The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1906, Page 22

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22

Message of Comfort.

Sad heart, bowed down with sorrow,
Lift up your tear-dimmed eyes:
Behind the clouds that gather

A golden sunbeam lies.

The burdens may be heavy,
The way may seem too drear:
Lift up your eyes to heaven
And dry the falling tear.

Dear heart, keep gazing upward,
Be cheerful, brave, and true:
Beyond the darkening shadows
Is joy and peace for you.
Ester PETERSON.

'

Lo

A Story from Life.

It was a cold winter night. Services were held
in a city church. A lost wanderer of the street, with
thin shawl about her, attracted by the warmth and
light, came in and sat near the door. The minister
was preaching of Him who was wounded for our
transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; and
the poor awakened sinner by the door said: “Why,
that must mean me: mercy for the chief of
sinners; bruised for our iniquities; wounded for
our transgressions.”

The music that night in the sanctuary also
brought back the old hymn which she used to sing
when with father and mother she worshiped God
in the village church before she left her country
home and was led into a life of sin.

The service over, the poor wanderer went out into
the street. “What are you doing here, Meg?” said
the police; “what are you doing here to-night?”
Q !” she replied, “I was in to warm myself.” And
then the rattling cough came, and she held to the
railing until the paroxysm was over. She passed
on down the street, falling from exhaustion, but
soon recovering herself, until after a while she
reached the outskirts of the city, and thinking of
her Christian home, she passed on into the country
road. It seemed so familiar. She kept on the road,
and soon saw in the distance a light in the window.
That light had been gleaming there every night
since she went away.

On that country road she passed until she came
to the garden gate. She opened it and passed up
the path where she was wont to play in her child-
hood days. She came to the steps and looked in at

the fire on the hearth. Then she put her fingers -

to the latch. If that door had been locked, she
would have perished on the threshold, for she was

The Lutheran Pioneer.

near to death. But that door had not been locked
since the time she went away. She pushed open
the door. She went in and lay down on the hearth
by the fire. The old house-dog growled as he saw
her enter, but there was something in the voice he
recognized, and he frisked about her in his joy.

In the morning the mother came down and saw
a bundle of rags on the hearth; but when the face
was uplifted, she knew it, and it was no more old
Meg of the street.

Throwing her arms around the returned prod-
igal, she cried, “O Maggie!” The child threw her
arms around her mother’s neck, and said, “O
mother!” and while they were embracing a rugged
form towered above them. It was the father. The
severity all gone out of his face, he stooped and took
her up tenderly and carried her to mother’s room,
and laid her down on mother’s bed, for she was
dying.

Then the lost one, looking up into her mother’s
face, said: “Wounded for our transgressions and
bruised for our iniquities! Mother, do you think
that means me?”

“Q yes, my darling,’ said the mother. “If
mother is so glad to get you back, don’t you think
God is glad to get you back?” .

And there she lay dying, and all the dreams and
prayers of the penitent sinner were filled with the
words: “Wounded for our transgressions, bruised
for our iniquities,” until just before the moment
of her departure her face lighted up, showing that
she enjoyed the Savior’s forgiveness and peace.

So the Lord took back one whom the world
rejected. H. K.

The Bible a Book of Comfort.

Let all the doctors appear, let all the books be
presented, and see whether they are able to com-
fort a single soul even in the smallest affliction.
The Bible alone deserves this title of being a Book
of Comfort, as Paul calls it, able to uphold our
soul in all manner of distress, so that it will not
despair, but preserve its hope. The Scripture does
not, indeed, remove our adversities, sufferings, and
death. On the contrary, it proclaims nothing but
the holy cross; we therefore need patience. But
in the midst of all sufferings it encourages and
strengthens us so that our patience does not cease,
but press onward and overcome. — Lather.

Ler not thy tongue say what thy heart denies.