The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1883, Page 7

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‘The Lutheran Pioneer.

Luther finds the Bible.

When Luther was 18 years of age, he en-

tered the University of Erfurt, in the year |

1501. He was the most gifted and most in-
dustrious student. Seeking for knowledge, he
spent many of his leisure hours in the Library.
Here he one day found a Book which soon be-
came. the joy of his soul. It was the Bible.
He had never seen a Bible before and had
thought that it contained no more than what
he heard the priests read in church. He
opened the Book and his eyes caught the story
of Hannah consecrating her boy to the Lord,
(1 Samuel 1—3). He was astonished to see
that there is much more in this Book than
he had heard in the Church Service. Our
picture shows us how intently ‘he is read-
ing its holy pages. ‘‘ His eye kindles with
amazementand intense interest. He hangs
entranced over the Book; his dreamy eyes
are fixed on the page; hour after hour
flies; the shades of night begin to gather,
and he is forced to lay the volume aside,
with the sigh, O, that this Book of books
might one day be mine!”’

He little thought at that time that he,
the miners son, was destined by God to
give to the people an open Bible and to
bring forth from this inexhaustible mine
of God’s Word the precious gold of pure
doctrine for the salvation of many souls.

o<=_>e

Robert Moffat’s Mother.

Robert Moffat, the aged missionary to
Africa, speaking of his conversion and the
devotion of his life to missionary work,
said :

“‘T will tell you how it was: When I
was leaving home for Warrington, where
I was going to work as a gardener, my

mother asked me to give her a promise. I

wanted to know what I was to promise, but she | -

would not tell me and still urged that I should
promise. I was quite loth to give my word to
do a thing which I did not know about, but I
loved and trusted my mother, and so at length
gave the promise she wished.

««’Well,’ she said, ‘I want you to read a
portion of the New Testament every day, and
wherever you may be!’

“J kept my promise to my mother, and it
was some time after that, that I was brought to
the knowledge of Christ.’’

“And did you then devote yourself to the
missionary work?”’ some one asked.

‘‘No,”’ he replied; ‘‘that was later; I had
gone in from the place where I was working to
the town of Warrington on a Saturday night
to buy a book, when I saw a placard about a
missionary meeting. It was an old placard,
and the meeting was past, but it fixed my
thoughts on the subject; and so I went to the
minister whose name was on the placard, and
after I had knocked at his door I would gladly

have run away, but it was too late. SoI saw
him and talked with him, and afterward he in-
| troduced me to the London Missionary Society,
by which, two years later, in 1822, I was sent
out to Africa.’’

1822, and 1883! What wonderful changes
have taken place in Africa between those two

also by the work of that faithful missionary—
Robert Moffat! Over the harvests that have
| been gathered from the deserts of Africa that
godly mother will rejoice too, who trained her
boy in the fear of the Lord and made him
promise to read the New Testament every
day.

t

ty
it
——

be
sill

The Soldier’s Prayer.

It was the evening after a great battle.
Among the many who had bowed to the con-
queror, Death, that night was a youth in the
first freshness of mature life. The strong

dates! Changes that have been brought about

He was taken to a temporary hospital, a let-
ter was written to his mother, which he dic-
tated, full of Christian faith and filial love.
Just as the sun arose his spirit went home, his
last articulate words being,

“T pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take;

And this I ask for Jesus’ sake.”

So died William B. The prayer of
childhood was the prayer of manhood. He
learned it at his mother’s knee in his infancy,
and he whispered it in dying, when his manly
life ebbed away on a distant battle-field. God
bless the saintly words, alike loved and re-
peated by high and low, rich and poor, wise
and ignorant, old and young. Happy the soul
that can repeat it with the holy fervor of
the dying soldier.—Dr. H. Bonar.

————> ~o<e

“That's Me.”

A poor Hottentot in Southern Africa
lived with a man who had family prayers
every day. One day he read: ‘‘Two men
went up into the Temple to pray.”’

The poor savage looked earnestly at
the reader, and whispered:

“Now I'll learn how to pray.” |

The man read on: ‘ God, I thank Thee
that Iam not as other men.”’

“No, Iam not; but I am worse,’
whispered the Hottentot.

Again the man read: ‘‘T fast twice in
the week, I give tithes of all I possess.’’

“‘T don’t do that; I don’t pray in that
way. What shall I do?” said the dis-
tressed savage.

The man read on, until he came to the
publican, who “‘ would not so much as lift
his eyes unto Heaven.”

“That's me!’’ said his hearer.

“Stood afar off,’ read the other.

“That’s where Lam,” said the Hottentot.

‘‘But smote upon his breast, saying, ‘God
be merciful to me a sinner.’ ”’

‘‘That’s me! that’s my prayer!”’ cried the
poor creature; and, smiting on his dark breast,
he prayed, ‘‘God be merciful to me a sinner”
until, like the poor publican, he went down to -

limbs lay listless, and the dark hair was matted | jis house, “a saved and happy man.

with gore on the pale broad forehead. His
eyes were closed. As one who ministered to
the sufferer bent over him he at first thought
him dead; but the white lips moved, and
slowly, in weak tones, he repeated:
‘*Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep;

If [ should die before I wake,

I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take;

And this I ask for Jesus’ sake.”’

As he finished he opened his eyes, and meet-
ing the pitying gaze of a brother soldier he ex-
claimed, ‘‘My mother taught me that when I
was a little boy, and I have said it every night
since I can remember. Before the morning
dawns, I believe, God will take my soul for
‘Jesus’ sake’; but befure I die I want to send
a message to my mother.’?

— + oo

Old Uncle’s Answer of Faith.

Some weeks ago three young gentlemen were
descending from the fifth story of one of Cin-
cinnati’s largest buildings in an elevator con-
trolled by an old colored man. They were dis-
cussing the question of what the result would
be if the elevator should fall, and one of them
said, ‘‘I don’t care for myself, but I am an-
xious for my old friend here,’” alluding to the
colored man, and turning to him said: ‘‘ Uncle,
where do you think you would alight?”?” Old
Uncle replied promptly: ‘I would light in the —
arms of Jesus! Where would you light?””? The
young man was silenced, and left the elevator
without another word.