The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1907, Page 68

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68

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Why God Tests Us.

An earnest Christian blacksmith was approached
by an. intelligent unbeliever with the question,
“Why is it you have so much trouble? I have been
watching you. Since you joined the church and
began to ‘walk square,’ and seem to love everybody,
you have had twice as many trials and accidents
as .you had before. I thought that when a man
gave himself to God, his troubles were oyer. Isn’t
that what the parsons tell us?”

WOMEN AT WORK IN INDIA.

With a thoughtful but glowing face the black-
smith replied: “Do you see this piece of iron? It
is for the springs of a carriage. I have been ‘tem-
pering’ it for some time. To do this I heat it red
hot and then plunge it in a tub of ice-cold water.
This I do many times. If I find it is taking ‘tem-
per’ I beat and hammer it unmercifully. In get-
ting the right -piece of iron I found several that
were too brittle to take temper; they cracked the
first blow I struck. So I threw them on the scrap
pile. Those scraps are worth about a cent a pound;
this carriage spring is very valuable.”

_ He paused, and his listener nodded. ‘The black-

smith continued: “God saves us for something
more than to have a good time — that’s the way
I see it. We have the good time all right, for God’s
smile means heaven. But He wants us for service,
just as I want this piece of iron. And He has to
put the ‘temper’ of Christ in us by testing us with
trials. Ever since I saw this truth I have been
saying to Him: ‘Test me in any way you choose,
Lord, only don’t throw me on the scrap pile.’ ”
Exchange.

Sanna

Jesus Only.

One day, writes a pastor, I stood at the dying-
bed of a little girl, a beloved pupil of our school.
Her mother also stood at her bedside, and the little
girl, looking up into her mother’s face, said:
“Mother, I cannot see you very well; it is growing
dark.” Then she closed her weary eyes, and there
was silence for a brief space. Presently she opened
them again. There was a glad light in their filmy
blue as she added, “But I can see Jesus!” And I]

‘thought within myself, how blessed, if, when earthly

lights pale and fade into the night of death, when
I tread the valley of the shadow of death, when
earthly ambitions, hopes, and friends and relatives
yanish and fail me, I can exclaim amidst the dark-
ness and the loneliness: “But I can see Jesus!”

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Believing in Christ.

What does it mean to believe in Christ? Not
only to know and believe as true what is being
preached of Christ, that He is true God reigning
in heaven in equal power and majesty with God the
Father, that He died, ete. For the devil also knows
this and believes it as well as all Papists. But this
is to believe in Christ, that I hold Him to be a
gracious God unto me, that He has taken my sin
upon Himself and reconciled me with God, that
my sins are His, and His righteousness be mine,
that there is a complete exchange between Him and
myself, He being the mediator between myself and
the Father. — Luther.

Make Use of the Scriptures.

“What helps it,” says Luther, “that we have
and hear the Scripture so richly and yet make no
use of it? —like a maiden who sits with flowers
springing all around her; yet breaks off none to
weave herself a garland.”