The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1887, Page 27

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The Lutheran Pioneer. 27

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faith in Him; and now, alas! it is too late; I
fear through my negligence he is lost forever.’’
This reflection produced such an effect upon
her that it destroyed her peace of mind, which
she sought to overcome by foreign travel. One
day in Rome a lady approached her and said:
“Do you remember standing by the coffin of
Father —, and the dreadful message delivered
to you?”’ .
“‘Yes,’’ she replied, ‘‘and it has followed me
night and day.”’

‘“‘But it was not a true message. The words
he bade me deliver to you were these: ‘Tell
her that I bless the day I ever saw her, and
that I die in the full faith of Jesus Christ.
Tell her that the Bible she gave me was the
means of leading me to trust alone in Him for
pardon. Tell her I shall meet her in heaven;’
and then,’’ added the nun, ‘“‘he gave me that
precious Bible, which has also been the means
of leading me to see myself as a lost sinner and
Christ as my only Saviour. Will you forgive
me for telling that falsehood ?”’

Dear reader, are you a Christian? If so,
may the recital of these facts strengthen your
faith in the promise of God, ‘‘ My word shall
not return to me void,” and lead you with
more faith and determination to assist in put-
ting the Bible into every sinner’s hand.

If you are not a Christian, I pray that these
striking incidents may lead you to feel your
need of Jesus, and that you can never have
lasting peace and joy till you come as a lost
soul and believe in Him. He has suffered that
dreadful death on the cross in your stead that
you might be forgiven and fitted for heaven.
Will you confess your sins and believe in Him?
“Tf we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness” (1 John 1, 6). You see
how he saved this lady, this priest, and the nun.
He is able and willing to save you.—Selected.

pinched them sorely, nothing could shake his
firm reliance on Him in whom he trusted. At
last came the day when not a penny was left,
no bread, no fuel in the house, only starvation
stared them in the face. Sadly his wife tidied
and swept the little room on the ground floor
in which they lived. The window was open,
and possibly the words were heard outside,
with which the weaver strove to keep up their
courage: “The Lord helps.’’ Presently a
street boy looked saucily in, and threw a dead
raven at the feet of the pious man. ‘There,
saint! there is something for you to eat!’’ he
cried.

The weaver picked up the dead raven and
stroking the feathers down, said compassion
ately, ‘‘Poor creature! thou must have died
of hunger.’’? When, however, he felt its crop
to see whether it was empty, he noticed some-
thing hard, and wishing to know what had
caused the bird’s death he began to examine it.
What was his surprise when, on opening the
gullet, a gold necklace fell into his hand. The
wife looked at it, confounded; the weaver ex-
claimed, ‘‘ The Lord helps;’’ and in haste took
the chain to the nearest goldsmith, told him
how he had found it, and received two dollars
which the goldsmith offered to lend him for his
present need.

The goldsmith soon cleaned the trinket and>
recognized it as one he had seen before. ‘Shall
I tell you the owner?’’ he asked, when the
weaver called again. ‘Yes,’ was the joyful
answer, ‘‘ for I would gladly give it back into
the right hands.”

But what cause had he to admire the won-
derful ways of God when the goldsmith pro-
nounced the name of his master at the factory.

Quickly he took the necklace and went with
it to his former employer. In his family,- too,
there was much joy at the discovery, for sus-
picion was removed from a servant. But the
merchant was ashamed and touched; he had
not forgotten the words uttered by the poor
man when he was dismissed. ‘‘Yes,’’ he said,
thoughtfully and kindly, ‘‘the Lord helps, and
now you not only go home richly rewarded,
but I will no longer leave without work so
pious a workman, whom the Lord so evidently
stands by and helps; you shall henceforth be
no more in need.’’? Thus He who fed Elijah
by living ravens, proves Himself equally able
to supply the needs of His tired servant by
the same bird when dead.— From the German.

The Story of a Bible.

