The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1904, Page 7

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

Light in Darkness.

The late Rev. M. Frommel, the well-known Lu-
theran pastor, relates the following:

An old man of eighty years lay dying. I was
sitting at his bedside. He was poor, very poor.
As long as he was able, he had earned his daily
bread by carpentering, but now he was old and
sick. As long as he could see, he had searched
diligently in the Word of God, but now he was blind.
As long as he could go, in spite of his blindness he
went Sunday after Sunday to church, a two hours’
journey over the mountain, in the one hand a staff,
by the other led by his little grandson; but he had
fallen once and was now so lame that he could not
leave his bed. I have often sat at his side, yet in
the twenty years that I have known him, he never
uttered a word of complaint, but deep peace rested
upon his noble features, and his highest joy was to
speak of the mystery of God’s love. As the end
drew near, I asked him what text I should take for
his funeral sermon, when he raised himself up,
turned his sightless eyes upon me, and said, ‘‘My
text is in the book of Micah, and reads: ‘When I
sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.’”’

— e+

“IT Shall Not Want.”

Peden, one of the commanders in the time when
Protestants were persecuted in Scotland, relates a
touching story of two Christian women who were
suffering for Christ’s sake. He says: ‘‘There was
a poor woman in Clydesdale, as I came through,
who was asked how she did in this evil time. ‘I do
well,’ said she, ‘for I get more good of one verse of
the Bible now than [ did of it lang syne. He hath
cast me the keys of the pantry-door and bidden me
take my fill.’ The other woman was a widow whose
husband fell at Bothwell, and when the soldiers
came and plundered her house, telling her, ‘We will
leave nothing, neither to put in thee nor on thee;’
‘T care not,’ she said, ‘I shall not want so long as
God is in heaven.’”’

The two Christian women knew the truth of the
words, ‘‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”’

7°

“The Right Side of Eighty.”

An old man was asked what his age was. He
answered, ‘‘The right side of eighty.”

“‘T thought you were more than eighty,’’ said
the inquirer.

“‘T am beyond it,’’ said the old man, ‘‘and that
is the right side, for I am nearer to my eternal rest.””

NOTES AND ITEMS.

Tue Harvest ts Great.—Mr. Zeller, “‘statistical
expert” at Stuttgart, Germany, estimates that of
the 1,544,516,000 human beings in the world only
one third, or 534,940,000, are professed Christians.
There are millions that have never heard the Gospel.

“There’s a harvest awaiting the sickle,
Unnumbered flelds welcome our view.

Where the ripe golden grain can be gathered;
But those who will labor are few.

“The Lord is still searching for workers,
‘More laborers!’ still is His call.

Oh, who, then, will choose to be idle?
Our Master has need of us all.”’

AN EXAMPLE ror Orners. — A missionary says:
““The responses and singing of Indian congregations
are often startling in their full-voiced earnestness,
and no less impressive is their reverent attention to
sermons and instructions.”’? Such Indian congrega-
tions set an example for others to follow. Many a
white and colored congregation might learn from
them.

BrstE Work.—The British and Foreign Bible
Society celebrated recently its one-hundredth anni-
versary in London. It reported an amazing body of
work during the past hundred years. It has circu-
lated one hundred and eighty millions of copies of
the Bible or parts of the Bible. It has secured trans-
lations of the Bible into nearly four hundred lan-
guages. Over against this work, it reported that
there are still in the world four hundred and fifty
millions of people who have never yet had the
chance to read the Bible in the only language that
they can understand. This Bible Society is strictly
observing its rule, not to print any new version or
edition of the Sacred Scriptures, unless proofs have
been read twenty times. Any one who discovers
a typographical error after printing gets a liberal
reward.
takes were discovered. -

An Honest Convert. —A Jew in a Western city
failed over a year ago and settled with his creditors
at twenty cents on the dollar. Among them was a
well-known Philadelphia merchant, who of course
never expected to hear from him again. What was
his surprise, however, upon opening a letter from
his former customer recently, to find a check in it
for sixty per cent. more of the amount due, and also
the promise that the balance would be forwarded
in the near future. ‘‘However,” added the writer,
‘you have not me to thank for this, but the Lord
Jesus Christ, who has converted my-soul.”?

Within the last year only fifty little mis- +

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