The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1883, Page 29

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL Lutueran SynopicaL ConFERENCE oF NorTH AMERICA.
R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

Entered at the Post Ofiice at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter.

Vol. Y.

St. Louis, Mo., August, 1883.

No. 8.

“That Dear Love Of Thine.’’

It passeth knowledge ! that dear love of Thine,

My Jesus! Saviour! yet this soul of mine

Would of that love, in all its depth and length,

Its height and breadth and everlasting strength,
Know more and more.

It passeth telling! that dear love of Thine,

My Jesus! Saviour! yet these lips of mine

Would fain proclaim to sinners far and near

A love which can remove all guilty fear—
And love beget.

It passeth praises / that dear love of Thine,

My Jesus! Saviour! yet this heart of mine

Would sing a love so rich—so full—so free—

Which brought an undone sinner, such as me
Right home to God.

But, ah! I can not tell, or sing, or know,

The fulness of that love, whilst here below;

Yet my poor vessel I may freely bring!

Oh! Thou who art of love the living spring,
My vessel fill.

I am an empty vessel! scarce one thought

Or look of love to Thee I’ve ever brought:

Yet, I may come, and come again to Thee

With this—the contrite sinner’s trutiful plea—
“Thou lovest me !””

Oh! jill me, Jesus! Saviour, with Thy love!
May woes but drive me to the front above:
Thither may J in childlike faith draw nigh,
~And never to another fountain fly,
But unto Thee!

And when, my Jesus! Thy dear face I see—
When at Thy lofty throne I bend the knee,
Then of Thy love—in all its breadth and length,
Its height and depth and everlasting strengtfi—
My soul shall sing, and find her endless rest
In loving Thee!
Selected.

———> - <a -

On the Evening

of others in the Fort Wayne Fair Grounds to
see the fireworks which were-to close the cele-
bration of the day. We saw the artificial fires
illuminating the grounds whilst the crowd
shouted and applauded. But soon the fires
died out and all their splendour was gone. We
saw the rocket go with a flash and a glare
towards the sky; itsseemed utterly to outshine
the light and glory of the modest stars. Then

idespair, ‘‘It is only pearls.”
ithe desert to die. S
of the Fourth of July we stood with thouggnds |’

a dead stick fell to the earth and all its light
was darkness. But the silent stars shone on,
declaring the glory of God. And we thought
of the many infidel speeches, and books, and
pamphlets which have been hurled against the
Bible as against a firm Rock, where they lie,
witnesses to their own weakness and to the
Rock’s grandeur and glory.

‘The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but
the word of our God shall stand forever,’’
Tsaiah 40, 8. ~

——s +o or

The Bag of Pearls.

We just read a story in one of our exchanges
which may teach us an important lesson. The
story runs thus: An Arab once lost his way in
a desert. His provisions were soon exhausted.
For two days and two nights he had not a
morsel to eat. He began to fear that he should
die of hunger. He looked eagerly, but in
vain, along the level sand for some caravan of
travelers from whom he might beg some bread.

At last he came to a place where there was
a little water in a well, and around the well’s
mouth the marks of an encampment. Some
people had lately pitched their tents there, and
had gathered them up and gone away again
The starving Arab looked around in the hope
of finding some food that the travelers might
have left behind. After searching a while, he
came upon a little bag, tied at the mouth, and
ull of something that felt hard and round. He
opened the bag with great joy, thinking it con-
tained either dates or nuts, and expecting that
with them he should be able to satisfy his hun-
ger. But as soon as he saw what it contained,
he threw it on the ground and cried out in
He lay down in

Need we point out the lesson to be learned?
Pearls are precious, yes; but they can not even
preserve the life of the body, far less can they
satisfy the hungry soul. A morsel of bread
would have been more precious to the hungry
Arab than that bag full of pearls ; and the
Bread of Life-must be more precious to the
soul than all the treasures of the earth. Christ
says, ‘‘I am the Bread of Life.”’ How foolish
it is for sinners to go on spending their lives in

gathering things which can not satisfy their
souls and can not save them from their sins! .
‘What is a man profited if he gain the whole
world and lose his own soul?”’? The *rich man ~
who dies without Christ for his soul is like that
Arab in the desert, with his bagful of pearls,
but perishing for want of bread. Oh, let us
remember that the chief thing for each of us is
to have Christ the true Bread of Life for our
souls forever! ‘

2+ ome

Flowers.

By Dr. MARTIN LUTHER.

“The world, since Adam’s fall, knows neither
God her Creator, nor His creatures; lives a
life poorer than that of the cattle, honors not
God, nor glorifies Him.
sinned, how man would have recognized God -
in all the creatures, would have praised and
loved Him, so that even in the smallest flower
he would have seen and contemplated God’s
almightiness, wisdom, and goodness. For truly
who can think to the bottom of this, how God
creates out of the dry, dull earth so many
flowers of such beautiful colors, and such sweet
perfume, such as no painter nor apothecary can
rival? From the common ground God is ever
bringing forth flowers, golden, crimson, blue,
brown, and of all colors. All this Adam and
his like would have turned to God’s glory,
using all the creatures with thanksgiving. But
“we misuse them sénselessly, just as a cow or
any unreasonable brute tramples the choicest
and fairest flowers and lilies heneath its feet.’

—j> oo oe

A Good Test.

On a certain occasion Valerius Herberger,
the well-known Lutheran pastor at Fraustadt,
was called to visit a dying old counsellor who
had grown up in the Romish Church, but who
for a long time attended Herberger’s preaching.
As he was about breathing his last he said to
the minister: ‘I have never been rightly on
your side, for I was brought up in the papacy;
but now, on my death-bed I feel it, that ee
gospel furnishes the best comfort.”

Ah, if Adam had not «+

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