The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1895, Page 34

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

4
:
,

34 The Lutheran Pioneer.

A Larder Strangely Filled.

abundance of food for the whole of us, | of men.’ How many such sermons as that
- lalthough our usual supply was cut off. ; would it take, do you think, to awakert a sin-
Missionaries whilst prosecuting their work |

Toward the evening I received a letter from | ner as the thousands were awakened in the
have at times to bear many hardships and to| the Custom-house oflicers, saying that, as I| days of Pentecost, and to make them cry out:
fee] many anxieties; but they often find that | had gratuitously attended to them in cases of | ‘What must I do to be saved?’”’

‘‘man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.’’| sickness, they had subscribed to purchase a; ‘‘But, Jack, people now-a-days don’t want
Witness the case of the Rev. Dr. Douthwaite, case of instruments for me, but not knowing to be harpooned. They want to be interested
of the China Inland Mission, who thus records | what I wanted, would I kindly accept the/| intellectually in the truth. They like to listen
the way in which much-needed supplies of | money? Of course I kindly did. They sent} to such expositions and illustrations as the
food and money were obtained from God in| with the letter a roll of $70. We gave God| doctor gave us this morning. Did you see
answer to prayer: thanks for all He had done for us; and it is| how attentive they were? Surely it isa grand

When I was in the city of Wunchau, with/ always a joy to me to look back upon that | thing to attract such an audience to hear the
two other families of our missionaries, we were | occasion and other similar ones, and remember | Gospel.’”’

a long time without a supply of funds.
had run very short of money, and,
as it drew towards Christmas time,
we began to expect some from Eng-
land, which was our usual source of
supply. All the money was used
up, but we said, ‘‘The steamer will
be in at Christmas, and then we shall
surely get more.”” Christmas eve-
ning came, and with it the steamer,
but no money for us, nothing to en-
courage us atall. Our hopes seemed
dashed to the ground. We knew
that we could get no more money
from our usual source for probably
fifteen days. We went as usual, and
told the Lord all about it, for we
went out to China knowing that we
had only God to depend upon; and
we were quite satisfied that that
was enough for us, and we told our
wants to Him.

Now you will see how, that day,
the Lord having shut up one source
to try our faith, opened others. Be-
fore dinner-time a Chinaman came
along with a large piece of beef,
and said, ‘‘I want you to accept
this as a present. I have received
a great deal of medicine from yon.
You have done me good, and you
would not take my money. Will you
please take this??? I took it and
thanked God for it. Soon after-
wards, in came another Chinaman,
4 gentleman, with a coolie walking
behind him with a large bamboo oyer his
shoulder, and a basket hanging from each end.
The man put the things down in the reception-
room, and I was asked tocome down. I went
down and opened the basket, and found in it
four hams and some little things besides. He
said, ‘*I want you to accept this as a present.’’
Idid so, and thanked God for it. In came
another Chinaman with a fat pheasant and
some chickens and a basket of eggs, and he

asked me to accept these. I did accept them

and thanked God forthem. But that was not
all’ Before evening a European, connected

_ with the consular service, came along, bringing
_ With him a coolie carrying. a huge turkey. He

‘said, ‘‘See, I have been feeding this turkey for

‘you six months. Will you accept it??? Thus
“the Lord provided for us, and we had an

We | what God has done.—Christian Herald.

DAVID'S WELL IN PALESTINE.

No Harpoons.

A sailor who had just returned from a whal-

t

‘*To hear about the Gospel, you mean.
I don’t object to the doctor’s expo-
sitions and illustrations. As I said
before, they were all ship-shape.
But the trouble was when he had
sailed to the fishing-ground and the
whales were spouting around him,

trying to catch them, he made a
polite bow and said: ‘I am glad to
see so many whales. I hope that
they admire my ship, and will come
and spout around it again on its
next voyage.’ Do you think that the
ship owner in New Bedford would
send such a captain to Behring Strait
a second time? Now read the report
in Acts of Peter’s first gospel ser-
mon. He begins with an able ex-
position of the Old Testament pro-
phecies in regard of the resurrection
of Christ and the outpouring of the
Spirit; and then, when he had
gained the attention of the crowd,
he charged home upon them with
the words: ‘Jesus whom ye have
crucified.’ That was the hurling of
a harpoon. And we are told that it
was effectual. ‘They were pricked
in their heart,’ and the Gospel
catch that day was three thousand
souls.’”

“I suppose, then, you would pre-
fer these salvation army preachers,
who stand on the street corners and
shout: ‘You are all going to hell.

| Come right away and repent, or you will be
lost???”

‘‘No, I don’t believe in them at all. I lis-

ing voyage was taken by a friend to hear an/|tened to their crude and coarse harangues for

eloquent preacher. When they came out of
the church the friend said: ‘Jack, wasn’t that
a fine sermon?’’

“Yes, it was ship-shape; the water-lines
were graceful. The masts raked just enough ;

half an hour the other day. ‘The people only
laugh at them. ‘They didn’t catch any fish
while I was looking. They seemed to me like
aman who should start from New Bedford for
Behring Strait, on a raft, with crowbars in-

the sails and rigging were all right, but I didn’t | stead of harpoons. If he got where the whales

see any harpoons on board. When a vessel
goes-on a whaling voyage the main thing is to
get whales. But they won’t come to you be-
cause you have afineship. You must go after
them and harpoon them. Now it seems to me
that a preacherisawhaleman. He is sent not
to sail among the fish, butto catch them. Jesus
said to His disciples: ‘I will make you fishers

Were spouting, and they would let him come
near enough to use his crowbars, he would
find them too blunt to be effective. No, no,
a fisherman wants a good ship and good boats,
and then he wants sharp harpoons and the
skill and courage to hurl them at just the
right time. The harpoons ought to be pol-
ished, too; the more highly polished the better.

instead of manning his boats and:

ey tt