The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1898, Page 11

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The Lutheran Pioneer. : il
eS — EES —————— EET

Christ, the Rock.

One day also the pious preacher Bernard
Gilpin was informed, that he was accused of
heresy before the Bishop of London. He
knew full well what that meant, and an-
swered: ‘‘May God forgive them their wick-
edness, and grant me strength to endure the
trial!’”? When the officers came to seize him,
he received them with the words: ‘‘All things
work together for good to them that love
God.’? On his way to London he broke
one of his legs, for they handled him very
roughly. This gave one of the officers an
occasion to ask: ‘‘Does this also work for
your good?” ‘Why should I doubt it?” re-
joined Gilpin. —And what happened? The
sick man could not appear in court; and put
him to death without a trial, they could not,
if they would preserve the appearance of
justice. He was therefore brought to an inn.
While he was confined there, Queen Mary
died; and one of the first official acts of Eliz-
abeth, her successor to the throne, was, to
set free all those who had been imprisoned
on account of their faith. — Adapted.

Bad Company.

“My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness ;
Midst all the hell I feel within,

On Tis completed work I lean;
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.”

A young lady of sixteen, who had been
piously brought up, was invited to a party at
which certain persons of undisguised infidel
sentiments were expected to be present. Her
father objected to her going.

‘*T know, papa,’’ she said, ‘‘that they speak
against the Bible and against Jesus; but you
can be quite sure they will do me no harm.
I can’t help that, but I shall not allow them
to affect me in the least.’’

‘‘My child,’’ said her father, inventing an
excuse for the. sudden request, ‘‘my work
can’t be interrupted: I have need of a coal.
Will you be kind enough to fetch me one?”’

‘Do you want a live coal, papa?’’

‘No, one that is dead—burned out.”’

The coal was brought. The young lady had
brought it in her hand.

‘Didn't it burn you, my child,’’ asked the
father.

“Why, no, papa. How could it? It’s
dead.”’

‘Of course it couldn’t; but look at your
hand, Florence.’’

“O papa, how black my fingers are! I
must go and wash them.’’

‘Wait a moment, Flossie; here is a lesson
for you while you are washing them. It is
this: ‘Companionship with the wicked and
the world will certainly soil you.’ Remember
all your lifetime what the apostle says, ‘Evil
communications corrupt good manners.’’”

———-_ + eo

Vartan the Armenian.

Fifteen hundred years ago, when Armenia
was a province of Persia, the Persian king
wished to convert the people to his own reli-
gion, and sent an embassy bidding them
abandon Christianity and become fire-wor-
shipers. To this delegation Vartan, the Ar-
menian leader, boldly said: ‘‘All our goods
and possessions are in your hands, and our
bodies are before you. If you leave us our
faith, we will not accept any other lord in
place of you; but we will accept no God in
place of Jesus Christ. We are not better
than our fathers, who gave for this testimony
their goods, their chattels, and their lives.’’

The king of Persia was amazed and enraged
at the temerity of the reply, for Persia was in-
vincible, and Armenia was as a spot upon the
map. He sent an army of two hundred thou-
sand against the stubborn mountaincers, and
Vartan, with a handful of patriots, met this
force in battle under Mount Ararat. The re-
sistance was obstinate. Vartan was killed,
while old men and women and children fought
with the strong for their freedom. An old
historian quaintly put it thus: ‘‘The swords
of the slayers grew dull, but the necks of the
conquered were not weary.”’

The Persians, seeing that although the
battle had been won, the people had not been
conquered, said to the king: ‘These men
haye put on Christianity not like robes, but
like their flesh and blood. Men who do not
dread fetters, nor fear torments, nor care for
their property, and, what is worst of all, who
choose death rather than life—who can stand
against them ?’’

The people proved then, as they did again
a few months ago, that while they were ready
to give up their lives, they would never give
up their faith. And to this day, although the
celebration has been forbidden by the Turkish
government as seditious, the mountaineers of
the Caucasus solemnly drink at their festivals
to the health of the dead Vartan. —Selected.

——_— + oo oe

A Modest Good Deed.

Oberlin, the well-known philanthropist of
Steinthal, while yet a candidate for the min-
istry, was traveling on one occasion from
Strasbourg. It was in the winter time. The
ground was deeply covered with snow, and
the roads almost impassable. He had reached
the middle of his journey and was among the
mountains, but by that time was so exhausted
that he could stand up no longer.

He was rapidly freezing to death. Sleep
began to overcome him ; all power to resist it
left him. He commended himself to God, and
yielded to what he felt to be the sleep of death.

He knew not how long he slept, but sud-
denly became conscious of some one rousing
him and waking him up. Before him stood
a wagon driver in his blue blouse, and the
wagon not far away. He gave a little nour-
ijshment and the spirit of life returned. He
then helped him on the wagon and brought
him to the next village. The rescued man
was profuse in his thanks, and offered money,
which his benefactor refused.

“Jt is only a duty to help one another,”’
said the wagoner, ‘‘and it is the next to an
insult to offer a reward for such a service.’”

“Then,’? replied Oberlin, ‘‘at least tell me
your name, that I may have you in thankful
remembrance before God.”’

“J gee,’’? said the wagoner, ‘‘that you are
a minister of the Gospel; please tell me the
name of the Good Samaritan.”

‘“That,”? said Oberlin, ‘I cannot do, for it
was never put on record.”’

“Then,” replied the wagoner, ‘‘until you
can tell me his name permit me to withhold
mine.’” 5

Soon he had driven out of sight and Ober-
lin never saw him again. —Ez.

How a Little Girl Worked.

‘A little child shall lead them.’’ A mod-
ern illustration is recounted in the London
Christian. There are ninety villages belong-
ing to the city of Tyre, in Syria, and not a
Bible was to be found in any of them not so
very long ago.

But a little girl who had been taught about
Jesus in the British Syrian schools, Beyrout,
went to Tyre to spend her summer holidays.
She took her Arabic Testament with her and
read verses from it to the people. They be-
gan to get quite interested, and used to look
forward to her coming to them day by day.
But at last her holiday was over, and they
had to say good-bye to the Book and its little
teacher.

But they often thought and talked about
her and about the beautiful words she used
to read, until after two years they felt they
must get a teacher of their own. So they
wrote to Beyrout and asked for one to come,
and who do you think was sent? Why, this
same little girl, who had by this time left
school and was old enough to go as the teacher
herself, and worked up quite a Hourishing
school.

Now there are twenty-nine schools in dif-
ferent places, in which 3000 children are be-
ing taught about Jesus. —

——+~ oo oe

“All Things Work Together for Good to
them that Love God.” Rom. 8, 28.

Mary, the Catholic queen of England,
tried every means to suppress the Evangel-
ical faith. During her reign fire and the
sword were called into requisition in the en-
deayor to extirpate the Evangelical doctrine.
Many faithful witnesses of the Lord chose
death in preference to the favor of the court.