‘Did he leave any message for me?’’

“Yes, and he cursed the day he ever saw
“you.”

This was the answer given by a nun to a
lady in London under the following circum-
stances, which were related to me by a gentle-
man of culture and piety, as we were sailing
along the coast of Norway, from Trondhjem to
Bergen, in and out among the beautiful fjords
‘and snow-capped mountains: Monsignor Capel
was asked by a lady of position in London,
“How can I find peace of mind?” Instead of
pointing her to Christ and telling her that He
-atoned for our sins on the cross, he bade her
dismiss such unwelcome thoughts and attend
places of amusement. One day she followed a
‘crowd of people into Exeter Hall, expecting to
have her mind diverted from serious thoughts
about the future by a musical entertainment.
‘She was surprised when she found herself in a
great religious meeting. Annoyed at this, she-
attempted to get out, but in doing so she
knocked some umbrellas on to the floor, and
abashed took her seat. Her attention was
soon riveted upon the speaker. He explained
our relation to God, as under condemnation
already, and spoke of Christ’s suffering on the
cross as an atoning sacrifice, of God’s willing-
ness, for His sake, to pardon us. She was
deeply moved, and at the close she said to
some one near her: ‘‘Can I speak to the
gentleman who has just addressed us?”

Soon after, in conversation with her, he said:
“©You will find the truth which I have men-
tioned often repeated in the Bible.”

“But I have no Bible,”’ she replied.

He quickly handed her his own, saying: “I
have pleasure in giving you mine.”

Some time after this the high Catholic dig-
nitary, remembering the advice he had given
this Indy, sent the priest to inquire about the
state of her mind. Instead of needing his help,
he soon found that she was able to direct him
in the way of life. Before leaving she gave
him the Bible that had been given her at
Exeter Hall, and begged him to read it with
prayer, and to trust alone in Him who ‘‘bore
our sins in His own body on the tree.’’ Some
time after she received a note from the priest
asking her to call upon him. As she was about
to take her son to Eton College, she did not
accept the invitation at the time.

When she called, some weeks after, she was,
shown into a room where there was a coflin,
and in it the body of the priest. Beside it a
nun was kneeling in prayer. The lady ap-
proached and asked: ‘‘Did he Jeave any mes-
sage for me?’’ ‘‘ Yes,’’ was the reply. ‘‘He
wished me to say, if you called, that he died in
the full faith of the Catholic church, and that
he cursed the day he ever saw you.’ The poor
lady turned away greatly distressed, saying to
herself, ‘If I had gone to his bedside when he
sent for me, I might have pointed him to
Christ, and he might have been saved through

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The Lord Helps.

A weaver living in the little German town
of Wupperthal, a poor man in his outward
circumstances, but rich toward God, was well
known in his neighborhood as one who trusted
in the Lord at all times. His constant faith
expressed itself in what became his habitual
utterances under all circumstances of trouble
and perplexity. ‘‘The Lord helps,’’ he was
wont to say; and he said it undauntedly, even
when it looked as if the Lord had forsaken
him. Such a time it was, when in a season of
scarcity, work ran short, many hands were dis-
charged, and the master -by whom our weaver
was employed gave him dismissal. After much
fruitless entreaty that he might be kept on,
he said at last, ‘Well, the Lord helps,’ and
so returned home. His wife, when she heard
the sad news, bewailed it terribly; but her
hushand strove to cheer her with his accus-
tomed assurance. ‘The Lord helps,’”” he said;
and even although as the days went on, poverty

——.~< oo

Holy Diversion.

As husbandmen, when their ground is over-
flowed by waters, make ditches and water-
furrows to carry it away, so when our minds
and thoughts are overwhelmed with trouble,
it is good to divert them by some other matter.
But every diversion becometh not the saints; it
must be a holy diversion as with the Psalmist:
“Tp the multitude of my thoughts within me,
Thy comforts delight my soul.’’"—T. If