The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1888, Page 15

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The ‘Lutheran Pioneer.

15

Death’s Master.

A Christian woman was lately dying of in-
ternal cancer. She was attended by a Roman
Catholic nurse, who was very much astonished
at the calm patience and peace of the poor
sufferer. A friend called to see her one day.
The door was opened by the nurse.

‘How is Mrs.— to-day ?’’ inquired the friend

“She is very ill, sir,’ was the reply. The
nurse then gave the following details: ‘ Last
night she was seized with violent pain and I
thought she was dying. I said to her:

“You are dying; shall I send for the priest?’’

«Qh, no,’ she said,
priest. I know my Bible and I am ready to
die at any moment.’

“*But’, I said, ‘are you not afraid to die?’

‘© €No, indeed, not a bit,’ she replied.

“««Tell me why you are not afraid to die’,
I said.

‘«*« Because,’ she replied, joyously, ‘I belong
to death’s Master. I am a poor sinuer
saved by grace.’”’

Dear Christian woman! She had peace
in the face of death. Christ is death’s
Master, and in Him she believed. He won
His mastery over death by the mightiest
conflict earth has known. He has come
down from heaven and yielded to the pain
of death. He bowed His head dying upon
the cross and was laid helpless in the
gloomy tomb. But on the third day He,
the Master of death, rose from the grave.
He liveth,.He liveth, though He was
dead. He had power to lay down His life
and power to take it again, and to-day He
bears the keys of hell and of death.

And though death robs us of the nearest,
and dearest, and the fairest, and lays them

into the grave, yet he is only hiding God’s|

jewels until the Lord shall gather them up as
gems for His crown.

Dear reader, do you know death’s Master?
Are you acquainted with His grace, and power,
and love? Do you know the risen Saviour?
Are you trusting in Him who is the Resurrec-
tion and the Life? Are you looking for Him |
to come and rend the tomb, and bring His
people home to life, and joy, and glory ever-
lasting? Are you standing in Him who is the
Way, the Truth, and the Life, and who says,
‘Because I live ye shall live also’’?

Yea, He lives for evermore

On the fair, eternal shore;

And His faithful ones who sleep,
He with tenderest care will keep
Till the last great morn shall break,
And His loved ones shall awake:
With the hope this word imparts,
Comfort one another’s hearts.

— oP oa

From the Bible we learn that every doctrine,

/* every duty, and every hope, are so intimately
- blended with the fact of Christ’s resurrection,
that the denial of the latter leads to the instant
and total annihilation of the former.

. | death— the judgment.” Yet old uncle Brown | Father said

‘I don’t want your} ‘

Easter Talk with old Uncle Brown. ‘‘Yes,’’ he continued, ‘‘you believe Him, and

yet doubt His work. He said upon the cross
John Brown, the saddler, was known in his} ‘It is finished.’ He came from heaven to finish
village as a trustworthy workman, who took|the work which His father gave Him to do.
an honest pride in doing what he had to do} He came to work our salvation; neither did
well. But John was in trouble about his soul; | He rest till all was done.
he was not satisfied about himself; he feared | John, is Easter day.
death, and, for the unsaved, that awful after | risen.

To-morrow, dear
It tells us that Christ is
By raising Christ from the dead the
, ‘The work is done.’ I did not
Yet he was) really doubt you when you said your work was

jdone; your folded hands proved to me at once
One Saturday evening—it was the evening | that your week’s labor was over. And a pleas-
before Easter day—a friend of the saddler, who | ant thing it is, on a Saturday night, to sit down
knew his anxiety of soul, called in upon him. |and say

professed to believe in Jesus.
doubting and longed for peace.

, It is all done; to-morrow I can rest!
The week’s work was just over, the last stroke| But strange it is that you, who speak so con-
had been given to the piece in hand, and John} fidently upon your work being done, cannot

was putting down his tools, exclaiming, ‘‘That| trust the Son of God.

job’s done,’’ and as he set his harness upon the
table, his friend saw that he looked at it with
the satisfaction of one whose hard week’s labor
has ended.

Looking at the work, and then at the work-

CHRIST IS RISEN.

man, his friend exclaimed, ‘‘ Why, John, how

|is this? What, you fold your hands, and sit
down! Do you mean to call this harness
finished ?”’

‘“«Sir,”’ cried the saddler, with some little
indignation, “when I say a job is done, it is
done. It means done, and well and properly
| done, too.”’

“How so, John?” said the friend in a ques-
tioning tone; ‘‘what! you call it finished, do
you?”’

“To be sure I do—I am not one of the
scamping sort—and it is finished,” John warmly
replied, viewing his work with greater satis-
faction.

“Then I am to believe you, am I?’’ was the
question, and again put in a doubting tone.

Now, old uncle Brown would never allow any-
body to question his word, and he was not at
all pleased with the way his friend talked. He
considered his word true and honest, and his
work the very best he could give his customers.

Observing his feeling his friend continued,
“‘ Ah, John, so 1 am to believe you, am I? and
yet you won't believe the Lord Jesus?”’

Here ‘uncle Brown was perplexed. What

was his friend driving at?

To-morrow is Easter
day, dear John. The Lord is risen, He is risen
indeed! ‘The work of our redemption is done,
perfectly done. The Father in heaven is per-
fectly satisfied with that work of HisSon. He
accepted that work as perfectly done and fin-
ished by raising Christ from the dead.
Now, why are not you satisfied, John?’’

Old uncle looked at his friend in silence’
for a while and then cried out, ‘‘I am
satisfied, I am satisfied!”’

The simple illustration was used by God
to give peace to old uncle’s soul. May it
bring peace to you also, dear reader. In-
stead of toiling, striving, laboring, day by
day, may you rest in the finished work of
Christ.

(+ Oe ee

Just as | Am.

Some time.ago, a poor little boy came
to a city missionary, and holding up a dirty
and worn out bit of printed paper, said,
‘*Please sir, father sent me to get a clean
paper like that.’? Taking it from his hand, the
missionary. unfolded it, and found it was a page
containing that beautiful hymn of which the
first stanza is as follows:

«Just as I am—without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
O, Lamb of God, I come.’

The missionary looked down with interest
into the face earnestly upturned to him, and
asked the boy where he got it, and why he
wanted a clean one. ‘* We found it, sir,”’ said
he, ‘‘in sister’s pocket after she died; and she
used to sing it all the time while she was sick,
and loved it so much that father wanted to get
aclean one, and put it in a frame to hangit up.
Won't you give us a clean one, sir?”

This little page, with a single hymn on it,
had been cast upon the air, like a falling leaf,
by Christian hands, humbly hoping to do some
possible good. In some little mission school,
probably, this poor girl had thoughtlessly re-
ceived it, to find in it, we may hope? the elecepel
of her ealvation.

Tr won't take an anxious sinner Tene to meet
an anxious Saviour. ~