The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1903, Page 27

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

SS ne

Chinese Kow- Tow- Ing. |

In China the people must kow-tow, or fall}
down on their faces, before their kings and |
judges and governors. In the picture you |
how this is done. When their great men die,
they are made gods of and are worshiped by |
the people. |

Christian missionaries are laboring in China |
and are teaching the Chinese the true Chris- |
tian faith. ‘Their labor has not been in vain. |
Many have come to faith in Jesus and have}
proved faithful amid severe persecutions. It |
is said that during the late Boxer
more Christians died in China for their faith |
than in any other year. |

Since peace is restored, mission work is|
again prospering, and many more Chinese|
are asking for Bibles and
teachers.

May God bless the mission
work in China, and may the
Chinese come to the knowl-
edge of Christ’s love, and
may they learn to bow to the
Lord Jesus alone.

——_—- <P oe

“God bless you, Papa.”

Some years ago Joseph
Barker died in the faith of the
Gospel, trusting simply in the
__blood of Christ to wash away
his deep guilt. For many
years he had been a leading
infidel, lecturing throughout
Great Britain and the United
States, perfectly familiarwith
the arguments of other infi-
dels, and challenging every
minister, whose attention he
could engage, to public dis-
cussion.

On one occasion, when he was leaving his
house to stand before the people as an am-
bassador of Satan, his little child followed
him to the door and said, ‘God bless you,
Papa.’ ‘That little yoice,zhe afterwards de-
clared, kept ringing in his heart. ‘‘God bless
me!’? he exclaimed. ‘‘God bless me —for
what? God bless me—in what? For hating
His Son? In seeking to destroy His Word?’’
He thought of the gentle voice of Jesus in
the Gospel: ‘‘Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.””
Nor did he find rest until he bowed at the feet
of the crucified but risen Jesus, and found
pardon and salvation for the chief of sinners.

Dear reader, the gentle and entreating voice
of Jesus still says to you in the Gospel: ‘‘Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.’? Do not turn away
from this voice of your Saviour in unbelief
and indifference. May it draw you unto Him
in whom you will find forgiveness and rest and
salvation. God bless you, dear reader.

The Confession of a Former Infidel.

A minister of the Gospel, in one of his lec-|
tures on the Bible, relates the following: — |

There is in my possession, in manuscript, a
confession read to a large assembly in Ken-
tucky by a man who had reached his seventy-
first birthday. He was a physician of fine
culture and respected in the community for
his honesty. For more than sixty years he
was an avowed infidel, and no argument could
move him from his position of unbelief. His
confession begins as follows: ‘‘A skeptic I

Rebellion | was and a self-righteous Pharisee. Trusting |

in my own reason, proud of my reputation,
believing in my own worth and merits, I was
as one born blind. I was self-deceived, and
believed I was doing God service when I de-

Chinese Kow-Tow-Ing.

nied His revealed Word, and opposed the
truths of Scripture. I believed that God had
revealed Himself in nature, and nowhere else.
I knew not what I was doing. I was as those
for whom Jesus prayed in His dying agony
upon the cross, ‘Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do.’ I, even I, was
included in that prayer; and in the blessed
Saviour, I, even I, once His enemy, but now
His worshiper, ‘have an Advocate with the
Father,’ yea, an almighty Friend and Media-
tor, through whom I am enabled to say, ‘Abba,
Father.’ Blessed be God for Jesus Christ,
the Friend and Saviour of sinners!”

That man, before he became 4 Christian,
talked with me by the hour, and declared
that he could see no proof of a divine origin
stamped upon the Bible, and no beauty in
Jesus that He should be desired. After he
became a Christian it was my privilege to
meet him again, and, as he approached, the
tears were running down his manly face, while
he exclaimed with tremulous voice, ‘‘Since I

saw you last, I have found Jesus unutterably
precious to my soul.”

His daughter, whom he tenderly loved, had
died a Christian, and in the darkness of his
skepticism, aud out of the depth of his grief,
he had shrieked, ‘‘Where is my child? Is she
|gone from me forever? Shall I see her no
more, no more? Can I never press her to
my bosom?” But like Baal, when the false
prophets cut themselves with knives and lan-
cets, till the blood gushed out upon them,
‘(there was no voice, nor any that answered,”
1 Kings 18. ‘‘Oh, sir,’’ he said, ‘nature, rea-
son, philosophy, science, were all dumb as the
| silent grave that held the form of my precious
| child, and, heavy laden with sin and sorrow,
| I turned to Jesus, because He alone satisfied
| a great, crying want of my aching heart.’’

+. -P o> Pr _

A Proud Heart Subdued.

In the earlier part of the
past century, William Hone
published in London a book
in opposition to the Gospels
of the New Testament. He
was known as ‘‘the arch-
blasphemer.”? For thirty
years he was an atheist,
‘“‘as,”’ he declares, ‘‘I believe
every consistent reasoner
must be who rejects Chris-
tisnity.”” He became very
popular as a writer and
gained great influence as an
advocate of radical reform.
At length he was prosecuted
by the government for blas-
phemy. He conducted his
own defense for three days
before Lord Ellenborough, in
the presence of large crowds;
and such was his great ability
that, despite the earnest efforts of the govern-
ment’s lawyers, he was set free amid the ap-
plause of the people. ‘‘When I found,’’ he
later remarked to 3 friend, ‘‘what an outcry
there was against me on account of my book,
I set to work to read the Gospels in the Bible,
and, oh! what 8 flood of light burst in upon
me! And thus I became a convert to Chris-
tianity from conviction.”’

From that time until he fell asleep in Jesus,
at an advanced age, his faith and hope and
Jove never forsook him, and the following
verses, written on the fly-leaf of his precious
Bible, contain his confession :

“The proudest heart that ever beat

Hath been subdued in me;

The wildest will that ever rose

To scorn Thy Word or aid Thy foes,
Is quelled, my God, by Thee.

Thy will, and not my will, be done;
My heart be ever Thine!

Confessing Thee, the mighty ‘Word,’

J hall Thee, Christ, my God, my Lord,
And make Thy name my sigo.”