The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1879, Page 36

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36

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Comfort from Luther’s Catechism in the
Last Hour.

in it. The priest noticed this and was aston-
ished to see a poor laborer reading; for in his

village the poor people very seldom learned to
read. He ‘asked the stranger, what he was| A son of the late Prussian Minister of War
reading so eagerly. The stranger handed him|had been wounded in the battle between the
the little book. It was Luther’s Smaller Cate-| Germans and the French at Sedan. It was a
chism. The priest began to read, and the|fatal wound, and the great skill of the best
longer he read the more he became convinced | doctors could not rescue him from the grasp of
that that little book contained the truth of|Death. His brother, having heard of his con-
God. ‘‘My friend”, said he to the stranger, |dition, hurried to his dying-bed, and in his
‘you must stay with me until I have copied | presence the wounded soldier partook of the
this book.’’ The stranger was very well|Lord’s Supper. It made a deep impression
pleased with this arrangement. He had just|upon all that were present, when the wounded
come from Wittenberg, and he told the priest | soldier confessed Luther’s explanation of the
all about Luther, and about his powerful ser-}second article of the Creed, which he had
mons, and about the German Bible, and about | learned from his Catechism. With a loud
the beautiful hymns of the Lutherans, and | voice he prayed: ‘‘I believe that Jesus Christ,
about the Lord’s Supper being celebrated in the | true God, begotten of the Father from eternity,
Lutheran churches as it was instituted by|and also true man, born of the Vigin Mary, is
Christ, and about the joy of so many thousands|my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and
that accepted the pure Gospel-truth. condemned creature, purchased and won me
The priest listened to the fiery speaker and | from all sins, from death and from the power
his heart was moved. He saw that there is a|of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with
great difference between God’s truth and the| His holy precious blood and with His innocent
human opinions of the Romish church. suffering and death, so that I may be His own,
A few days later the traveler left the priest’s | and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve
home, taking with him his Catechism, the little | Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence,
missionary through which the priest had come |and blessedness, even as He is risen from the
to know the pure Gospel-truth. dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is
The priest had copied the book and soon| most certainly true!’? He said that this was
learned it by heart. He longed to learn more, | his confession with which he would gladly die,
and got Luther’s translation of the Bible. He|and in which he had found salvation.
read it carefully, he compared every word of| The next day he bid his father farewell, and
the Catechism with the Bible, and was more|two days later he died in the arms of his
fully convinced that that Catechism contained | brother. He fell asleep in Jesus, and went to
" nothing but God’s truth. He was very sorry | the Saviour whom he had learned to know from
that he had preached the false doctrines of the | his Catechism.
Romish church to his congregation for so many —> oo
years. From the Catechism, however, and The Sack of Earth.
from the Bible he had learned to know the
Saviour, and in the blood of that Saviour he] A rich man had cheated a poor widow out
found forgiveness for all his sins. He now be-| of a field which had belonged to her husband,
gan to preach the pure Word of God, he told |and which was the only property she had, in
his people the only true way to salvation, he| order to make his own garden larger. A day
celebrated the Lord’s Supper as it was instituted | or two after, the poor woman met him in that
by Christ, and he instructed the children in| very field with an empty sack in her hand.
Luther’s Smaller Catechism. Thousands came} With tears in her eyes she said to him, “Sir,
from the surrounding country to hear God’s|I wish you would give me as much earth out
Word; they were hungry, and with joy they | of this field as would fill this sack’. The man
took the Bread of Life. laughed and said, ‘‘I can’t refuse such a foolish
The pope's people, the enemies of the truth, | wish as that.’’
Beene the pastor and those that accepted| ‘The widow filled the sack with earth, and
ie Gospel; but the pastor and his people|then said, “And now, sir, I am going to ask
proved faithful to their Catechism even in you to help me to Jift this on to my shoulder.”’
prison. By order of the duke they were soon} ‘The man had no wish to do this, but the
set free, and the Gospel was freely preached | widow begged him so hard that he was obliged
in that part of the country. to give way. But when he tried to lift the
The name of that place is Hermannsburg, | sack, he found it was too heavy for him to move.
and many years ago a mission-house was built | He told the widow so, and she said, ‘Oh, sir,
there, and many a missionary has been sent/|if you find only one sack of earth too heavy,

from that house down into Africa to preach the
Gospel to the African people.

