The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1904, Page 86

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S86 : The Lutheran Pioneer.

Some weeks later, when the pastor called on
Mrs. Jones, he heard her singing as he approached
the house. She greeted him with a smile, and said:
‘«Pastor, I’ve been trying to count God’s mercies to
me since you were here, and I find that you were
right. I have much to be thankful for.’’

>

“Thanksgiving Joe.”

That is what folks called an old colored uncle,
who always found reason for thanksgiving, no matter
what happened. One day he came to the meeting
with his thumb tied up. The folks asked him what
was the matter, and he replied, ‘‘To-day I was fix-
ing a box and I smashed my thumb, but praise the
Lord I have my thumb yet.’’ At another time he
came to evening services as bright as ever. Some-
one asked him, ‘‘Well, uncle, what have you to
praise the Lord for to-night?’’ ‘‘Oh,’’ said he, ‘‘I
was coming down the street to-night with a big piece
of beefsteak. I had spent all my money on that beef-
steak, and I laid it down on the sidewalk to tie my
shoe, and while I was tying my shoe, a big dog came
along and took that-beefsteak and carried it off.
Praise the Lord!’’? A man said, ‘‘Look here, uncle,
what are you praising the Lord for about that?”’
Old uncle answered, ‘‘I am praising the Lord be-
cause I’ve got my appetite left. Many a rich man
would give much money for an appetite.”’

Uncle Joe never forgot the many blessings of
God which he: daily enjoyed, and’so he always
found cause for thanksgiving, even on “‘evil days.’’

‘sWhen upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them’ one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord‘hath done!”

Her Only Comfort.

In a rear tenement of lower New York lay a dy-
ing woman, whose husband, brutal through drink,
would not allow even hospital care. Under the bed
snarled the hungry dogs. The place was noisy and
foul and dark, but the city missionary kept at
his post.

**T?]] go soon,”’ said the poor sufferer. ‘‘There
is nothing more you can do—only stay—tell me
the words again.’

So over and over, until death had sealed her
ears and closed her lips, the dying woman tried to

_ repeat with the missionary her Saviour’s sweet in-

vitation: “‘Come.unto me, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

The Russian Princess.

A clergyman once came to a wealthy Russian
princess and asked her for a few trees out of her
boundless forests to be used in the building of a
church. She cut his request roundly off by declaring
that she could not spare these trees. As the request
was unavailing, and the princess in anger was about
to bid her servants to lead out the petitioning clergy-
man, he said with penetrating tone: ‘‘Well, prin-
cess, keep your trees which you cannot spare; six
boards out of your forests is all that shall remain
to you.”’

Saying this, he quickly went away.

The princess meditatively repeated the last words
of the clergyman. ‘‘Six boards,’’ said she; ‘‘what
does he mean by that?” She could not conceive
what he meant. She had the clergyman called back
again, and asked him what the six boards meant.
‘Your coflin, princess,’’ he answered calmly. She
was struck with fear, and sat down and wrote him
a permission to take as many trees as he wished.

Would it not be well for many who treat the
kingdom of God with good wishes, but will not up-
hold it by act, to think of the coffin, that one only
inheritance which the world is able to give? What
was the fate of the rich fool?

A king of Egypt ordered that after his death
his shirt should be carried on a pole in front of .
his coffin, accompanied by the proclamation: ‘‘The
great king Saladin takes nothing out of the world
but this shirt: all the rest he must leave behind.’’
Blessed is he who has hope of a glorious eternal in-
heritance! He that sows sparingly shall also reap
sparingly. — From the German.

A Doer of the Word.

A woman heard a sermon in which, among
other evil practices, the use of dishonest weights
and measures was exposed. She was much.affected
by the sermon.

The next day, when the pastor, according to his
custom; went among his hearers and called upon
the woman, he took occasion to ask her what she re-
membered of his sermon. She complained much
about her bad memory and said she had forgotten

‘almost all that he had said. ,‘‘But one thing,”’

said she, ‘‘I remembered; I remembered to burn
my bushel measure.” -
A doer of the Word cannot really be a forgetful
hearer, :
. ‘*Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only.’’ |