The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1885, Page 10

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10 The Lutheran Pioneer.

that her children should be called. They came.
With intense feeling she addressed them:

“My children, I have been leading you in
: : the wrong road all your life. I now find the
dying, testimony of the beloved Rev. Janes. broad ae ends in fetes I did not be-
We do not enough emphasize this most remark-|):..6 it before. Oh, seek to-serve God, and
able fact, that in all the history of human life try to find the gate of heaven, though oor may
and death there is not on record a solitary in-| .4¢ fnd your mother there.”
stance of any Christian ever having turnedaway! ith these affecting words the poor mother’s
from Christ in the dying hour, disappointed, lips closed forever, and her spirit passed into
deceived and regretful! Mark this. Has in- eternity, while the household looked on the sad
fidelity a similar record to show? scene in helpless terror and awe.

“Thank God!’’ exclaims a back-slider, who} Nothing can sustain and ‘satisfy the soul
had wandered away from God into infidelity,} when heart and flesh are failing save Christ.
and came back to the old Gospel again on his| Everything else disappears and fails. Even if
tempted to turn away from him the clear-
sighted soul would cry out: “To whom
shall I go? Thou hast the words of eter-
nal life. Thee will I trust; to thee will I
cling.”’ R. C. A.

Ce

Native Chinese Preachers.

Uncle John’s Soliloquy. A Remarkable Fact.

‘““Why did I not see this thing before? Ten
dollars for foreign missions, and one year ago
I only gave fifty cents. And that half dollar
hurt me so much, and came ¢0 reluctantly!
And the ten dollars—why, it is a real pleasure
to hand it over to the Lord! And this comes
from keeping an account with the Lord. Iam
so glad Brother Smith preached that sermon.
He said we should all find it a good thing to
have a treasury in the house from which to
draw whenever our contributions are solicited !
He asked us to try the experiment for one
year, to set apart a certain portion of our in-
come for the Lord’s work. I thought it
over. I thought about those Jews, and
the one-tenth they gave to the Lord’s treas-
ury. I thought what a mean and close-
fisted Jew I should have been had I lived
in those days. Then I counted up all I had
given for the year and it was just three dol-
lars. Three dollars! And I had certainly
raised from my farm, clear of expense, one
thousand two hundred dollars. Three dol-
lars is one four hundredth part of one thou-

“T am not disappointed !”’ was the significant

At a missionary meeting a missionary
from China was asked many questions con-
cerning the progress of Christ’s work in that

sand two hundred dollars. 4
“The more I thought, the wider I opened
my eyes.”’ Said I, ‘‘I am not quite ready
for the Jew’s one-tenth, but I will try one-
twentieth and see how it works! I gota
big envelope and put it down in the cor-
ner of my trunk, and as soon as I could I
put sixty dollars in it. Said I, ‘Here goes
for the Lord.’ It cost me a little some-
thing to say it at first; but when it was
done how good I felt over it! When this

SSe
Md BRE

interesting country. One of the questions
touched upon the preparation made by the
Chinese converts, who are called into the
ministry of the Gospel, and the missionhry
stated that their study was confined almost
wholly to the Bible. With this, however,
he said they are wonderfully familiar, many—
of them having committed to memory the
entire New Testament, and quoting it with
an accuracy and readiness humiliating to
most of the English and American mission-

aries, holding the sacred book in their hand
while they preach, and appealing to it as
the supreme authority. .

A Dying Child’s Request.

TAMBRECN 2s

appeal came for foreign missions, all I had
to do, was just to run to my treasury, and
get the money. And this all comes from °
keeping an account with the Lord. How
He has blessed me this year! I never had
better crops. Now. I am going to try an-
other plan. I am going to give the Lord
the profits ‘from one acre, one of my.- best
yearlings, and one tenth of the profits
from my orchard, that will surely carry the|death-bed.
Lord’s fund up to $75.00; and if it don’t, Ij old Rock to die!’

will’ make it up from something else.’” Thus} A famous man on his dying bed was ad-
uncle John soliloquized; and the more he| dressed by a friend who spoke to him of the
thought the subject over, the more he won-} Saviour.

dered he had not seen things in the right light} « a 6 =

before. If the farmers of our land would only «it eae ee yeen eet dying man:

uncle John’s experiment, they would fill] _, eotias oR cg th
i treasuries of our Missionary Societies full What ian enygasked hisifriend; mother, who had loved her just as mothers in
to overflowing. No more would the shameful prospectal 3 : ., ,-__.| Christian lands love their children, sat weeping
cry. of ‘retrenchment’? be heard. No more The Bnewers whispered with pallid lips,| peside her, she opened her eyes and said:
would our poorly paid ‘Home Missionaries”’ sounded like the knell of doom: ‘“Dark—very Mother, please put your Gospel of Luke under
dark! my head for a pillow, for it is so beautiful.’

have to’ wait for their small quarterly dues.| ~~
No more would the aggressive work of the ‘But have you no light from the Sun of |Tt was done according to her wish, and while

: church be stopped. Let us try the exper- Righteousness? have you done justice to the! she thus rested on her loved Saviour’s Word
iment. Let os begin to keep a debit and credit Bible?”’ : He called her away.
‘account with the Lord, and then we shallrealize| ‘‘Perhaps not,’’ he replied;
what the failures of the past have been. May | too late—too late!”’
the Lord epee our hs as UE did the eyes of} A mother, who had laughed at and ridiculed} Tse Holy Spirit brings Christ home to us.
, religion and religious people, was seen restless | Where the Holy Spirit does not preach, there
__—Selected. |and miserable on her death-bed. She desired | is no church.— Luther.

“My burden, dearest Saviour,
Hast thus Thou borne for me,
My sinful misbehaviour

Has caused Thine agony.”

The little daughter of a native judge, in
one of the mountain towns of Japan, whose
wife had become a Christian, loved to hear
“Thank God! back sesin on the|her mother read the New Testament, and was
particularly fond of Luke’s Gospel. She list-
ened eagerly to the story of Jesus’ birth in the
manger and all the wonders of his life and
death, and was eager to tell her heathen play-
mates the news of his Jove and mercy. But
she was taken sick with diphtheria, and soon

ah oat lay at the very door of death. While her
are your

“but it is, now f
——. oo