The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1905, Page 52

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52

The Lutheran Pioneer.

What Must I Do?

An aged Christian, worn out by sickness, was
traveling to the sea coast with the hope of regaining
his health. Behind him in the car sat an elderly
lady and her daughter. The mother, observing the
pale face of the man, expressed her concern for him
in language he could overhear, and then said she
would like to know if the man was a Christian.

She was for a moment confused when the man
turned and thanked her for her sympathy and at
once confessed that he felt the deepest interest in
his soul’s eternal welfare. ‘‘Since you have been
so kind,”’ he said, ‘‘to speak of the subject, will you
be kind enough also to tell me what I must do to be
saved?”’

“Oh, yes,’”’ was her reply, ‘‘I will gladly tell
you: you must pray to God.”

“But,”’ asked the sick man, ‘‘how long must I
pray before God will be merciful to me, and how
can I know when I am forgiven?”’

The lady seemed a little perplexed, and then
said, ‘‘Well, you must become a better man.’’

‘‘Again allow me to ask,’’ he gently answered,
‘‘How good must I become before God will have
pity on me?”’

Of course she was silent, and after a pause the
man said, ‘‘Have you no book that can show a poor
man, drawing near to the grave, how he can be
saved?”’

She at once drew from her bag a tract, which
she placed in his hands. It was carefully read, and
he turned once more with the remark: ‘‘This does
not contain one word about the way of salvation for
a lost sinner. Have you no Bible?”

She had none, and he drew forth his own pre-
cious Bible, and, handing it to her, earnestly said,
‘*Will you be so good as to show me where we are
told to pray and to make ourselves better in order
to be saved?”’

The lady took the book of God, and having
turned over the leaves for a while, she impatiently
said, ‘‘I cannot find the place now, but when you
reach the city, call on the Rev. Dr. ——and he will
tell you where to find it.’’

‘*No,”’ the man solemnly, replied, “‘the Rev.
Dr. —— cannot tell me, nor can any other Rev.

Dr. —— tell me; for there is no such place in the -

‘Bible. But this I find: ‘God so loved the world,
that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoso-
ever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life’ (John 3, 16); “To Him give all the
prophets witness, that through His name whosoever
believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins’ (Acts

10, 43); ‘By Him all that believe are justified from
all things’ (Acts 18, 89); ‘BrLievE on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved’ (Acts 16, 31);
‘To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that
justifieth the wngodly, his faith is counted for right-
eousness’ (Rom. 4, 5).’’

Many other passages were read, and with a joy-
ful heart the lady, who did not know the Gospel
way of salvation, though she had been a church
member for many years, listened to the aged Chris-
tian, as he unfolded to her from the Bible the blessed
truth of salvation by grace alone through faith in
Christ Jesus, the Saviour of sinners.

=o —

“Who Cares for Me?’’

A poor, lone woman sat one evening thinking
how sad was her condition. She was old and al-
most helpless, with little of this world’s goods which
she could call her own. ‘‘Who cares for me?”
thought she. Suddenly this verse of the Bible came
to her mind: ‘‘For we have not a High Priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our in-
firmities.’”’

It was like a flood of golden sunshine. Her
doubt and fears were all gone. What need of earthly.
friends to cheer her declining years? Jesus knew
her every care and sorrow, and He, the ascended
Saviour, “‘the Lord of Glory,” was touched with
the weakness of her infirmities.

How precious is the thought that we can all have
such a friend in every hour of trial and distress!
‘*T will not leave you comfortless,’’ are the Saviour’s
gracious words. ‘‘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.”’

A Picture Card in Africa.

Three years ago a Mohammedan merchant from
Timbuktu went for trade to the English settlement
of Bathurst, on the Gambi River. Some one gave
him a text card in Arabic. The next year he traded
again in Bathurst, and asked for the book from
which that wonderful text was taken. When the
Bible was shown him, he bought it and went away.
The third year the merchant came to Bathurst and
bought eighteen Bibles for friends who wanted the
book.

Now the British and Foreign Bible Society is ar-
ranging to open a Bible depot in Timbuktu—the
synonym in all the Sahara for Mohammedan exclu-
siveness and fanaticism.— Indian Witness.