The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1904, Page 30

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80

One More in Heaven.

One less at home!
The loved circle broken—a dear face
Missed day by day from its accustomed place,
But cleansed, and saved, and perfected by grace:
One more in heaven!

One more at home!
This is not home, where, cramped in earthly mold,

Ss Our sight of Christ is dim—our love is cold:

But there, where face to face we shall behold,
Is home and heaven!

One less on earth!
Its pain, its sorrow, and its toil to share;
One less the pilgrim’s daily cross to bear; .
One more the crown of ransomed souls to wear,
At home in heaven!

One more in heaven!
Another thought to brighten cloudy days,
Another theme for thankfulness and praise,
Another link on high our souls to raise
To home and heaven!

One more at home!
That home where separation cannot be,
That home where none are missed eternally.
' Lord Jesus, grant us all a place with Thee,

At home in heaven!
Selected.

—-—-- +2

The Blood That Cleanseth.

A visitor among the poor was one day climbing
the broken staircase which led to a garret in one of
the worst parts of London, when his attention was
arrested by a man of ferocious and repulsive coun-
tenance, who stood upon the landing place, leaning
with’ folded arms Cecile the wall. There was some-
thing about the man’s appearance which made the
visitor shudder, and his first impulse was to go back.
He made an effort, however, to get into conversa-
‘tion with the man, and told him he came,there with

'- the desire to do him good and to see him happy,

‘and that the book he had in his hand contained
the secret of all happiness. The ruffian shook him
off as if he had been a viper, and bade him begone
with his nonsense, or he would kick him down-
stairs. When the visitor was endeavoring, with

'. gentleness and patience, to argue the point with

- him, he was startled by hearing a feeble voice,
which appeared to,come from behind one of the
broken doors that opened upon the landing, saying:

“Toes your book tell of the blood which cleans-
eth from all sin???
And it was popented! in urgent and thrilling
tones—
' Tell me! oh, tell me; does your book tell of
_ the blood which cleanseth ore all sin???

The Lutheran Pioneer.

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The visitor pushed open the door and entered
the room. It was a wretched place, wholly desti-
tute of furniture, except a three-legged stool, and
a bundle of ae in a corner, upon which were
stretched the wasted limbs of an aged woman.
When the visitor entered, she raised herself upon
one elbow, fixed her eyes eagerly upon him, and
repeated her former question, —

“*Does your book tell of the blood. which cleans-
eth from all sin?’’

He sat down upon the stool beside her andi in-
quired, ‘‘My poor friend, what do you want to know
of the blood which cleanseth from all sin?’

There was something fearful in the energy of
her voice and manner as she replied, —

‘‘What do I want to know of it? Man, I am
dying! I am going to stand naked before God!
I have been a wicked woman—a very wicked woman
all my life. I shall have to answer for everything
I have done!’ and she groaned bitterly as the
thought of a lifetime’s iniquity seemed to cross her
soul. ‘‘But once,’’ she continued, ‘‘once, years
ago, I came by the door of a church, and I went
in—lI don’t know what for. I was soon out again,
but one word I heard there I never forgot; it was
something about blood which cleanseth from all sin.
Oh, if I could hear of it now! Tell me, tell me, if
there is anything about that blood in your book.’’

The visitor answered by opening his Bible and
reading the first chapter of the First Epistle of John.
The poor creature seemed to devour the words, and
when he paused, she exclaimed: ‘‘Read more, read
more!’ He read the second chapter—a slight noise
made him look around; the savage ruffian had fol-
lowed him into his mother’s room, and though his
face was partly turned away, the visitor could per-
ceive tears rolling down his cheeks. The visitor
read the third, fourth, and fifth chapters, and then
she would not let him go till he promised to come
again the next day. He never from that time missed
a day reading to her until she died.

Every day, the son followed the visitor into his
mother’s room, and listened in silence, but not in
indifference. On the day of her funeral he beck-
oned him on one side-as they were’ filling up her
grave, and said, ‘‘Sir, I have been thinking that —
there is nothing I should so much like as to spend
the rest of my life in telling others of the blood
which cleanseth from all sin.’’

Thus the great truth of free pardon inronen the
blood of Christ sinks into the soul and saves it.
Thus grasped, when all else is gone, it has power
to sustain the drowning spirit and lift it above the
floods that afe going over it.