The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1885, Page 31

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

31

An Opium Story.

Opium is one of the chief productions of
India and ‘‘Christian England’’ has opened a
market for it in China. The misery it produces
there is beyond the power of the pen to de-
scribe. The Society for the Suppression of
the Opium Trade recently held a meeting in
London. At this meeting a missionary from
China said that one out of three of the inquirers
in the preaching halls was a confirmed opium
sot. He then related the following incident to
illustrate the great difficulty which the mission-
aries had to-contend with in their work:

“T will not now allude to the fact that the
Chinese are continually shouting out to us in
our preaching-halls, ‘Who brings the opium?’
Of course, that is a stock-story which you do
not want to hear again to-day. But one day
a@ young man came into my preaching-hall.

His name was Tong. He had been a slave to
opium-smoking for five or six years, but he had
been impressed at our preaching services.
was an habitual sot, as was evident from his
appearance. In every other respect he was a
very honest young man, upright, gentle and
teachable. He at once determined to give up
the opium, but then came ‘the tug of war.’
I watched his struggles day after day while he
was in the fierce grip of the opium demon.
One day he would smash his pipe to pieces,
and the next day he would buy another. I
have seen him come to our preaching-hall cry-
ing bitterly, as he has confessed to me his sin
and weakness. He would go, perhaps, for a
week, or a few days, without touching his pipe;
but he has told me how he has felt himself
carried almost involuntarily in a half-dream to
the fatal den. The intolerable craving and
gnawing hunger for opium, added to the re-
morse which he felt, caused him great bodily
and mental suffering. Finally, however, the
power came, as we hoped, to drag himself free
from the drug. He went two weeks without
a taste of the pipe. Altogether he seemed to
be a changed person, and in two months I had
hoped to admit him to Christian baptism. Every
evening he would come into the preaching-hall
and attend the services, and he would spend
his spare time in reading the Scriptures, and in
conversation about good things. But’alas! he
was seen to grow weaker and weaker every day.
His eyes were sunken, his face had a deathly
pallor, his gait was unsteady, and his appetite
for food was gone. He told me one day how
his friends and fellow work-people had been
beseeching him to return to the opium-pipe for
relief, and how nearly he had yielded. Now
I want you to remember that these are the
usual effects in China of a confirmed opium sot
breaking free from this noxious drug. He went
for two or three weeks, I say, without any taste
of the drug; but he was getting weaker and
weaker and completely emaciated. After a
short conversation with him, in which I ex-
horted him to courage and patience, he said,
‘Well, sinshang, I am determined what to do.

pe feed A a ee a a

God that we hoped he had learned to love.
We have since made attempts to save him, but
in yain, and it is to be feared that the poor
man has long ago abandoned himself to opium
and death.’

I know that to return to the pipe would pro-
long my life for perhaps a month or two, but
the end must come. Sooner or Jater it must
be death, and Iam resolved what to do.’ He
stood up, and in my fancy I can see him now.
He said, ‘I am resolved what to do. Come
what may, I will never smoke again; and if I
die—well, better die than sin against God.’
[Applause.] Please do not cheer yet. You
have to hear something more; you will ask,
perhaps, what became of that young man?
Well, sir, I hoped to admit him in two months
to Christian baptism. One Sunday,:soon after
this conversation which I have just been relat-
ing, we missed him from his place. It was the
first Sunday which he had missed attending
our chapel for two months. I became a little
suspicious and very anxious about him, and
we immediately sent to inquire where he had
gone. We went to his home; he was not there:
we went to his workshop; he was not there.

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A Happy Home.

A pretty story about a German family dis-
closes the secret of 2 happy home, wherein joy
aboundeth, though there are many to feed and
clothe.

A teacher once lived in Strasburg who had
hard work to support his family. His chief
joy in life, however, was in his nine children,
though it was no light task to feed them all.

His brain would have reeled and his heart
sunk had he not trusted in his heavenly Father,
when he thought of the number of jackets,
shoes, stockings and dresses they would need
in the course of a year, and of the quantity of
bread and potatoes they would eat.

His house, too, was very close quarters for
the many beds and cribs, to say nothing of the
room required for the noise and fun which the
merry nine made.

But father and mother managed very well, and
the house was a pattern of neatness and order.

One day there came a guest to the house.
As they sat at dinner, the stranger, looking at
the hungry children about the table, said com-
passionately :

‘«Poor man, what a cross you have to bear!”’

‘I? I a cross to bear!’’ asked the father,
wonderingly; ‘“‘ what do you mean?”’

‘Nine children, and seven boys at that!’
replied the stranger, adding bitterly, ‘‘I have
but two and each one of them is a nail in my
coffin.”’

“Mine are not,’’ said the teacher with decision.

‘<How does that happen?’’ asked ‘the guest.

‘“<Because I have taught them the noble art
of obedience. Isn’t that so, children?”

‘“‘Yes,’’ cried the children. *

Then the father turned to the guest and said:

‘Sir, if death were to come in at that door,
waiting to take one of my nine children, I
would say,’’ and here he pulled off his velvet
cap and hurled it at the door, ‘‘Rascal, who
cheated you into thinking that I had one too
many ?”’

The stranger laughed: he saw that it was
only disobedient children that make a father
unhappy. 5

One of the nine children of the poor school
teacher afterward became widely known; he
was the pastor Oberlin.—From the German.

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Christ blessing the. children.

His fellow work-people began to laugh. The
wretches began to jeer, and one pointed the
way to the den called ‘Heavenly Joy.’ We
passed along a narrow back street, full of dark
dens of vice, and at last we came to the opium-|-
den, We pushed aside the grimy curtain which
concealed the room from passers-by, and entered
the place, amidst dense fumes: of stupefying
smoke. There was nothing to be heard but the
spluttering of the opium pipes; for, you know,
there is that advantage which the opium-den
possesses over the liquor shop—you hear’ no
noise; you hear no brawls: everything is as
quiet as death. There at the corner of the
room was our lost sheep. His eyes fell as we

Better than Money.

A poor converted woman of India said: I

entered. We approached him, and with gentle
remonstrances besought him to return to us.
But, alas! the fiend within him was too strong.
He turned upon us with wild eyes and awful
imprecations, cursing us and cursing the very

have no money to give to missions, but I can
speak of the Savior to my neighbor.’’—Luke
10, 37: ‘Go, and do thou likewjse.’-—Luke
11, 42: ‘These ought ye to have done, and not
to leave the other undone.”