The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1908, Page 6

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6 The Lutheran Pioneer.

Savior, Be Thou Nigh!

Savior, be Thou nigh,

When in grief we sigh;

When our life seems dark and dreary,
When our hearts grow faint and weary.
Grant that we may then

Thy sweet solace ken.

Helper, firm and strong,

Lead us safely on!

When dark clouds soar threat’ning o’er us,
Let despair not overpower us;

Let Thy mighty arm

Shield us from all harm.

When our toils are o'er,

Open Thou the door,

Leading, after pain and sadness,
To the realms of heavenly gladness.
Lord, our Savior, come,

Lead us to that home! J. MUELLER.

——--—e+-

God’s Sparrows.

A Christian woman was visiting among the poor
in London one cold winter’s day. She was trying
to open the door of a third-story room, in a wretched-
looking home, when she heard a little voice inside
say, “Pull the string up high — pull the string up
high!” She looked up and saw a string; she pulled
it, when it lifted the latch, and the door opened into
a room where she found two little half-naked chil-
dren, all alone. They looked cold and hungry.

“Do you take care of yourselves, little ones?”
said the woman. :

_ “No ma’am, God takes care of us,” replied the
elder of the children.

“You have no fire-on this cold day.
not very cold?”

“Qh! when we are very cold, we creep under
the quilt, and I put my arms round Tommy, and
T'ommy puts his arms round me, and we say, ‘Now
I lay me,’ and then we get warm,” said the little girl.
“And what do you have to eat, pray?” asked the
visitor. ‘

_ “When granny comes home she brings us some-
thing. Granny says we are God’s sparrows, and
He has enough for us; and so we say, ‘Our Father,’
“and “daily bread, every day. God is our Father.”

Tears came into the eyes of the woman. She

Are you

had sometimes felt afraid that she might be starved ;
but’ these two little “sparrows,” perched alone in
_ that cold upper room, taught her a sweet lesson of
trust in the power of God which she felt that she
could not soon forget. —

God’s Providence.

The Rey. Dr. Guthrie, the well-known Scottish
minister, one morning felt a strong conviction that
he must visit an old and helpless woman of his flock
whose daughter was obliged to leave her alone all
day while she earned their daily food in a flax mill.
The old woman was paralyzed and unable to move
hand or foot, yet she was a trusting and uncém-
plaining child of God, and her sweet patience had
taught the pastor many a lesson.

He could not understand the longing he had to
go and see the poor woman on this particular morn-
ing. It was not his regular time for visiting her,
and other duties claimed his attention. But he
started on his long walk to the -woman’s humble
dwelling.

On his way down to the lonely dell he met a
friend with whom he had important business, but
in the midst of their talk he broke off suddenly as
if he had to hurry on.

He did hurry on, and as he opened the door of
the little house, he found that the fire on the hearth
had toppled down in a burning mass and was flam-
ing at the very feet of the poor, helpless woman,
who in another moment would have been on fire.
Her eyes were lifted toward heaven as if in prayer,
and after the flames were put out, she said brokenly,
“I knew the Lord would send somebody.”

God’s children have an almighty Father in
heaven of whom we confess: “He defends me
against all danger, and guards and protects me
from all evil’ Of Him Luther sings:

“He cares for us by day and night,
All things are governed by His might.”
And Paul Gerhardt sings:

“For means it fails Thee never,
Thou always find’st a way.”

Luther a Man of Prayer.

Melanchthon, a friend and colaborer of Luther,
says: “Often have I myself gone to him unawares
and found him dissolved in tears and prayers for
the Church of Christ. He devoted a certain por-
tion of almost every day to the solemn reading of
some of the Psalms of David, with which he mingled
his own supplications amid sighs and tears.”

Our faith clings to the Word alone, and not to
what it sees or feels. — Luther.