The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1902, Page 7

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The ILutheran Pioneer. 7

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The Story of Pahn-Lee.

Pahn-Lee was a little Chinese boy who lived
in a boat on the river with his father and
mother and two older brothers. His story
is told by ‘*‘Sunbeam.’’

|

strong, useful man, and helps the missionary
in bringing others to Jesus.

How do you think he does it? Why, he
puts ona ‘‘canjue” and goes around the streets

ment, and on the blank leaf wrote a sentence
in German, in French, and in English. They
told the children to take good care of the book,
and when they got into any trouble, just to

as if he were a criminal being punished. People | stand still, open the book, and hold it right up

look to see what is written on the ‘“‘canjue’’ |

before them. Then they bade them good-bye

There had been a little sister, but Pahn- | about his crime, and there Pahn-Lee has, in| and prayed God to take care of the little ones

Lee’s father did not want a girl in his family.
So the baby was sold to s missionary for|
a quarter of a dollar’s worth of our money |
in Chinese change. Pahn-Lee’s father and |
mother thought it a fine bargain, and won-

dered what the foreigner wanted with such a}

useless creature as a girl baby. But Pabn-
Lee went by the mission school after that and

heard little girls singing inside and thought it
must be a happy place. The Chinese
hymns they sang stayed in his head.
There was one about Jesus, the Good
Shepherd, that Pahn-Lee liked best of
all; and he kept wondering who Jesus
might be, until one day he heard the
missionary preaching about the Good
Shepherd, and then the little boy lis-
tened eagerly.

The Gospel story is so simple and
plain that the smallest child can under-
stand it, and so Pahn-Lee took it all
into his little heart. He went home
and told his father, but his father was
angry, and beat him, so that Pahn-Lee :
was afraid to speak to anyone about
it again. But he thought about it all
the more, and one day he spoke to the
missionary, and the missionary talked
with him, and prayed with him, and
gave him a little Chinese tract, with a
picture of the Good Shepherd on it,
for his own.

I do not suppose that Pahn-Lee had
ever seen a sheep—how many of you
have ?—but he was very happy over
the picture. He took it home, but now
his father was angry in earnest. He
not only beat his son, but he took him
before the judge for being disobedient,
and the judge ordered that Pahn-Lee
should wear a ‘‘canjue’’ around his neck for
a month. <A ‘‘canjue” is a square plank of
wood, with a hole for the neck in the center,
and the person who wears it cannot eat or
sleep comfortably, so it is very hard punish-
ment to haye to wear one for weeks at a time.
On the ‘‘canjue’? was written the reason why
Pahn-Lee was punished, and every one who
saw him read it and frowned at him as a
criminal.

Poor Pahn-Lee! that was only the begin-
ning of his troubles. It would take too long
to tell the story of the next few years—how
he was cast out by his father and mother for
being a Christian boy, and how he suffered
from hunger and cold, but always kept true
to the name of Jesus. But at last the mis-
sionary found a home and work for the brave
boy, and Pahn-Lee worked so well that he rose
from one thing to another, until now heis a

large letters, ‘‘Jesus, the Good Shepherd,”’
and three or four beautiful Gospel texts about
the Saviour. Then when he sees the people
reading the words, he tells them about Jesus,

and bring them safely to their journey’s end.
The children were very careful to do as

| they were told.. Whenever they were in any
| trouble they took out their book, opened it to

and so, often, he wins them to Christ. Hej the sentence written in it, and held it up be-

says: ‘I heard the voice of the Good Shep-

herd and followed Him. Will you listen to

Jesus’ voice and follow Him, too?’’
Pahn-Lee’s little sister is a Christian girl

Safe in the Arms of Jesus.

now, and his mother became a follower of
Jesus before she died. Pahn-Lee says: bh 6
was the best day of my life when I followed
the Good Shepherd's voice.”

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Three Little Travelers.

‘There were three little German girls, the
youngest cight, and the eldest only twelve
years old, who were to be sent to America
to friends who lived there. Their father and
mother were dead, and these friends wanted
them. But there was no one to go with them
all across the wide ocean, and far away into
the western part of that country.

But their friends in Germany believed in
God and in His kind, protecting care. So they
got them all ready, and, when the children
were about to start, they took a New Testa-

fore them, and they always found some one

who could read either German, French, or Eng-
lish, and who would help them on their way.
And in due time they reached their friends.

Would you like to know what the
words were that made every one feel
so kindly to these little travelers?
They were the words of Jesus, which
He spoke when He was here on earth
so many years ago: ‘‘Verily, I say
unto you, inasmuch as ye have done
it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me.’’

Every one who read these words felt
as if Jesus was speaking to him, and
that any kindness shown the little
lonely children was shown to Jesus
Himself. So every heart was moved
with pity and love, and the three little
girls found friends.

But if these children had been care-
less and had lost their book, or had
been disobedient to the directions given
them, they would probably have fallen
into great trouble. I think they must
have loved Jesus themselves, and have
prayed to Him every day, so that He
helped them to be thoughtful and good,
which made it all the easier for them
to find friends.

I think this is a beautiful story of
faith in God, and of His tender care
for the little orphans. _Do you remem-
ber this verse in the Bible: ‘*When
my father and my mother forsake me,
then the Lord will take me up’? And here
is another: ‘‘Thou art the Helper of the father-
less;’’ and still another: ‘‘Leave thy father-
less children, I will preserve them alive.”
He teaches us to love and help them.

Luth. S. S. Herald.

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Is all study of the sacred Scriptures’ we
should despair of our wit and labor, and seek
understanding with fear and humility from
God. At the close, and often during the read-
ing, lift up the eyes of thy heart and of thy
body to Christ, with a brief sigh, imploring
His grace, saying and thinking, “Grant, Lord,
that I may rightly understand these things;
yea more, that I may do them. Behold, Lord
Jesus, if this study be not to Thy glory, let
me not understand a syllable. But give to
me whatever shall seem to Thee for Thy glory
in me, a sinner.— Luther.

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