The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1899, Page 2

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

“He Went on His Way Rejoicing.” Epiphany in a Dark Country.

The story which our picture illustrates you! The following story comes from Ashantee,
may read in Acts 8, 26—40. Of the Ethio- | the land of terror, torture, and death within
pian, whom you see riding in the chariot, we | the Gold Coast of West Africa.
are there told: ‘‘He went on his way re-| On the Ist of January, 1874, missionaries
joicing.”? Why did he rejoice? Me was a Ramseyer and Kuehne, together with the wife
man of great authority under Candace, Queen | of the former and several other Christians,
of the Ethiopians, and had charge of all her were still languishing (as they had been for
treasures. He rode in royal state and doubt-| four years) in captivity in Coomassie, the
less was envied by many. And yet it was not! capital of that blood-stained country, where
for all these things that he was joyful. For they were forced to be witnesses of number-
all these he might have been a miserable man, | less scenes of butchery and blood-shed. They
as has been the case and is still the case with remembered how they had been wont to cele-
many even more exalted than he. Why, then, | brate this day at their mission stations, from
did he go on his way rejoicing? |; which they had been violently carried away.

dungeon, and after the lapse of twenty-two
years they were able in the providence of
God to return to Coomassie not as captives,
| but as heralds of the Gospel enjoying per-
| sonal liberty and the protection of the British
|government. Rev. and Mrs. Ramseyer are
now at work in that city and the country
round about. They have a hopeful school of
fifty pupils in the city and several catechu-
mens under instruction preparatory for holy
baptism. Was ever a more sublime and mer-
ciful retribution visited upon a degraded and
God-forsaken people? The reader can im-
agine what sort of an Epiphany has been en-
|joyed by these severely tried but grandly
| triumphant missionaries.

As he was returning from Jerusalem, whither | In spirit and memory they heard again the|
he had gone to worship, sitting in his chariot hymns of praise that used to be sung in their

<—e

he read the prophet Isaiah. By divine direc- | church and in the homes of native Christians. |

tion Philip, who was a deacon of the church,
put himself in his way and asked him whether
he understood what he was reading. ‘‘How
can I,’”’ was the reply, ‘‘except some man
should guide me?”’ And he asked Philip to
come up and sit with him. The passage he
had been reading was the fifty-third chapter
of Isaiah, which so clearly and beautifully
sets forth the atoning work of Christ. And
Philip began at the same Scripture and
preached unto him Jesus. He told him that
all the things of which the prophet speaks
have been fulfilled in Christ, the Saviour of
sinners, the ‘‘Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world.’’

The seed fell on good ground, and it im-
mediately sprang up and brought forth pre-
ciousfruit. By the grace of God, the Ethio-
pian became a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and upon his confession that Jesus is
the Son of God he was baptized to the remis-
sion of sins. It was a happy, joyful experi-
ence in the life of this eminent man. His

In

But what a celebration in Coomassie!

heart was overflowing with delight. ‘And he| nearly every street of the city innocent blood

went on his way rejoicing.’’ Why should he not?
And why should it not be so with all Chris-
tians? ‘They, too, are believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ. They are baptized in His-name.
For His sake their sins are all forgiven and
blotted out, never to he remembered against
them any more forever. They are justified in
the sight of God, and He is their reconciled
Father and Friend. And as they enter a new
year and go on their way in the pilgrimage of
life, every step brings them nearer to their ever-
lasting home in heaven. They are nearer to that
home at the close of the year than they were at
the beginning. They are nearer to that home at
night than they were in the morning, and nearer
toit in the morning than when they Jaid them-
selves down to rest at night. Come health or
sickness in the new year, come prosperity or
adversity, come life or death, come what may,
“all'is working together for their good. The
_ rough storms that beat upon them here are
afting them more rapidly across the sea of
ime to the blissful shores of their heavenly
They. may go on their way rejoicing.

was flowing and human victims were offered
to satisfy the demands of the superstitious
fears of these benighted heathen. The army
had returned from war, and they were slaying
their fellow-beings so that these might serve
as wives and slaves to the fallen warriors.

What 2 mournful Epiphany it was, that
6th of January, 1874. The missionaries gath-
ered together the few Christians within their
reach and: conducted a service in which fer-
vent prayers ascended to the throne of grace
for the enlightenment of the heathen world
and especially for the deliverance of this
darkest corner of the Dark Continent. Even
for Ashantee, they said, however dense the
darkness that now invests it, there is salva-
tion through Him who came to save all people
from their sins. ‘May the Lord keep aglow
within us a living faith,’’ so they pleaded,
‘ta faith that worketh by love!’’

The story reads like a romance, like a piece
of fiction, though every word of it is sober
truth and reality. The missionaries were
shortly afterwards rescued from this dark

A Cup of Water in My Name.

|

A woman, whose life has been long and
checkered with many reverses, said lately:
‘‘Nothing has given me more courage to
face every day’s duties and troubles than
a few words spoken to me by my father
when I was a child. He was the village
doctor. I came into his office where he was
compounding medicines one day, looking
cross and ready to cry.

‘‘What’s the matter, Mary ?’’

“Y?m tired. I’ve been making beds and
washing dishes all day, and every day, and
what good does it do? To-morrow the beds
will have to be made and the dishes washed
over again.’’

‘Look, my child,’’ he said; ‘‘do you see
these little empty vials? ‘They are all in-
significant, cheap things, of no value in
themselves; but in one I put a deadly poi-
son, in another a sweet perfume, in a third
a healing medicine. Nobody cares for the
vials; it is that which they contain that
gives them value. Your daily work, the dishes
washed or the floor swept, are homely things
and count for little in themselves; but it is
the sweet patience of zeal or high thought or
love of God that you put into your work that
shall last. These make your life.’’? — Ea.

Limping after God.

Bismarck, at one time, met General Super-
intendent Buechsel in the Zoological Garden.
The latter accosted him and said with some
warmth of congratulation: ‘*Your Highness,
permit me to take you by the hand and to
tell you what pleasure it affords me to know
that everything you attempt is so wonderfully
successful.’’ To this Bismarck replied: “Let
me enlighten you a little,’”? and he counted on
his fingers six great political undertakings, hold-
ing on to each one a little, and saying— “801
had planned, and—so it turned out. I ene
to tell you something, —I am glad when I dis-
cover in which direction our Lord wants to 0;
and how I may then best limp after Him.”