The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1892, Page 29

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LutueraAn SynopicaAL CoNnFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

Entered at the Post Of_lce at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter.

Vol. XIV.

St. Louis, Mo., A

ugust, 1892.

No. 8.

The Perishing.

By Emily C. Pearson,

[It is estimated that a thousand millions of the human race
have not heard of Christ.]
They’re crowding down the slopes of death,
A thousand millions strong:
A soul is lost, at every breath,
Of that benighted throng,

They’re groping ’mid sin’s hopeless ways,
A thousand millions blind;

On them has dawned no Gospel rays,
No path of peace they find.

O Christians! these have never heard
Of Jesus’ precious name,—

Have never read His holy Word,
Know not to die He came.

“Go, preach my Gospel!’’ Christ has said;
“Go, all my famished feed;

To every creature give Life’s Bread;
O’er earth my message speed!’’

And yet amid the darkened lands
For light vast millions cry;

Ye that are stewards of God’s wealth,
How can you pass them by?

——_- <> - oe

“Come and See!’’

In the first chapter of the Gospel accord-
ing to St. John we twice read these words:
‘Come and see!’’ They were first spoken by
the Lord Jesus. He gave the invitation to two
disciples of John who had heard John’s wit-
ness of Him as the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sins of the world. Jesus saw these
two disciples following Him and spoke to them.
Then they asked Him cre He dwelt, and
He said, ‘‘Come and see.’

One of the two that accepted the invitation
was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. Having
found the Messiah, he longed to bring others
to Him. When he met his brother Simon, he
said to him, ‘‘We have found the Messiah.”
And he brought him to Jesus. The day fol-
lowing Jesus found Philip and said to him,
“Follow me.’? And Philip obeyed and thus
found Him of whom Moses and the prophets

at once told his friend Nathaniel about Jesus | tion:

and said, ‘*Come and see!’’

The invitation still goes out to every sin-
ner, ‘‘Come and see Jesus!’’ Come and see
what He has done for you; see how he loved
you and gave Himself for you; how he lived
and suffered, and bled and died for you! Come
and see what, gifts He has for you, forgive-
ness and peace, His spirit and His grace, His
love and His everlasting joy; come and see
how ready He is to receive you, to take you
up in His arms and bless you! Thousands have
come and seen and found their Saviour in the
Gospel. By the power of that Gospel their
hearts were won for Him whom they formerly
hated and despised. ;

A Jew, by the name of Gerson, lived in West-
phalia in the beginning of the seventeenth cent-
ury. He was a bitter enemy of Christ and
His church. One day a poor christian widow
pawned a copy of the New Testament in his
shop for a small sum of money. Gerson in-
vited two of his Jewish friends to his house
and began to read to them ‘‘the book of the
christians’, and they together made merry
over its contents. But the farther Gerson read,
the more restless he became. ‘The power of
the Gospel took hold of his heart, and he
was convinced that Jesus of Nazareth is the
Messiah, the promised Sayiour of sinners.
“There,’’ he himself says, ‘‘there I found
such a light that I must ever give thanks to
God.”? He had come to Jesus and had tasted
and seen that He is gracious, and from that
time on he brought to others the invitation:
“‘Come and see!’? He became a preacher of
the Gospel.

Dear christian reader, since you have come
and seen Jesus; since you can say like Philip:
‘‘We have found Him,”’ will you not say to
others, ‘‘Come and see?’’ You will surely
wish every one else to come to Him, and you
haye his word which bids you try and bring
them: ‘Let him that heareth say come!”
Will you not say ‘‘Come’’ by telling otlers of
Jesus’ love and by helping us in our mission
work, by which the story of that love is brought
to poor dying sinners? There is no sweeter in-

have written. Having found Christ, he longed. vitation for you to hear, and no sweeter invi-

to bring others to the same happiness. He

tation for you to give than that sweet inyita-

‘sCome and see Jesus!’’ Therefore call

others into the happiness you enjoy.

«(Call them in!’ — the poor, the wretched,
Sin-stained wanderers from the fold;
Peace and pardon freely offer —
Can you weigh their worth in gold?
‘Call them in!’ — the weak, the weary,
Laden with the doom of sin;
Bid them come and rest in Jesus,
He is waiting — ‘Call them in!’

«<‘Call them in!’ — the white and colored;

Bid the stranger to the feast;

‘Call them in!’ — the rich, the noble,
From the highest to the least.

Forth the Father runs to meet them,
He hath all their sorrows seen;

Robe and ring and royal sandals
Wait the lost ones — ‘Call them in!’

*¢<Call them in!’ — the broken-hearted,

Cowering ’neath the brand of shame;

Speak love’s message, low and tender, —
‘*Twas for sinners Jesus came.’

See! the shadows lengthen round us,
Soon the day-dawn will begin;

Can you leave them lost and lonely?
Christ is coming: — ‘Call them in!’”

———»> ~<a ee

Seek to Save Souls.

During a recent voyage, sailing in a heavy
sea, near a reef of rocks, a minister on board
the vessel remarked, in a conversation between
the man at the helm and the sailors, an inquiry
whether they should be able to clear the rocks
without making another tack; when the cap-
tain gave orders that they should put off, to
avoid allrisk. The minister observed, ‘‘I am
rejoiced that we have so careful a comman-
der.”’? The captain replied, ‘‘It is necessary
that I should be very careful, because I have
souls on board. I think of my responsibility ;
and should anything happen through careless-
ness, I should have a great deal to answer for;
I wish never to forget, sir, that souls are very
valuable!’? The minister, turning to some of
his congregation, who were upon deck with
him, observed, ‘‘The captain has preached me
a powerful sermon; I hope I shall never for-
get, when I am addressing my fellow creatures
on the concerns of eternity, that I have souls
on board!” x