The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1891, Page 11

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The Lutheran Pioneer. 11

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“He Died For Me.’’-

“Rain From Heaven.” “He Spared Not His Own Son.”

In the cemetery at Nashville, saysa Southern] Qnce a little girl, who loved her Saviour very

paper, a stranger was seen planting a flower! much for having so loved her, came to her
over a soldier’s grave. When asked, ‘Was! minister with some money for missions. He
your son buried here?’’ ‘“No,’’ was the answer. opened the paper and found eighteen shillings.

“A relative?’”? ‘“No.’”? After a moment the ‘‘Kighteen shillings, Mary!’’ How did you
stranger laid down a small board which he held | eollect go much—is it all your own?””

in his hand, and said: ‘Well, I will tell you. “Yes, sir. Please, sir, I earned it.’’
When the war broke out, I was a farmer in} «But how, Mary? You are poor.’’
Illinois. I was poor and had a wife and seven} <«Pjease. sir, when I thought, that Jesus had
children. I was drafted and had no money to| died for a eae to do somethin for Him,

hire a substitute. Then there came a young] and I heard that money was needed to send the
man to me and said: ‘ You have a large family good news to the heathen.”

which your wife can not take care of. I will “Well, Mary?”
go for you.’ He did go in my place and, at “Please, sir, I had no money of my own, and

the battle of Chickamauga, he was wounded] { wanted to earn some, and I thought a long
and taken to Nashville Hospital, but, after a

long sickness, he died and was buried here.
Ever since I have wanted to come and see his
grave, and so IJ saved up all the spare money
I could, and yesterday I came on and to-day
found my dear friend’s grave.’’

With tears of gratitude running down his
cheeks, he took a small board and pressed it
down into the ground in the place of a tomb-
stone. Under the soldier’s name were written
only these words: ‘‘ Hr Diep For Me.’’ These
words told the whole story.

Dear reader, there is One who in a far higher
sense took your place and became your substi-
tute. It is Jesus. He died for you. May you
with tears of gratitude accept this Saviour who
loved you and gave Himself for you.

A lady whose health was shattered, and
whose husband had lost his money, complained
one day to her pastor that God was harsh in
His dealings with her. While they were talk-
ing her sleeping baby awoke, and she took it up
to quiet its cries. A bright fire was blazing in
the grate, and the pastor suddenly inquired,
“What enemy is so dear to you, or what in-
terest is so great to you, that in order to serve
the one, or to secure the other, you would put
your babe into that fire?”’ She looked at him
a moment with an expression of surprise and
indignation, and replied, ‘“You know perfectly
well that I would not cast my child into the fire
for any consideration whatever.’’

“And yet,’’ the pastor said, ‘‘God cast His
only-begotten and well beloved Son into the
fire. God spared Him not, though He saw His
deep humiliation, though He beheld Him wel-
tering in bloody sweat in Gethsemane, though
He witnessed His frightful agonies on Calvary,
and still you doubt His goodness.”” Surely the
greater gift includes the less, and he who really
believes that God’s love for him was so great
that He gave His Son to the death of the cross,
can easily believe that God’s love for him is in-
finite, even when calling him to listen to the
voice of the rod.

‘““If God be for us, who can be against us?
He that spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him
also freely give us all things?’’ Rom. 8, 32.

————s +o oo

time, and it came to me that there were many
washerwomen that would buy soft water. So I
got all the buckets and cans I could collect,
and all the year I have been selling the soft
water for a halfpenny the bucket: that’s how
I got the money, sir.’’

The minister looked at the little girl who had
been working so long and patiently for her Mas-
ter, and his eyes glistened.

‘“My dear child,” he said, ‘‘I am very thank-
ful that your love to your Saviour has led you
todo this work four Him; nowI shall gladly put
down your name as a missionary subscriber.”

“O no, sir, not my name.”

“Why not, Mary?”

‘«Please, sir, I’d rather no one know but Him.
If it must be put in, please to write, ‘Rain from
heaven.’’’—And so little Mary went away.

4 core -

God’s Loving Care.

The Glorious Saviour.

A pastor often visited an old saint eighty-
seven years of age, who for fifteen years was
bed-ridden and blind. She was usually very
bright and cheerful, but on one occasion she
told him that since his last visit she had been
in terrible darkness. When he inquired how it
came, she replied that she had been informed
of the sudden death of a youthful and useful
Christian lady, who was a near neighbor. She
began to wonder why God spared her so long,
when she was of no service to anyone, and then
the thought darted into her mind that He had
so many people to look after, He had forgotten
her, and, ‘‘Oh, the horror that rolled over my
soul at this!”’ she exclaimed. ‘‘But you are
out of the darkness now; how did you get
out?’’ he asked. ‘There is but one way,” she
answered, ‘“‘and that is by going to the Word.
I remembered that the Lord Jesus declares all
the hairs of our heads are numbered, and al-
though I once had chil:Jren of my own, whom I
loved, I suppose, as much as most mothers love
their children, and although I washed their
ces for them and brushed their hair many a
time, I never thought enough of one of my chil-

A Widow’s Gift.

Luther says: It is impossible for a man to
be a Christian without having Christ, and if he
has Christ, he has at the same time all that is
in Christ. What gives peace to the conscience
is, that by faith our sins are no more ours, but
Christ’s, upon whom God hath laid them all,
and that on the other hand all Christ’s right-
eousness is ours, to whom God hath given it.
Christ lays His hand upon us, and we are
healed. He casts His mantel upon us, and we
are clothed; for He is the glorious Saviour,
blessed forever.

———s +o oe oe

Look Upward!

A missionary in Persia tells of a poor widow
with two little children to support, and a mother
and an invalid sister who needed all the help
that she could give them. And still she de-
sired to help those who were in suffering and
distress.

“One day,’’ says the missionary, ‘‘she cut
off the greater part of her beautiful hair and
sold it, and brought me the money. She knelt
down at my feet, and, with eyes full of tears,
said, ‘Take this money for the poor people; I
want to give it to God. It is the price of my
hair. I had nothing else to give.’”’

It was not merely the value of the gift, but
the willing mind that prompted it, which made
it a sweet savor of love to the weary missionary,
working among the poor and the distressed. The
poor woman, like the widow of old, cast in her
mite. Her choicest treasure was bestowed upon
the poor.

How many Christian women there are who
waste in personal adornment much that might
be given to relieve distress, to eet on

Fen to count every hair on its head. Since my | ness, to pas ne eat pany oe cae te

ather thinks enough of me to count every hair light of the now eB eee imaee
on my old ray head, I told the devil to go who sit in lands of darkness, benea
meey and let z he has left me in|of death! Could not such learn a lesson from
Denne: et me alone, and he has REenrenan widow?

During the last illness of an aged Christian
a friend said to him: ‘‘I am sorry to see you
lying upon your back.”

“Do you know why God puts us on our
backs?”’ asked the smiling sufferer.

“No,”’ was the answer.

“In order that we may look upward,” said
the dear child of God.

0 + eo

Tne Church is an assembly of people that
depends on things which do not appear, nor
can be apprehended by the senses; namely, on
the Word alone. This people believes what
the Word says, and gives God the glory, trust-
ing that what He promises us therein is true.

: Zuther.