The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1905, Page 70

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70

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Hammer and Anvil.

Last eve I paused beside a blacksmith’s door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then, looking in, I saw upon the floor
Old hammers worn with beating years of time.

“How many anvils have you had?’ said I,
“To wear and batter all these hammers so ?”’
“Just one,’’ said he; then said, with twinkling eye,
“The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.”’

And so, I thought, the anvil of God’s Word
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,

The anvil is unharmed—the hammers gone.
Sel.
——“-— —-_+2->—__ ____

The Foretaste of Everlasting Life.

In the year 1622, a fierce persecution arose,in
the Empire of Japan against the Christian religion
and its confessors. In the town of Firando, thirty-
seven were executed, among whom was a little boy
between six and seven years of age, who hastened
to death with such manifestations of heart joy, and
singing Christian psalms in the Japanese language
as to cause unbounded wonder at this firmness in
one so tender in years.

In the year 1627, on the Sth of February, in a
hamlet near the city of Nagasaki, twelve persons
were seized and violently martyred, having been
burned in different parts of their bodies with red-
hot iron, and afterwards beaten to death. What
was most remarkable in this execution, was that a
six-year old child stood these tests of faith with un-
wavering firmness. :

In 1651, in the town of Diarbekr, in Mesopo-

tamia, an Armenian Christian child of ten or twelve ©

years, on an unjust charge, was flayed alive by the
Turks. On the first day the skin was removed from
half of the back, and he was permitted in this con-
dition to pass the night, that they might resume
the work on the following day, and continue the
poor child’s torture the longer. In the meantime,
the Mohammedans endeavored to persuade the boy
that, by the acceptance of their faith, he might es-
cape martyrdom. His mother also came to her poor
son, and besought him, with many tears, by means
of the confession of the doctrine of the Turks, to
save his life. Yet no entreaties could cause his firm-
ness to waver, but he said with great boldness that
thus far he had willingly suffered all this pain, that
he was ready also to suffer more, and that.this did
not give him so much trouble, as that his own
_ mother should tempt him to deny his Saviour. All
that followed he suffered with great patience, until

the pasha of the place, moved with pity, cut off his
head, and thus freed him from all suffering.

I maintain that no one can deny that the firm-
ness of such weak and tender children, under such
fearful ordeals, and the sweet joy which they found
in bitter death, cannot be explained otherwise than
by a power from on high, and a supernatural con-
fidence, which is properly called a foretaste of ever-
lasting life. — Christian Scriver.

ie =

Longing for Home.

“*T once listened,’’ said a doctor, ‘‘to a sermon
delivered from the sickbed of a very old man, al-
most a centenarian. It wason my last visit. I was
preparing to leave, when the aged sufferer turned his
face toward the wall, sighing heavily. His son
asked, ‘What is the matter? Do you want any-
thing, father?’ ‘Yes, yes,’ he whispered, ‘want to
go home.’ ‘But you are at home, father,’ the son
said. ‘I know; but I want to go to my heavenly
home,’ the old man answered, with something like
a sob, reminding me of a homesick child pining
among strangers for dear ones far away.

“T was a careless fellow at that time,’’ the doc-
tor pursued, ‘‘but that one sentence from the trem-
bling lips of a dying saint went straight to my heart.
I could not shake off the impression. I found no
rest until I, too, could know that I was entitled to
a home in the city made without hands.’’—Sel.

‘Not in Vain.

It is said that the late Isaac Errett, when speak-
-ing in the interest of the American Christian Mis-

sionary Society, went to a country church in the
Blue Grass region of Kentucky. It was harvest
time, and the weather was warm. The ‘‘audience’’
which had assembled consisted of five or six rich
farmers—no ladies being present.

‘*We won’t try to have a meeting,”’ said the good
brother with whom Dr. Errett had been staying.

‘“‘Ah, but,’’ said Dr. Errett, with gentle firm-
ness, ‘‘I always keep my appointments. J shall
hold a meeting.”

He held a meeting. He told of the needs of the
missionaries and of the heroic work they were do-
ing, and at the end of the service each one of his
hearers contributed five hundred dollars to the cause
for which he had pleaded.

The effectiveness of a message does not depend
on the number of its hearers.