were all intended for the same purpose of
spreading the Christian religion.

ee

A Baptism.

An exciting scene was witnessed on the
morning of the 3d of May in New York, at
the foot of 125th str.,, Harlem river, the occa-
sion being the baptism of 24 colored men and
women, by immersion in the river. Over 1500
spectators were present. ‘The ceremony com-
menced by singing hymns, after which 14 fe-
males, between the age of sixteen and sixty,
were duly baptized by immersion. After more
hymns and addresses ten colored men were bap-
tized. Several of the women became very
much excited during the ceremony, and it was
with great difficulty that several of them were

restrained from plunging into the river again.
AD. BD.
——_s- + e-<42 o>

The Alarm of Fire.

“T suppose the bells are sounding an alarm
of fire’ sneeringly said a man as the church’
bells were calling the worshipers one Sunday
morning; to which a clergyman, who was pass-
ing, replied: “Yes, my friend; but the fire is
not in this world.’’

—_s-_~- eo oa -

Tue Word of God does every good thing;
it alone makes a man truly wise, intelligent,
prudent, cautious, pious, kind, patient, faith-
ful, orderly, chaste.—Lauther. .
—_————

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oo + ee
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