The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1885, Page 23

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

Nancy’s Message.

Nancy White was only a washer-woman, yet

she stood near the splendid coffin where lay

| have seen poverty and sickness, but found
God’s word true through it all. I hugged it
to my heart, and it grew dearer than husband

in} or children even, and so it will to you, dear

sweet repose together, 2 young mother and nevw-| sir, if you will look to the Master.”
“It’s dark, Nancy, all dark.’
‘*«Blessed are they that mourn; for they|easy, and prosperous, and, may be, forgetting

born babe.
Most lovely was the face which death had

altered so little. The stately parlors, draped shall be comforted,’”’
in black, the beautiful things she had so de-|

lighted in, gleams of marble, glimpses of rare
color and exquisite drapery, lent a strange and
solemn brightness to the scene.

Long and earnestly Nancy
White looked on the two faces.
Her lips trembled, her eyes
glistened; but a smile fought
with the tears.

“After all God knew best;
He hasn’t parted them,’’ she
said, softly.

Nancy White was known all
over town for an honest, chris-
tian woman. She told homely
truths over the wash tub that
many a lady would never have
borne from an ordinary ac-
quaintance.

She, too, stood at the grave,
in her scant brown gown and
the sombre plaid ribbon over
her bonnet. Her heart bled
for the suffering husband, and
when. she saw him standing
there, white and rigid as the
marble shafts on either side,
she. whispered: ‘‘Poor body!
there’s a cloud between him
and the Master.’

This thought haunted her,
and the next day old Nancy
toiled up the-steep hill again
toward the rich man’s house.

“Tell him a poor, mean body
has come to give him comfort,”
she said.

Presently Nancy was ushered
into a dark room, where sat
the mourner. Nancy had often
comforted his pretty wife be-
fore her trial—he knew that; and so, while all
of his intimate friends might have been refused
audience, the poor homely, blunt creature was
admitted.

Nancy came quietly in and stood beside him,
as she exclaimed in a sweet, solemn voice: ‘‘The
Lord comfort ye!”’

“Nancy, I am in-utter despair,’ was the
choked response.

Nancy looked at him, pitifully, her heavy
hands working one over the other, and at last
she said, as if-soliloquizing:

‘My man was drowned in the river. He
was a good husband to me, and he went out
full of health and strength, and was brought
home to me, that loved him so, dead. Within
the month, my two children died, and I was
left alone with a blind mother to support. I

He looked up at her.

rugged, homely, and humble, and it seemed to feel a Christian’s comfort,’’ he said, sadly.
| strike him all at once that her visit was entirely

| unselfish, so that his heart warmed toward her. , isn’t your own—a pretty gift, I’m thinking, the

2

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S

aa.

guede that heepeth
oe thee will not
slumber.

Evening.

It is the evening hour,
And thankfully,

Father, Thy weary child
Has come to Thee.

I lean my aching head
Upon Thy breast,

said Nancy, softly.
There she stood,

And there, and only there,

Iam at rest.

All that I have or am

Through Christ is Thine; -

So is my soul at peace,
For Thou art mine.

To-morrow’s dawn may find

Me here, or there;

It matters little, since Thy love

Is everywhere!

—Selected.

| “That's a promise, sir,’’ she added.

| ‘Yes, Nancy, that’s a promise,’’ he quietly
| responded.

| “From One who never broke His word, sir.
| He has taken your wife and child to Himself,
|to save your soul, sir. You were rich, and

Him.”
“Nancy, I would give all the world if I could

“‘And that’s a brave speech, sir, to give what

Lord would think it. Would I
thank you if you said, ‘Nancy,
I'll give you the house over
yonder,’ when I know it be-
longs to Captain Nash? No,
no, give God what belongs to
you, your own poor, broken,
sinful \heart, and He’ll make
it clean—see if He doesn’t.
He'll comfort you so that you'll
say in all her dear life you
never had such comfort. O
my dear sir, mourn before God,
and you'll bless the day my
Master even sent His poor old
servant to say a word to you
of Him.’’

The truth struck home. The
sweet promise was verified—
at the grave of his wife, or
surrounded by remembrances
of her in the room where she
died—‘‘Blessed are they that

mourn; for they shall be com-
forted.”’

As for Nancy, she watched
Him on Sundays from her seat
in the corner, or sometimes she
met him in the church door,
and it was all the reward she
needed, to hear him say: ‘‘God
bless you, Nancy; Iam trying
to get on.’’—Selected.

Fourfold.

A little Kaffir girl in South

Africa came one day to the missionary and
brought him four sixpences, saying, “This
money is yours.”

‘“‘No,”’ said the missionary, “‘it is not mine.’’
’ Yes,’ persisted the little black girl, ‘‘you
must take it. At the examination of the
school you gave me a sixpence as a prize for
good writing, but the writing was not mine;
I got some one else to doit forme. So here
are four sixpences.”’

She had read the story of Zaccheus in Luke
19, and ‘‘went and did likewise.’* How much
better was this than hiding her sin would have
been! :

—————> oa o> eo -

teThe mills of God grind slowly,

But they grind exceeding small;

Though with patience he stands waiting; —
With exactness grinds he all.”