The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1894, Page 35

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

The Lutheran Pioneer.

ee H,ee6e6Vs=ksSs—“-—-—-«->,\ %»>>ssSrFe

Corea.

In our picture you see four Corean children
from the mission school. Corea is a peninsu-
Jar kingdom on the Eastern coast of Asia, situ-
ated between Japan and’China. These two
countries are now carrying on war on account
of Corea. The Japanese know that if this
peninsula is ruled by the Chinese, it will be a
constant source of danger to their empire, and
they are therefore resolved to fight to the
end, in order to prevent the Chinese from rul-
ing in Corea.

The little-peninsula numbers more than
twelve million inhabitants, who live chiefly on

rice. They are heathen, and their vices
are well pictured in the first chapter of
St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans.

Travellers speak highly of the hospi-
tality practiced by the Coreans, and this
hospitality is fortunately no little help
to the missionary. ~The moment a stran-
ger enters a Corean home, the owner
will not only pay him every attention,
but will defend him as his own body.
“T have never,’’ writes a missionary,
‘heen more cordially received, or more
faithfully attended, according to. the
measure of their ability, in any country,
than I have in Corea.’’

Parents are good to their children of
both sexes, though sons are preferred,
and the children in return repay their
parents’ devotion.

The people are divided into two dis-
tinct classes—the high and the low—
called “Yangban”’ and ‘‘Sangnom.”’ The
merchant class, strictly speaking, belong
to the ‘‘Sangnom”’ class, but are fast
gaining a footing and assume the title
of ‘‘Yangban,’’ no man forbidding.

A system of slavery is hereditary
among the Coreans—slaves being handed
down in the same family from generation
to generation; but while the slaves in
Corea are in no sense their own mas-
ters, yet, so far as observed, they are
humanely treated, and can buy their free-
dom at.any time.

—_9 +o o> oe -

Joseph Barker and the Bible.

Some twenty-five or thirty years ago Joseph
Barker had quite a notoriety as an avowed
infidel —highly intelligent and actively earnest
in spreading his views and opposing the Bible
and the Christian religion.

On one occasion, when in the United States,
he went out to Frankfort, then a suburb, but
now a part of Philadelphia, and there lectured
against the Bible to a large audience.

‘At the close of his address, when he eyvi-
dently felt that he had made a strong impres-
sion, he invited either replies or questions from
any of the audience. After a moment’s silence,
a substantial looking Quaker rose and said:

os

PE

ptt one

| ‘‘Friend Barker, thee said that the Bible

that every preacher was a hypocrite, and well
knew that in his preaching he was telling what
was not true—did thee not?’’

Barker assented that he did say so, and that
it was true.

|so many years ago, and did thee not then

Barker was taken by surprise, for he did
not suppose any one present knew his early
history (for he had been a preacher before he
apostatized to infidelity), but coloring not a|
little, he was compelled to admit that he had}

wie

Corean Children.

been a preacher, but had long ago given up
everything like preaching.

“‘Well,’’ said the Quaker, ‘‘if thee was not
a hypocrite then, surely thee could not say
all preachers were hypocrites ; and if thee was
a hypocrite then, thee may be so now in what
thee is telling us. And besides,”’ he continued,
‘¢the Bible must be true, for ages ago it ex-
actly described thyself, saying, in the last
days there shall come scoffers, false teachers,
bringing in ‘damnable heresies, even denying
the Lord that bought them... of whom the
way of truth shall be evil spoken of,’ and this
is just: what thee is doing.”

Barker seemed not a little confused, and
making no reply, the Quaker said:

‘Friend Barker, I would ask thee another
question. Did thee ever know & mother teach
her child to be an infidel? And if thee were
dying, would thee not just as lief have the

{

was not only a pack of lies and fables, but |

‘‘Well, friend Barker, was not thee a preacher

preach just as other ministers do?’ }

Christian’s faith and hope as to be without
them then?”’

The questions evidently cut poor Barker to
the quick, and made a strong impression on
the audience. Barker did not attempt to an-
swer them, and the assembly soon dispersed.
And they may, by God’s blessing, have made
a lasting impression on Barker himself, for
some years afterward, about 1870, he re-
nounced his infidelity and again professed the
truth of Christianity. He has since died, leavy-
ing behind him a remarkable recantation of
his infidel views, which may be found in his
memoir recently published by his son.

——_ > + e< oo > >

The Sheep Knows His Voice.

Far away in India a bad man once
wanted a fine sheep which belonged to
another person. He went before the
judge, and got other bad men to help
him say that the sheep was his. The
true owner came, too, and brought the
sheep; and his friends came with him
and told the judge that they knew the
sheep belonged to him.

How could the judge decide? He did
not know the men, and how could he tell
which were liars? -

But he did know how the sheep are
taught in those eastern countries; so
he said:

‘“‘Let the two men go into those two
rooms—one on the right side, the other
on the left side—and let the one on the
left call the sheep.’’ ; :

But the poor sheep did not ‘‘know the
voice of the stranger,’’ and did not stir.
The true owner heard the sound, and did
not wait to be told what the judge meant.
He gave a kind of ‘‘chuck,’’ and the
sheep bounded away to him at once.

‘The sheep knows his voice,’’ said
the judge. ‘‘Let him take it away, for
it is his.”’ :

If we are the lambs of the Good Shepherd,
Jesus Christ, we shall know his kind call, and
obey it.

Why He Left. .

“T have left my place, mother,”’ said a poor
boy, when he returned from his work. ‘‘Why
haye you left?’” said the mother, ‘‘was your
master unkind to you?”’ ‘‘No, mother, he
was kind enough,’’ said the boy. ‘‘Did not
you like the work?’’ asked the mother. ‘‘It
was the wages I did not like,”’ said the boy,
solemnly. ‘‘My master wanted me to sin, and
the wages of sin is death.”

oe

“Farrn makes the Christian rich when he
has lost everything else.’”’ 4

HEAVEN is a day without a cloud to darken
it, and without a night to end it. ;