The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1895, Page 30

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30 The Lutheran Pioneer.

(For the LUTHERAN PIONEER.)

Uncle Bob and Aunt Car’line have an
Argument.

school-children of their dues. These people
are throwing their savings into the Insurance
coffers, just for the sake of a few dollars.
The church-contributions grow smaller, the
sick and needy must want, and the children
must go in rags and tatters to school, without
books, slates, etc. Aunt Car’line, have you
never learned that passage from Holy Writ
which says, ‘‘Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart, and lean not unto thine own under-
standing’? Do you think the good Lord is
agoing to help you when you trust in Life In-
surance? No, Isay, never! You've got to
cut loose from this business altogether, and
be turned plumb around in mind and heart by
the Spirit before you will do it, too. God
promised you and me and all that the right-
eous man shall never want for anything, no,
never; but nowadays people won’t believe it.
There was good old mother Andrews! When
she was left alone with her eight little ones,
what did she say? ‘‘God will help me to feed
all these little mouths, surely.’’ Aunt Car’-
line, did she join any Aid Society or Life In-
surance in order to get money?

A. C. No, Uncle Bob, she did not.

U. B. Well, Aunt Car’line, how did she
fare?

A. C. Uncle Bob, God ‘took care of her
and hers; indeed He did! True, two of her
babies died, but she knew who was adoing it
all. All her other ones grew up adoing right
by their old mother—an honor to her, to
themselves, and to the little church where all
of them are still agoing.

U. B. Well, then, Aunt Car’line, what’s
the use of trusting in an Insurance-humbug?

A. C. Uncle Bob, me and you will stay
out! Maybe we’ll run a little short once in
a while, but never out entirely.

U. B. No, Aunt Car’line, not as long as
you and I can say with believing hearts,
‘Give us this day our daily bread!”’

- Again he asked: ‘‘If I were to dip a person

under water three times forward, or three
times backward, and say no words over it,
would that be baptism?’ ‘‘No,’’ was again
the answer. :

He continued: ‘‘If I were to take a person
into a river or creek or baptistery, and have
him stand in the water up to his waist, and
then pour or sprinkle a handful of water on
his head, but say no words with it, would that
be baptism?’’ ‘‘No,’’ was again the answer.

“But if, in all these different ways of bap-
tizing persons, I had said,- ‘I baptize thee in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost,’ would that have made it
baptism ?’’ ‘‘Yes,’’ was the answer that came
from the congregation.

‘‘Well then,’”’ said he, ‘‘don’t you see that
baptism does not depend on the amount of
water that is used, nor on the manner in
which it is applied, but on the Word of God
connected with the water? ‘That makes it
baptism, and it does not matter how it is per-
formed, if the Word of God is properly used
with it.’? — Selected.

A. GC. Well, Uncle Bob, I think it’s been a
mighty handy sum of money to get from them.

U. B. From whom, Aunt Car’line?

A. C. From them Insurance people, Uncle
Bob.

U. B. Now, there, Aunt Car’line, stop your
harping on that Life Insurance business. You
yourself know how many times you told their
pestering agents that you and Uncle Bob
didn’t believe in Life Insurance, because it
was wrong to be asetting a price on one’s life.
I tell you no again! You may sell your eggs,
your potatoes, your chickens, your clothes,
and run your price up and down on them,
but you can’t sell your life. Now, since you
can’t sell it, so you can’t puta price on it;
and if you can’t put a price on it, then you
can’t insure it. x

A. ©. Uncle Bob, don’t be so fretful! You
know old Mrs. Smith who keeps the little shop
around the corner, don’t you?

U. B. Yes, Aunt Car’line, what about her?

A. 'C. Well, they say she got over-a hun-
dred dollars when Jimmie died. And sure,
Uncle Bob, it was a great help to the poor old
Jady, because she needed it, God knows. It

* paid Jimmie’s funeral expenses and some
other little incidentals; and what was over
will serye her well, now that poor Jimmie is
gone.

U. B. Aunt Car’line, can you figure?

A. G. Me? Now, Uncle Bob, have you for-
gotten it already?

U. B. What, Aunt Car’line?

A. @. That I was the smartest. girl at fig-
ures when I was agoing to the old District
School.

U. B. All right, then, Aunt Car’line. Sup-
posing Jimmie’s funeral expenses were— well,
say $40, that leaves the old woman $60. Now,
it was Jimmie’s salary mostly that kept them
agoing and what little the shop brought, least-
ways people said so. But Jimmie is gone now,
and the shop alone won’t do. What then,
Aunt Car’line?

A. C. Well, can’t she take a little of her
Insurance money every month, say about $5,
Uncle Bob?

U. B. Of course, Aunt Car’line, and she
will, too. But at the rate of $5 a month, how
_ long before it’s all gone?

_ A.C. Ah, pshaw, you’re too much astudy
_—that way, Uncle Bob.

-U. B. I say, how long, Aunt Car’line?
A; @. To be sure, Uncle Bob, it’s bound to
gone in a year, no more and no less.

_U. B. What then, Aunt Car’line?

; L don’t know!

I tell you, Aunt Car’line, people who
their liyes have the dollar-religion.
‘How so, Uncle Bob?

3. Well, they’re depriving the church of
the poor and needy of their dues, the

— oe

Child Life in Far-away Lands.

I just know if you could see the cradle of a
South American baby, you would think it the
most cunning thing you ever saw. What do
you thinkit is? Why, a palm leaf. A single
leaf turned up.at the edge holds the baby.
This cradle is often hung up in a tree, and
the wind rocks the baby to sleep.

An Eskimo baby is tucked up in his mother’s
hood. Itis a warm place, and travelers say
their chubby little faces look very good-natured
and happy. When the child comes out of the
hood, he is stuffed into a fawn-skin bag, and
a string draws the garment together like a
pudding bag.

Japanese babies are born with a profusion
of jet black hair, but the hair is immediately
shaven from their heads. Sometimes with
girl babies tiny spots of hair are left just in
front and down by the ears, and on the back
of the head.

The costumes of the boys and girls in Japan
are identical in style, but the boys wear dull,
sober colors, while the girls are arrayed in all
the hues of the rainbow. The Japanese boy
takes as much delight in his pockets as any
boy or girlin America. His pockets are his
large, flowing sleeves, which are sewed up
part way to admit of holding articles. The
Japanese children have a way also of tucking
things inside the belt or sash, which they al-

ways wear about the waist.
Little Missionary.

<0 6-6 a

——s +e or eo

How much Water?

A colored preacher down South was an-
noyed by Baptist Proselyters, who worried
his people with their notion that immersion
is the only valid mode of baptism, and that
every one who wanted to become a Christian
or join the church must be dipped. This in-
duced him to preach on the subject to instruct
his people, and he made use of a very good
illustration to show the fallacy of the immer-
sionist notion, as follows:

‘‘My brethren,’”’ said he, ‘if I were to
sprinkle some water on the head of a person,
but would not say any words while doing it,
would that be baptism?’ ‘‘No,’? was the
answer from the congregation.

He asked again: ‘*If I would dip a person
under water once forward or once backward,
but would not say any words with it, would
that be baptism?’’ eRe; ”” was again the
answer.

A urrte girl, gasping for her last mortal
breath, said, ‘‘Father, take me.’’ Her father,
who sat weeping by her bed, lifted her into
his lap. She smiled, thanked him, and said,
“I spoke to my heavenly Father,’’ and died. —