The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1903, Page 19

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

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Not so “Smart” as He Thought He Was.

In 1873, when the Vandalia Railroad was
beginning to take hold of the magnificent coal
treasures of Parke County, Indiana, a party,
consisting of a railroad president, a chief en-
gineer, a State Geologist, and a number of
Eastern capitalists, visited the Sand Creek
mine in that county for the purpose of ex-
amining the output. While on the ground,
the attention of all was attracted by a slab of
stone in which were imbedded thousands of
curious and interesting fossil shells. Mean-
time a Quaker farmer had joined the company.
The State Geologist was learnedly explaining
how the shells had found their way into the
solid substance of the rock, and all the rest
were respectfully listening.

“This limestone,’’ said he, tapping it with
his hammer, ‘‘came from the roof of the coal
mine yonder. It is the bed of a sea that
deposited it a hundred thousand years ago.
These fossils were shellfish living in that sea.
They died and were buried in the lime sedi-
ment constantly forming on the bottom of the
sea. ‘That sediment became limestone, and
now we find it with all its shellfish still in it.””

The Quaker had held his peace as long as
possible.

“Friend,’’ said he to the geologist, ‘‘thee
says what thee can’t prove, and thee ought to
be ashamed to dispute the Holy Book.’’

“But I can prove it,’’ insisted the geolo-
gist, glad of a polemical opportunity. ‘“‘Here
is the rock. It came from deep in the bowels of
theearth. These are seashells. Where did they
come from if they didn’t come from a sea?’

‘““Friend,’’ quietly spoke the Quaker, ‘let
me ask thee a question.”

“‘Certainly.”’

“Ts not God all-powerful?”

“Yes.”

“Did not He make all things?’’

‘tYes,’”’

‘He made fishes, clams, periwinkle shells,
and all?’’

“To be sure.’’

“The earth and all that is in it?”

sYes.’?

“Then, friend, it was just as easy for God
to make rocks down in the ground with shells
already in them, as it was for Him to make a
sea with shells in it. ‘Chee’s not as smart as
thee thinks thee is, friend.””

The laugh was upon the geologist during
the rest of the day, and whenever he offered
a learned remark someone was sure to say,
‘“Thee’s not as smart as thee thinks thee is!”
And surely he was not.

————. oor oe

“Just As | Am.”

The hymn beginning with the words, ‘‘Just
as Iam, without one plea,’’ has been a source of
comfort to many in different conditions of life.

The daughter of the poet Wordsworth, two
months before her death, heard the hymn for

thereafter until the end she would ask, the

the first time. Ten times that day she asked
her husband to repeat it, and every morning

first thing, ‘‘Now my hymn.’’

A little street waif held up a torn and dirty
leaf before a city missionary in New York and
asked for a clean one like it. It was a copy
of ‘‘Just as I am.’’ His little sister had re-
peated the words often in her last days, and the
leaf was found crumpled in her pocket. The
family wanted a clean copy to have it framed.

A pathetic incident connected with this hymn
was told by John B. Gough. Mr. Gough was
sitting in church, when the usher seated in the
pew with him a queer-looking man, whose face
was mottled, whose mouth twitched, and who
uttered mufiled sounds. Mr. Gough reluc-
tantly shared his book with him. The man
made strange noises when attempting to sing.
The organist played an interlude. Said the
stranger, ‘‘Would you be kind enough to give
me the first line of the next verse ?”’

“Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind,’’ an-
swered Mr. Gough.

‘“That’s it!” said the man. ‘‘And I am
blind—God help me!’’ And the tears ran
down his face. ‘And I’m wretched, and I
am paralytic.’’

And then he joined, as best he could, in
the stanza,

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind,
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need, in Thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come.
And the Lamb of God has said, ‘‘Him that
cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out’? —
yea, ‘‘Come,?’ ‘‘and I will give you rest.”

A Hero and Heroine of the West Indies.

Mrs. Johnston, with her husband, went to
the West Indies to preach Christ to the slaves.
The slaveholders controlled the local govern-
ment, and forbade any one to carry the Gos-
pel to the slaves. So the missionary was cast
into a loathsome prison for a month for teach-
ing some young slaves a new Gospel hymn.
Mrs. Johnston labored on by gathering the
slave women and their children by stealth in
her own home, teaching them of Him who
came to give liberty to the captive, and the
opening of the prison to him that is bound.
They were compelled to go to Dominica and
occupy 4 ‘‘notoriously unhealthy” position at
the station there. On their way over, the ship
sprang a leak and all hands were set to bail-
ing water, but could not keep up with the gain-
ing flood. Mrs. Johnston went into the cabin
and earnestly asked God’s help. The leak
closed and all were saved. On the examina-
tion of the vessel in port a mass of seaweed
was found so imbedded in the opening in the
side of the ship as to make it water-tight.
Strange answer! ‘The fever laid its hand on
her, then on him, and as they both lay on the
tiver brink she was taken and he was left. On
his recovery he found a letter from her to him,

written when she knew the summons was com-
ing, in which her soul poured out loving words
of cheer and counsel.
said, ‘Feed my lambs, feed my lambs.’”’

She added, ‘‘Jesus

Heroes of Missions.

<= ee —— —

Comfort in Death.

“God so loved the world that He gave His

only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth

in Him should not perish, but have everlast-

ing life,’’ John 3, 16.

These sweet Gospel words, which Luther

repeated in his last hour, have been a strong
staff of comfort to many a weary pilgrim as
he pressed through the valley of the shadow

of death. Muhlenberg relates that when one

of his parish schoolchildren, a lad of ten, was

suddenly taken ill, he called for his New Tes-
tament. Turning to John 3, 16, he repeated
the passage severaltimes. ‘‘Dear mother,’’ he
then said, ‘‘with this text I will go to heaven.”’

—+2 + oo > oe

What One Bible Can Do.

One hundred and eight years ago Pitcairn
Island had no inhabitants. At that time nine
wicked sailors, who had sent their captain
adrift in an open boat on that wide southern
ocean, landed here to hide from punishment.

In ten years they were all dead but one,
six of them having been murdered. The one
left, to take care of their wives, whom they
had taken from Tahiti, and their twenty little
children, was John Adams. The only book
he had was a Bible, and he went to it to find
out what to do for these poor little ones.

That precious Bible was the saving of them
all. It brought John Adams to repent of his
crimes, and to love the Lord. He became a
new man and a good and kind friend. The
children all called him father, and he taught
them to read and write, and to trust the
Saviour. — Mission Dayspring.

— 2-5 o> —o

A Righteous Judgment.

Two German farmers had a dispute about
a piece of meadow land, which they could not
settle. One day Ludwig came to Conrad and
said: ‘I have engaged the judge to come
here to-morrow; he shall decide between us.
Be ready to go before him with me, and pre-
sent your side of the case.” ‘‘Well, Lud-
wig,” said Conrad, ‘I have mowed all this
hay, which you see, and I must get it in to-
morrow. I cannot possibly leave it. You go
before the judge to-morrow, and tell him both
your reasons and mine, and then there'll be
no need of my going.”’

Ludwig actually did so, and pleaded faith-
fully both for himself and against himself and
—lost his case!

Returning to Conrad, he said: ‘The meadow
is yours. I am glad the affair is settled.’’

The bond of friendship between these two
men was thus established for life.