The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1905, Page 12

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also children.

12 The Lutheran Pioneer.

vine hand now. May God bless you, my boy. Yes,
I think you will become a preacher.”’

In 1870, after fifty-five years of faithful labors,
there returned to London from South’ Africa an
aged missionary. His name was spoken with rey-
erence. When he went into an assembly the people
rose; when he spoke in public, there was a deep
silence. Princes stood uncovered before him; nobles
invited him to their homes.

He had added a province to the Church of Christ
on earth, had brought under the Gospel influence
the most savage of African chiefs, had given the
translated Bible to strange tribes, had enriched
with valuable knowledge the Royal Geographical
Society, and had honored the humble place of his
birth; the Scottish church, the United Kingdom,
and the universal missionary cause. —

It is hard to trust when no evidence of fruit ap-
pears. But the harvest is sure. The old minister
sleeps beneath the trees in the humble place of his
labors, but men remember his work because of what
he was to that one boy, and what that one boy was
to the world.

“Only a boy!’’ — Selected.

—_—$_—[—_—[—$_—$_—$—$£=£_£_——————eoy

The Saviour’s Peace.

~ It wasa dark and stormy night. The missionary’s
horse was tired, and he was wet and weary. - For
some time he had looked in vain for a cheerful light
in the lonely woods. At length he saw a faint glim-
mer through the trees. But when he had fastened
his horse and gone into the log cabin, he thought
he had never seen so wretched a place—cold and
dirty and almost without furniture. In the corner
of the room was a ragged bed, on which lay a pale
little girl, The missionary saw that the little girl’s
face was pale and that her hands were thin. She was
ill and a great sufferer: Butshe smiled with a smile
that showed peace was in her heart, while her body

_was suffering with disease. From under her pillow
. peeped a little book. It was the New Testament
_which some Bible agent had left in that desolate

place. :
- The missionary asked the little girl, ‘‘Can you

_ read??? 7

‘tYes, sir,’’ she replied.
~ ‘Can you understand it?”’

‘CA great deal of it, sir. I see there how Jesus
came into the world to save sinners —all sinners—
He said, ‘Suffer little children to

‘come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is
_ the kingdom of God.’ And when I think of that I

am happy. And in the dark night when I lie here,
and cannot sleep for pain, I think of my Saviour
and heaven, and He seems to be saying, ‘Suffer that
little child to come unto me, and forbid her not.’
I am soon going to be with Him forever.’’

Thus that gift brought peace to the heart of the
little girl—that peace which the Saviour promised
to His own when He said, ‘‘Peace I leave with you,
my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth,
give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid,’’ John 14, 27.

too

God Hears Prayers.

A colored girl was setting the table, when a boy
in the room said to her: ‘‘Mollie, do you pray?’’

The suddenness of the question confused her a
little, but she answered, ‘‘Yes, every night.”’ -

“Do you think God hears you?’’ the boy asked.

She answered promptly: ‘‘I know He does.”’

“But do you think,’’ said he, trying to puzzle
her, ‘‘that He hears your prayers as readily as those
of white children?”’

For a while the child kept on with her work;
then she slowly said, ‘‘Master George, I pray into
God’s ears, not His eyes. My voice is like another
girl’s, and if I say what I ought to say, God does
not stop to look at my skin.’

An Honest Boy.

At a slave market, many years ago, a colored
boy was offered for sale. One of the bystanders,
moved with compassion and being well pleased with
the boy’s appearance and conduct, wished to keep
him from falling into the hands of some cruel master.

So he went up to the boy and said, ‘‘Will you be

honest if I buy you?”’

With an indescribable look upon his frank coun-
tenance the boy replied, ‘‘I will be honest, whether
you buy me or not.’’

——_—_e-—_____

Christ Gives by Promise. ©

Merit is a work for the sake of which Christ gives
rewards. But no such work is to be found, for Christ
gives by promise. Just as if a prince were to say to
me: “‘Come to me in my castle, and I will give you
a hundred florins.” I do a work, certainly, in going
to the castle, but the gift is not given to me as the
reward of my work in going,. but because the prince
promised it to me. — Luther.

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