Let us love our Catechism—the little mission-
ary that brought the Gospel to that place in
the cold winter time, over 300 years ago.

how will you be able to bear the weight of this
field, which holds a thousand times as much
earth, upon your conscience at the day of

judgment?”’

The man trembled at these words, and gave
her land back to her again.—
(From the German.)

Heaven.

A little girl was gazing up at the starry sky
one clear night. She seemed to be very much
occupied in thinking about something. Her
mother said to her, ‘‘What are you thinking
about, my dear?”’

“Oh, mamma’, she said, ‘I was thinking if
the outside of heaven is so beautiful; how very
beautiful it must be inside.”’

—>~< oo >

Do not try to get something good out of self.
Why try to pump where there is no well; or
to draw water where there is no spring? but
come to the everlasting spring, to the overflow-
ing well. Come to Curisr.—Selected.

Our Critic’s Corner.

Encnotripion. Tre Smati CaTecnism OF Dr.
M. Lurner. In the translation authorized
by the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical
Conference of North America.

It is, beyond all doubt, eminently meet and
proper that in this year, as the year of the 350th
anniversary of the first appearance and publication
of the blessed and world-renowned Smaller Cate-
chism of Dr. Luther, a new, revised, and, so to say,
standard translation of this inestimable treasure of
our Lutheran Church should be published in the
English language. It has been prepared by order
of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference.
A great deal of conscientious care and labor has
been bestowed upon it in order to make the ren-
dering both true to the original, and conformable to
the idiom of the English language. The little volume
34 pages 8°, neatly printed and bound in cloth, is
issued by the Lutheran Concordia Publishing
House at St. Louis, Mo. It may be had for 10 cts.
per copy 80 cts. per dozen, by addressing M. C. -
Barthel, Agent of said Publishing House, St. Louis,
Mo. We hope that none of our readers will be
willing to do without it. It can also be had at
Siemon & Bro’s, Fort Wayne, Ind.

Tne Sweer Comrort AnD Sure Grounp or
Tyrant Baptism, as taught in God’s Word,
against Baptist Fanatics.

This Tract No. 4, published by the Evangelical
Lutheran English Augustana Conference of Stark
and other counties of Ohio, is also a timely publi-
cation. It dwells on the question: Who shall be
baptized? As nearly all sectarian churches or de-
nominations look upon infant baptism as something
wholly unscriptural, obsolete and superstitious, or,
at least, superfluous, it is certainly the duty of
every true son and daughter of our dear Lutheran
Church, who holds and teaches that Holy Baptism
is an institution of Jesus Christ unto the salvation
of children as well as of adults, to be, or become,
well grounded in this precious doctrine over against
all the sects surrounding us in this country. And
we are convinced that every one will in this re-
spect be benefited by the study of the above-named
Tract, wherein the arguments of the sects against
the scripturalness and usefulness of infant baptism
are keenly analyzed and ably refuted. It contains
24 pages 8°, and will be sent to any addregs, post-

aid, single copies for 10 cts., a dozen fap 7 cts.,
J. L. Trauger, Petersburg, honing

CRITIC.

y Rey.
Co., Ohio.

Votratn Voct’s Brste History for Christian
Schools, revised; together with a Short Church
History and a map of Palestine. Rewritten by
B. J. Muus, Pastor. Published by Lutheran Pub-
lishing House, Decorah, Iowa. Price per single
copy bound in cloth 30 cents.

Hymn Boox for the use of Evangelical Lutheran
Schools and Congregations. Lutheran aReb Ing
House, Decorah, Iowa. Price per single copy boun
in cloth 40 cents. ;
TS SS

Print of the Luth. Concordia Publishing House.