The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1882, Page 11

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The Lutheran Pioneer. Mi

“Who Loved Me.”

Galatians 2, 20.

Three little sunbeams, gilding all I see.

Three little chords, each full of melody.

Three little leaves, balm for my agony.
“wo”

He loved me, the Father’s only Son.
He gave Himself, the precious, spotless One.
He shed His blood, and thus the work was done.

“LovEpD”

He loved—not merely pitied. Here I rest.
Sorrow may come—lI to His heart am pressed.
What should I fear while sheltered in His breast?

Lt3.5 6 one
Wonder of wonders, Jesus loved me ;
A wretch—lost—ruined—sunk in misery.
He sought me, found me, raised me, set me free.
My soul, the order of the words approve.
Christ first, me last, nothing between but LOVE.
Lord, keep me always down, Thyself above.
Trusting to Thee, not struggling restlessly,
So shall I gain the victory.
“T—yet not J’»—but Christ—“Who loved me.”

—Selected.

<p o +

The Wonderful Mother.

The winter of the year 1709 was one of ex-
treme cold. Never was a colder winter known
in Europe. In France many people froze to
death in their beds, not only among the mount-
ains, but even in the villages and cities. The
hottest “fire was not sufficient to keep 2 room
warm. While the stoves were red-hot, the
water would freeze but a few feet_from them.
The trees in the forest and by the roadside be-
came so frozen that some of them -burst, and
made a noise as if a small mine had exploded.

Sparrows and crows and jackdaws sometimes
fell down dead while flying in the air. Large
flocks of sheep and cattle froze in the barn-
yards. The bats, which usually sleep during
the winter, were awakened out of their torpid
slumbers, fluttered around a. little while, and
fell dead on the ground. The deer in the
forest could no more run swiftly, but crept
slowly out of the woods and came near the
dwellings of men.

During this winter a poor little Savoyard
boy was wandering the streets of Luneville, in
Lothringia. He was a pitiable orphan. His
older brother, who had taken care of him, had
now gone on a message to the city of Nancy,
to earn a few francs. But he suffered the fate
of many travelers, and was frozen to death.
Many of the passengers on the stage and on
horseback were frozen to death, though covered
with furs and cloaks. The drivers lost their
lives, and still held the reins in their stiff hands.

The little Savoyard boy wandered about from
house to house to get a little employment or a
piece of bread. He was glad to blacken boots
or shoes, dust clothes, clean dishes in the kitchen,
or do anything that would give him a little
money. But when night came on his suffering
became intense. He had slept with his brother

In a carpenter’s shop, where the two had coy-
ered themselves with an old foot-cloth on which

they piled shavings very high. They lay very
close together, and by this means managed to
be protected from the severity of the cold.
But now he was alone, and he would certainly
freeze if he should attempt to sleep in the car-
penter’s shop. The wife of a hostler took com-
passion on him. She showed him a little sleep-
ing place in one of the stalls in the stable
where the horses of a certain prince were kept.
In this stall there stood an iron cage, in which
a large brown bear was confined, for the beast
was very wild and angry. The little Savoyard
boy, who had come in the darkness of the
night into the stable, neither knew nor cared
for any wild beast that might be near by. He
lay down upon some straw, and stretched out
his hand to pull more. <As he stretched out his
hand, he put it between the wires of the cage
in which the beast was, and found that a large
pile was there. Thinking it was better to get
in where the straw was, he crawled up to the
cage, and squeezed in through the iron bars.
The bear grumbled a little, but did no violence.
The little boy offered to God a prayer, which
his departed mother had taught him, and then
committed himself to the keeping of his Heav-
enly Father. He asked protection from the
cold, and he was protected both from the cold
and from the wild beasts.

The bear took the little stranger between her
paws and pressed him near her warm breast,
and against her thick skin, so softly and com-
fortably, that he who had not slept for many
nights with any comfort now forgot all fear,
and soon fell into a sweet deep sleep.

In the morning the boy waked up with re-
newed strength and crept out of the cage, and
went forth to the city to attend to his business
and seek his daily bread. At night he returned
to his strange mother. Beside the bear there
lay a great many pieces of bread which had
been brought from the table of the prince, but
the bear had eaten all she wanted, and these
were left. So the little Savoyard helped him-
self to all he needed. He then lay quietly
down between the paws of his thick clad
mother, who pressed him to her as she had
done before, and he slept there as if in the
warmest featherbed.

In this way he spent five nights without any-
body knowing it. On the morning of the sixth
night he overslept himself, so that when the
hostlers went around with lanterns in the early
morning to attend to the many horses in the
stable, they saw the boy lying between the
paws of the great bear. The old bear grunted
a little as if she were very much offended at
any one seeing her taking care of her little
favorite. The boy sprang up and squeezed
through the cage-to the great astonishment of
the bystanders.

This strange affair became widely known, and
created much wonder throughout the city.
Although the modest little Savoyard was very
much ashamed that anybody should know that
he had slept in the arms of a bear, he was
ordered to appear in the presence of the prince,

to whom he told his recent experience. The
prince appointed a day for him to come again,
The boy came, and in the presence of the
prince and princess, and many people of rank,
he was requested to enter the cage where the
great bear was. She received him as kindly as
ever, and pressed him to her breast.

The good prince now understood that the
bear, or rather God, working providentially
through the bear, had been the means of sav-
ing the little orphan boy from death. No per-
son had taken care of him, none had shown
any sympathy for him, and yet in the very
coldest night of that remarkable winter this
rough bear was the means of saving his life,
the providence of God preserving him.

This circumstance led the prince to contem-
plate divine providence in a higher light than
he had ever done before; and so should it lead
us to remember that God sometimes uses the
most unexpected means as the instruments for
the consummation of his purposes. ‘The little
Savoyard afterward led an honorable and use-
ful life, nor did he ever forget how God had
spared him in his great need.

“The Lord that delivered me out-of the
paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the
bear.’”’ 1Sam. 17, 37.

“JT laid me down and slept; I awaked, for
the Lord sustained me.’’ Psalm 8, 5.—Selected.

——__ - e<a- e+

The Atheist and the Globe.

The famous astronomer, Athanasius Kircher,
having a friend who denied the existence of a
Supreme Being, took the following method to
convince him of his error, upon his own prin-
ciples. Expecting him upon a visit, he pro-
cured a very handsome globe of the starry
heavens, and placed it in a corner of the room
where it could not escape his friend’s observa-
tion. The latter seized the first occasion to ask
whence it came, and to whom it belonged.,
«‘Not to me,” said Kircher; ‘‘nor was it ever
made by any person, but came here by mere
chance!”’ ‘*That,’”’ replied his skeptical friend,
‘Cis impossible. You surely jest.’’ Kircher,
however, seriously persisting in his assertion,
took occasion to reason with his friend upon his
atheistical principles. ‘‘ You will not,” said he,
‘believe that this small body originated in mere
chance; and yet you would contend that those
heavenly bodies, of which it is only a faint and
small resemblance, came into existence without
order and design!”’ Pursuing this chain of
reasoning, his friend was at first confounded,
in the next place convinced, and ultimately
joined in a cordial acknowledgment of the ab-
surdity of denying the existence of God.

a

Our Leader.

“Jesus, loving Saviour,

Only Thou dost know

All that shall befall us
As we onward go.

So we humbly pray Thee,
Take us by the hand,

Lead us ever upward
To the Better Land.’’

PRITZLAFF MEMORIAL LIBRARY

~ CONCORDIA SEMINARY
ae ST. LOUIS, MO,