The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1884, Page 5

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusiisnEep BY THE EvanceyicaL LurneraN SynopicaL Conrerence or Nort AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. VI.

Safe At Home.

Land ahead! Its trees are waving
O’er the hills of fadeless green;
And the living waters laving
Shores where heay’nly forms are seen.

Now my heart with joy is bounding,
As I see the heavenly land,

Hear the golden harps resounding,
From the glorious blood-washed band.

Farewell, carth, thy grief and sadness,
All thy bitterness and tears—

Are exchanged for joy and gladness,
Death and darkness disappears.

Now we're safe from all temptation,
All the storms of life are past;

Praise the Rock of our salvation,
We are safe at home at last.

Hark! the tide of rapture swelling,
Thee, Lord Jesus, we adore,

Every life with wonder telling
Praise to Thee for evermore.

2+ <9 + <>

“Come Home!”

We recently read a story of a poor woman
who lost her only daughter in the vicious whirl-
pool depths of London life. The girl left a

* pure home, to be drawn into the gulf of guilty,

misery. The mother, with a breaking heart,
went to Dr. Barnardo, and telling him the
story, asked if he could help to find the lost
one. ‘The genial doctor said: ‘Yes, I can;
get your photograph taken, frame a good many
copies, write under the picture ‘Come home,’
and send them to me.” ‘The doctor had the
photographs hung up in places where he thought
the lost one would come to visit. One night
the girl, with some companions in sin, as she
entered one of these places, saw her mother’s
carte. Struck with astonishment, she looked
closely at it, and saw the invitation written
beneath. To whom was it addressed? To her?
Yes. She saw by that token that there was
forgiveness awaiting her, and that night the
repenting daughter returned to her mother’s
arms, just as she was.

Ah! there are many wanderers from their

Father’s home, lost in a world of sin and mis-

ery. ‘The prophet says, ‘‘All we, like sheep,

have gone astray; we have turned every one
to his own way,’’ Isa. 53, 6. The Gospel
comes to us and shows us our loving Saviour
in whom God has revealed Himself as a God
of"mercy for all sinners. We behold this
Saviour on every page of the Bible and read
the loving invitation ‘Come home!’’ It gives
us the assurance that there is pardon awaiting
us since Christ has borne the punishment of
all our sins. Yes, there is a loving welcome,
full of sweetest forgiveness, for all repenting
sinners. In their Father's arms they will find
a home full of peace and rest. And those strong
arms will carry them in the hour of death to
the mansions above where they shall be safe at
home.

Sinful wanderer! Behold your Saviour in
the Gospel and listen to God’s loving ery ‘‘Come

Home! Come Home!”’

—_ > + oe be

Take Hold and Help.

A school teacher relates the following inci-
dent as observed from her window: ‘Two
colored men were engaged in loading cotton
bales. One of the men shirked. Although he
went through all the motions, he did not help
much in the work, while the other used all his
strength. Finally he turned to his fellow la-
borer, and surveying him from head to foot,
said: ‘Sambo, are you a Christian?’ ‘Yes.’
‘Then take hold and help.’””? There are many
who make a profession of Christianity, but do
nothing to help the cause of Christ in the
world. ‘Their common excuse is, ‘‘I am poor,
Tam weak, Iam unlearned; what can I do?”
If you are a Christian you can do something.
Think of the widow and her-two mites. One
grain of sand is not a mountain, but you can-
not have a mountain without grains of sand.

41 eo ee

Trust in Jesus.

A doctor, who was once visiting a Christian
patient, had himself long been anxious to feel
that he was at peace with God. The Spirit of
God had convinced him of his sin and need,
and he longed to possess ‘‘that peace which the
world cannot give.”” On this occasion, address-

St. Louis, Mo., February, 1S84.

9

wJe

No.

ing himself to the sick one, he said: “I want
you just to tell me what it is, this believing
and getting happiness—faith in Jesus, and all
that sort of thing that brings peace?”’ }
His patient replied: ‘‘Doctor, I have felt
that I could do nothing, and I have put my case
in your hands—I am trusting in you. This is
exactly what every poor sinner must do in the

| Lord Jesus.’’

This reply greatly awakened the doctor's
surprise, and a new light broke in upon his
soul. “Is that all?—simply trusting in the \
Lord Jesus! I see it as I never did before.
He has done the work.”’

Yes, Jesus said on the cross, ‘‘It is finished,”
and ‘whosoever believeth in Him shall not
perish but have everlasting life?’’

From that sick bed the doctor went a happy
man—rejoicing that his sins were washed away
in the Blood of the Lamb.

——»> - oe -

, God Spared not His own Son.”

One day a Christian man was pressing on
some Roman Catholic neighbors the danger of
neglecting their soul’s salvation, and in doing
so set before them the terrors of the hell that
awaits the impenitent. One of them turned
on him and said, ‘‘You area father; could you
make one of your children unhappy for his
whole life, even if he had offended you ever so:
deeply? And will God be less merciful to us
than an earthly parent would he towards his
children? If we have been so unfortunate as
to offend Him, still will He not spare us?’’
“Spare you!?? answered the other; ‘how could
he do that, when He spared not His own Son!””

—-——~ 1 oo

Jesus!

It is a touching story told of a poor Norwe-
gian mother whose baby died in her arms on
the train, that unable to speak, she pointed
Bishop Whipple to the one word in the Lu-
theran Prayerbook which expressed volumes—
«Jesus.’’? Blessed is the faith in One who is
touched with our sorrows and acquainted with
our griefs. A