The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1904, Page 60

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60 The Lutheran Pioneer.

A Mississippi Pilot.

Many years ago we met the pilot in the study
of his pastor, who, later on, told us the story of
his life.

When the pilot began his career on a Mississippi
steamboat, he was a wild, reckless, profane, fighting,
and drunken young fellow. He married a woman
as wicked as himself. She had been an inmate of
a house of ill fame, and perhaps he was drunk when
he married her and soon after repented of his folly.
At all events he treated her harshly. Bitterly dis-
appointed and unhappy in her married life, she was
led to attend a Gospel service where she heard a
sermon on the text, ‘‘God, who is rich in mercy, for
His great love. wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ (by grace are ye saved); and hath raised
-us together, and made us sit together in heavenly
_ places ‘in Christ Jesus,” Eph. 2, 4—6. The Holy

Spirit carried the word home to her heart and con-
‘science.

_ She sought the preacher, who told her that the
mercy of God could not stoop lower than when He
sent His Son to the depth of her ruin, nor could it
lift her higher than when it promised to raise her
and make her sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus.. Jesus was proclaimed to her as having

‘ died for her sins and as having redeemed her with

His own precious blood. She bowed humbly and
gratefully at the foot of the cross, saved ‘by grace,
and receiving peace through believing.

Not long’ after, she came to her pastor, weeping
“bitterly, telling him that her husband was on his
way up the river, that she dreaded his presence, for
he beat her cruelly.” The pastor asked her whether
she could reach him with a letter before he came
-home. She replied that she could. ‘‘Thensit down
at my table,”” he said, ‘‘and ask him to be kind
enough to send me word before he whips you. Tell
him I havé never seen a man’ whip a woman. So he
is not to strike yours a blow until he has me in the
house.’”

_ The:pilot. himeelf called on the preacher, on his
return ‘home, and said: ‘“You know I would not do
such a thing, unless I was drunk.’”” ‘‘Just so,”’ said
the ‘pastor, “and don’t ; you see’ what a‘brute and
ruffian sin makes of you, when you beat a defense-
less woman? Does your wife give you any cause
for jealousy?” ‘‘Not'the slightest,”” he answered.
“Does she behave in every respect like a Christian
lady’ 2? “She certainly does; and I have never seen
‘Buch a change in woman.”’ ‘What changed her???
asked the pastor. --“‘I do not know,” he replied.

“‘The grace of God,’’
change you.”’

The poor fellow at first thought he was too great
a sinner. But he was told that he could not be
worse than dead in sins, worse than the chief of
sinners, and that ‘‘the blood of Jesus Christ His
Son cleanseth us from all sin.’? Through the Gospel
he came to faith and joy in his Saviour.

From that time he, too, was changed. Peace
reigned in his home. The profane man took God’s
name in vain no more. The drunkard became sober.
The brutal husband was kind and gentle; and the
ruffian, always ready for fight, was ever afterwards
forbearing, as he-went forward in his life so full of
temptations, trusting in the Lamb, and ‘‘kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation.”
He said over and over again, ‘‘My wife was the sav-
ing of me,’ and he never ceased to tell his friends
of the blessing she had been to his soul.

A remarkable thing about him was his intense
love for God’s Word. He had a Bible by his side
in the pilot house for fifteen years. It was a wit-
ness to those who came about him that he was not
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. While holding
his wheel as the boat glided over the dark bosom of
the river in the. silent night, he often sang some
Gospel hymn in praise of his Saviour.

In his dying hour he trusted fully in the finished
work of Christ for salvation and’ departed in peace.
His funeral was attended by’a large number of river
men. As they looked for the last time upon his
peaceful face, it was touching to hear their remarks
about his quiet, consistent, and faithful Christian
life. A few years later his wife followed him atross
the river, resting on the infinite love of Jesus. Those

said the pastor, ‘‘and it can

who knew their early history, and the beginning of

their married experience, and then watched their
later life, saw the wonderful mercy that stoops to
the deepest need, and praised the grace of God which
saves the greatest of sinners.

——-—--—*#2-#-——  ——-

“Walk as Children of the Light.”

A blind man carrying a lantern at night in the
streets of a city was met by an old acquaintance,
who said: ‘‘Why do you carry a light?, You can’t
see; the lantern won’t keep you from stumbling
over anybody.’?

‘*No,’’ said the old man, ‘‘but I carry the Jan-

tern to’ keep people from stumbling over me.”’

Walk so that no one will stumble over you.
The-apostle says to Christians: ‘‘Ye were some-
4imes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord ;
walk as ehildren of light, » Eph 5, 8.