The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1905, Page 69

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

A Lost Sheep Found.

A pastor one day received a short note urgently
requesting him to visit a dying man in one of the
large tenement houses of the city. The pastor went
to the house, but as the man’s room was not men-
tioned in the note, he long searched in vain. At
last he came to a rickety old stairs. He went up
the stairs, and in an empty room near the roof
he found a poor sick man lying on a miserable
couch. The pastor asked the man whether he had
sent for him. There was no reply. ‘The sick man
did not seem to take any notice of the pastor’s
presence.

The pastor then looked around the room whether
he could see any book or anything else from which
he could learn something as to the man’s religion.
He found nothing. Neither could he receive any
answer to his questions. He then took from his
pocket his New Testament, opened it, and slowly
and distinctly read from the 14th chapter of the
Gospel of St. John: ‘‘Let not your heart be trou-
bled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In
my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were
not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a
place for you.”’

To the pastor’s surprise the dying man opened
his eyes, and fixing them on him, asked, ‘‘Who
said that?”’ ;

The pastor replied, ‘‘Jesus,’’? and continued
reading. When he read the sixth verse: ‘‘I am
the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no man
cometh unto the Father but by me,’’ the poor
man again opened his eyes and said, ‘‘Is that your
Jesus?”

‘*Yes,’’? was the reply, ‘‘and I hope he is also
your Jesus.”’

And then the pastor went on reading up to the
27th verse: ‘‘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.”

With a weak voice, but in great earnestness the
dying man asked, ‘‘Does your Jesus really say
that?”’

‘Yes, that is what He says,’’ was the reply.

The sick man then gathered all his strength
and said with a firm voice, ‘‘Then I love Him; I
take Him as my Saviour.’’? With this confession
he departed this life.

Later on the pastor learned that the man was a
Jew. Thus Jesus, the good Shepherd, found a lost
sheep of the house of Israel.

69

The Good Shepherd.

“Jesus my Shepherd is,
’Twas He that loved my soul,
’Twas He that washed me in His blood,
’Twas He that made me whole.
Twas He that sought the lost,
That found the wandering sheep;
‘Twas He that brought me to the fold,
Tis He that still doth keep.”

oe

God is All in All.

‘‘There is no position or circumstance a child of
God may be in, but God’s grace, wisdom, and power
can meet it—no difficulty from which He is unable
to deliver, no wound that He is not all-sufficient to
bind up and heal. Blessed it is for us when the
Lord is the object of our affection, the spring of our
joy, our treasure, our righteousness, our wisdom,
our strength.”’