The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1898, Page 19

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

19

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a gospel, as now described, in a wicked world,
whither their master had sent them forth as
sheep in the midst of wolves? How can we
account for that wonderful report, after that
first sermon of the apostle Peter: ‘“Then they
that gladly received His word were baptized,
and the same day there were added unto them
about three thousand souls’? (Acts 2, 41.)
How could a church of Jesus Christ be built
up and spread all over the world and con-
tinually grow-and flourish up to this present
day by the mere preaching of the gospel?
Here, my friends, here we have the key of
-explanation, ‘‘the Lord working with them,”’
as our text says. The Lord, who ascended
into heaven, and in whose hands is all power
-of grace for the conversion, sanctification and
salvation of sinners; the Lord worked with
the apostles, the Lord worked with all sub-
‘sequent preachers of His holy gospel. He ac-
companied the word with His powerful grace,
‘and He will continue to do so, also with us,
until we are saved forever. Blessed be His
holy gospel and praised be the blessed name
-of Jesus Christ, who ascended into heaven and
sitteth at the right hand of God the Father,
world without end. Amen.

+= o> oe

A Prodigal Son’s Return.

General Superintendent Buchsel tells the
story of an aged widow’s faith in his congre-
gation after the following manner. As she
was lying on her death-bed, he was called upon
for pastoral ministration. ‘‘I asked her,’’ he
goes on to say, ‘‘whether any special burden
lay upon her heart.’’ She answered, ‘‘No,
what rests upon my heart, I have committed

ito my Saviour and all I yet desire is to partake

‘of His body and blood for the remission of
‘sins.””

Upon the further question as to whether she

llived in enmity with any one, she replied, “No,

‘L have forgiven everything.’” Thereupon the

‘children, who were standing at her bedside,

‘began to weep bitterly, and on further inquiry
I learned that the widow had a son by the name
-of Christian who had caused her many a heart-
‘pang. I asked whether she had also forgiven
‘Christian, and her reply was, ‘‘How else can
-a mother do but forgive; and I know that God
She spoke this with
‘great confidence and I asked her how she knew
this. ‘Oh, the child of so many tears and

salso will forgive him.”’

prayers can not possibly be lost.”’

She then received communion and went to

the creaking of the ropes, had died away,
Christian flung himself prostrate into the grave
and cried out pitifully: “My mother! Oh, my
mother has brought charges against me before
God!”’ ;

When he was lifted out of the grave, he was
raised a new man, whose only comfort was that
he might still trust in the forgiveness of his
sins because of the prayers of his mother, so
richly watered by her tears. This touching
incident was a sermon on the fourth command-
ment to the young in that whole neighborhood,
whose lesson could not lightly go unheeded.

Alas, how many thoughtless sons and daugh-
ters are laying up heart-pangs for themselves
because of the heart-pangs that they caused
devoted mothers!

__ —>- o~<—e

The Rich Man’s Death.

Blue Coat and Gray.

In 1864, several Union and Confederate
wounded soldiers lay in a farmhouse in the
Shenandoah Valley. Mrs. B , the mother
of one of the latter, rode ten miles every day
to see her boy, bringing such little comforts
as she could. Her house was burned, the
plantation in ruins, trampled down by the
army. One day she carried him some beef
tea. Every drop was precious, for it was
with great difficulty that she had obtained
the beef from which it was made.

As she sat watching her boy sip the steam-
ing, savory broth, her eye caught the eager,
hungry look of 2 man on the next cot. He
was a Yankee, perhaps one of the very band
who had burned her home. She was a bitter:
Secessionist. But she was also a Christian
woman. Her eye stole back to the pale,
sunken face; and she remembered the words |
of the Master: ‘‘If thine enemy thirst, give
him drink.”

Some years ago there lived a very rich man.
He was very wise in worldly matters, as well
as rich. He managed his business so that at
last’ he had enough money to enable him to
quit work. He spent his time in feasting and
revelry. He invited his jolly friends to come
to see him and. they spent the evenings in
seeking pleasure and gratification. He told
his wife and children that he was not going to
trouble himself about death and eternity —
about God and salvation. He believed that
death was the end of a person. He said: “Tt
is all nonsense for you to read your Bible, and
teach the children the Ten Commandments
and the Lord’s Prayer, and go to church.
Let everybody enjoy himself while he has the
chance, and give himself no thought about
dying and meeting God.”

One day this rich man took sick. A pain-
ful disease took hold of him. He lingered a
long while. His jolly friends no longer came
to see him. ‘They loved his wine and his
money, and the so-called pleasure he gave
them, but they did not love him.

The doctor told the poor man that he could
not get well. His wife wept bitterly and tried
to comfort her husband as best she could.
But he was so very unhappy. He told his
wife that it was not the pain that distressed
him, but the thought of what would follow
after death. .

The wife replied: ‘*What do you mean, dear
husband? You always told us that death was
the end of a man.”

“Oh, yes,” cried the sick man, ‘‘I have
often said so, but there is certainly a heaven
and ahell. I know it now. Iam filled with

After a moment’s pause she filled a bowl
with the broth, and put it to his lips, repeat-
ing to herself the words, ‘‘For His sake; for
His sake; for His sake I do it.’’ Then she
brought fresh water, and bathed the soldier’s
face and hands as gently as if he had been
her son. ‘The next day, when she returned,
he was gone, having been exchanged to the
North.

Last winter the son of a senator from a
Northern state brought home with him, during
the Christmas vacation, a young engineer
from Virginia, He was the only living son
of Mrs. B , the boy whom she had nursed
haying been killed during the latter years of
the war. She had struggled to educate this
boy as a civil engineer, and had done it. But
without influence he could not obtain position,
and was supporting himself by copying.

Senator Blank inquired into his qualifica-
tions, and, finding them good, soon after
secured his appointment on the staff of en-
gineers employed to construct an important
railway. ‘The senator enclosed with the ap-
pointment a letter to Mrs. B——, reminding
her of the farmhouse on the Shenandoah, and
adding, ‘tI was the wounded man to whom
you gave that bowl of broth.”

“Bread cast upon the waters shall be found
after many days.’’ — Exchange.

—. + oo

Very tender was the late Lord Shaftes-

ther eternal home. The day of the funeral ap-
proached. The coffin stood in the main room
and the house was filled with friends and
emourners. Around the corpse stood her six
children; also Christian, but not 2 tear glis-
tenedinhiseye. Pale and unmoved, he looked
into the peaceful face of his mother. The
funeral train was set in motion. Christian
moved with it, hymn-book in hand, but nota
word fell from his lips. But when the coffin
was lowered and the hollow thud, together with

bury’s reference, on one occasion, to the kind
heart which led him to Christ. He was for
a time, at an early period of his life, left
solely in charge of an old Scottish nurse. The
humble woman took infinite pains to teach
him the story of Christ’s love, and with such
success that the great earljconfessed: ‘All
that I am to-day, and all that I have done,
I owe under God, to that good woman’s in-
fluence.’? — Ea.

a horrid dread and fear. I must go into the
presence of God. I see my mistake, but it is
now too late. Oh, believe me, dear wife, and
teach it to the children, that there is a heaven
and a hell, so that you and the children may
not go where I am going.””

He ceased, fell back on his pillow, with the
cold sweat of death upon him. He had gone
to stand in the presence of God. ‘Now is the
accepted time; now is the day of salvation.”