The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1905, Page 5

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The Lutheran Pioneer. 5

It Will Not Do to Wait.

It was the last evening of the year when Dr. Wil-
son came from the evening service in some country
town to the house where he had his room and board.
The good lady of the house, a rather elderly per-
son, after bustling about to provide her guest with
refreshment, said in the presence of her daughter,
“Dr. Wilson, I do wish you would talk to Caroline.
She doesn’t care about going to church, or about
the salvation of her soul. I have talked and talked,
and got our minister to talk, but it doesn’t seem to
do any good. I wish you would talk to her, Dr. Wil-
son.’’ Saying which, she soon left the room.

Dr. Wilson continued
quietly taking his_meal,
when he turned round to
the young girl and said,
‘‘Now, just tell me, Miss

Caroline, don’t they
bother you amazingly
about this thing?’’

She, taken by surprise
at an address so unex-
pected, answered at once,
“Yes, sir, they do; they
keep talking to me all the
time till I am sick of it.’”’

**So I thought,’’ said
Dr. Wilson. ‘‘Let’s see
—how old are you?” _

“‘Highteen, sir.’’

‘Good health?”

‘*Yes, sir.’’

“The fact is,’’? said
Dr. Wilson, ‘‘religion is
a good thing; but theidea
of all the time troubling a
young creature like you with it—and you are in
good health, they say! Religion is a good thing.
It will not do to die without it, as the preacher
said this evening, preaching on the text: ‘So teach
us to number our days, that we may apply our
hearts unto wisdom.’ It is not wisdom to wait
too long. I wonder how long it would do for you
to wait?”

“That’s just what I’ve been thinking myself,’’
said Caroline. -

“Well,” said the doctor, ‘‘suppose you say till
you are fifty? No, that won’t do; the other day I
attended the funeral of a lady fifteen years younger
than that. Thirty? How will that do?”

“<T?m not sure it would do to wait quite so long,”’
said Caroline.

Luther College in New Orleans, La.

“‘No, I don’t think so either; something might
happen. A year from now; how would that do?”’

“T don’t know, sir.’’

‘Neither do I. The new year may be your last
year on earth, and if you die without accepting the
Saviour, you die in your sins and are lost forever.
It will not do to wait. Many young people, who
seemed to be as well as you are have died suddenly.
Besides, the Bible says, ‘Now is the accepted time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.’ ‘All things
are now ready.’ In Christ salvation is prepared,
and in the Gospel all sinners are invited to come
to Him and find rest. It will not do to wait and
let God call us in vain. The Bible says: ‘Zo-
day if ye will hear His
voice, harden not your
hearts.’’?

Caroline was deeply
impressed by the earnest

words spoken by the ~
doctor. Before the close
of the old year she opened
her Bible which she had *
neglected so long. She
read of the Saviour, who
came to seek and to save
that which is lost. InHim
she found peace and rest-
for her soul, and became
a faithful member of the
church.

2» +

Not Afraid.

A beautiful story is
told of a little girl, whose
faith in God may teach us
all a lesson.

The lamp had just been put out, and the little
girl was rather afraid of the dark. But presently
she saw the bright moon out of her window,
and she asked her mother, ‘‘Is the moon God’s
light?” ;

‘¢Yes, darling,’’ the mother replied; ‘‘the moon
and stars are all God’s lights.”’

“Will God blow out His light and go to sleep
too??? she asked again.

“No, my child,” replied the mother, ‘‘God’s
lights are always burning.”

“Well, mamma,’’ said the little girl, ‘while
God’s awake, I’m not afraid.”

_ The psalmist says: ‘“He that keepeth thee will
not slumber. Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall
neither slumber nor sleep,’’ Ps. 121, 3. 4.