The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1895, Page 23

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

‘The Lutheran Pioneer. 23

The Colored Man’s Cent.

A young man, while preparing for the min-
istry, was in the habit of visiting the Alms-
house of Montgomery County, Pa., to hold}
religious services. On one occasion, about
two years ago, this young man before leaving
the room stepped down to speak with those
present. In the back of the room was a col-
ored man, who was old and feeble. As the
young man took his hand, the poor colored
man offered him one cent, with these words:
“Here is something for the Lord. It isn’t
much, but I feel that I ought to give some-
thing. I had a good deal better give it to}
the Lord than spend it for other things.’’ The
young man took the cent, but did not know
what to do with it,
the amount seemed so
very small.

When the young man

reached home, he put }
this one cent in an en-
yelope and marked it,
“For the Lord; given
by an inmate of the
Montgomery County,
Pa., Almshouse.’’ He
kept this over two
years, until one day his
eyes fell on the envel-
ope with the one cent
in it. He knelt down
and asked the Lord that
He would take it and
use it for His glory.
On rising from prayer,
he inclosed the envel-
ope in another one,
directed to the Secre-
tary of Foreign Mis-
sions, little dreaming
what the result would
in due time be.

The Secretary told the story of that one
cent and had it printed, and the little seed
corn soon grew until it reached the sum of
$679.88.

When the answers first began to come in,
the Secretary thought if he would get but
$60, he would be able to support for one year
a’student preparing for mission work; but as
the sum increased, he began to hope that he
would be able to give one young man a full
course of three years.

But the story continued to produce fruit,
and the Secretary’s views continued to change.
Now, instead of hoping to be able to give one
young man one year’s instruction in the semi-
nary, he feels sure that the fund will reach
$1000, which will be sufficient to keep a stu-
ent continuously in his course of study. As
One completes his course, another will take
his place, and so on.

By this story the readers of the PIoNcER
May again be reminded of the fact that Christ
does not despise the offerings of the poor.

eee sae

He can make them the occasion of blessing

and large helpfulness to His mission cause. |

“Only a drop in the bucket,

But every drop will tell;
The bucket would soon be empty
Without the drops in the well.

“Only a poor little penny,
It was all I had to give;
But as pennies make the dollars,
It may help some cause to live.

“God loveth the cheerful giver,
Though the gift be poor and small
What does He think of His children
When they never give at all?”

NATIVE STONE HOUSES IN PALESTINE.

The Story of a New Testament.

A little girl expressed to her parents one
day a wish that they would give her two New
Testaments. ‘To the question of her parents
why it must be two New Testaments the child
replied that one was for herself and the other
to send to the heathen.

She was given the two volumes, and in one
of them she wrote: ‘‘A little girl who loves
the Lord Jesus wishes with all her heart that
whoever reads this should also love and be-
lieve on Him.”? This New Testament went
to India, and found its way to 4 station in
the interior. A Hindu lady obtained it. She
could read, but was unable to write; and as
she longed to be able to write, her attention
was immediately drawn to the inscription on
the fly-leaf. The large and distinct characters
of the child’s hand-writing attracted her so
much that she tried to imitate them again
and again. Gradually the sense of the words
made an impression upon her, and the ques-

tion arose, ‘‘May not those words have been
written just for me?’’ She began then ear-
nestly to read the New Testament; her eyes
were opened, and she learned to know and
love her Saviour.

Years passed. The little girl had meanwhile
grown up and thought no more of the New
Testament which she had sent once upon a
time to the heathen. But her love for missions
had grown up with her, and it was with joy
that she went to India. There she entered
one day the house of a Hindu Christian lady.
In the course of conversation the Hindu lady
showed her visitor a book, a New Testament,
and told how she, a Hindu-heathen, had been
by its means brought to Jesus her Saviour.
You may imagine the joyful astonishment of
the lady missionary
when she recognized in
the book the same New
Testament on whose
fly-leaf she had many
years ago, as a little

girl, written those
words which had served
to show the poor Hindu
lady the way to Jesus.
‘Together they knelt
down, praised God’s
wonderful ways, and
thanked Him who had
drawn them both to
Himself.

‘Cast thy bread upon
the waters, and thou
shalt find it after many
days.’”’

The Story of a Bell.

At the beginning of
the last century the only
church bell at Gross-
laswitz, Germany, was
so small that its tones were not suflicient to
penetrate to the ends of the village. A second
bellwas badly wanted; but the village was poor,
and where was the money to come from?

One Sunday, when the schoolmaster, Gott-
fried Hayn, was going to church, he noticed,
growing out of the churchyard wall, a flourish-
ing green stalk of corn, the seed of which
must have been dropped by a passing bird.
The idea suddenly struck him that perhaps
this one stalk of corn could be made the
means of procuring the second bell they
wanted so much. He waited till the corn was
ripe, and then he plucked the six ears on it
and sowed them in his own garden. The next
year he gathered the little crop thus produced,
and sowed it again, till at last he had not
enough room in his garden for the crop; and
so he divided it among a certain number of
farmers, who went on sowing the ears until,
in the eighth year, the crop was so large that,
when it was sold, they found that they had
money enough to buy a beautiful bell.

€