The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1908, Page 71

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The Lutheran Pioneer. . 41

A Call for Help.

At a missionary gathering a Lutheran pastor
from Paris, speaking of “the Macedonian call for
help,” related the following touching incident:

One summer evening last year, as I came home,
I found a carriage in front of the house. The
driver stepped up to me and said, “A woman of
your faith is dying. She calls for help, and I have
been sent to fetch you.” TI asked for the woman’s
name, but did not remember having heard it be-
fore. I entered the carriage, which, after a ten
minutes’ drive, stopped in a narrow street in front
of a house which did not look very inviting. The
driver knocked at the large door, which was opened,
but immediately closed again after I had entered.
I found myself in a large vestibule, and judging
from appearances the thought struck me that I was
in a house of ill fame. I wanted to turn about and
leave immediately, but the fact that a dying one
ealled for help held me there. I rang a bell, and
the woman who answered the call said to me, “We
are not of the same faith as the dying woman, but
as we see that her end is near we do not want her
to die away so.”

She then led me through a large hall. At the
end of the hall she drew aside a heavy curtain, and
I stood at a deathbed. On the bed lay a woman
about forty years old, haggard and worn, with the
expression of deep suffering and painful anxiety.
She was glad that.I had come, for she felt the need
of telling me something about her life. It was a
sad story. When young, she wanted to be inde-

pendent and left her good parents. Her love for .

fine dress was the occasion of her first fall. She
entered upon a life of sin and sank deeper and
deeper. A few years since, she had become the

matron of this house, which, she said, she had often ~

intended to leave, when she suddenly took sick;
but it was her firm resolve, she said, to forsake this
life of sin as soon as she got well again.

I could not leave her in her false hope and-

spoke to her of her great weakness, of the uncer-
tainty of life, of our great responsibility, of sin
and the wages of sin, but also of God’s grace and
mercy in Christ even for the chief of sinners. She
listened’ very attentively, her eyes fixed upon me.
Suddenly she interrupted me, saying with the ex-
pression of great fear, “Do you think that my sick-
ness is dangerous?” “God is almighty,” I replied;
“but the doctor says he has no hope.” “If that is

she cried out, “then take me away from here.

» bidden me to do so.

I will not die in this house. Pity me! Do not let
me die in this place!” I promised to speak with
the doctor about it and stayed with her yet a while,
reading to her from the Bible and praying with her.
As I left her and drew aside the heavy curtain, I
found the inmates of the house assembled: in the
hall. They had heard all that had been spoken,
and their eyes were filled with tears.

On my return the next morning I found the
doctor present. I told him about the wish of the
dying woman, but he declared it was impossible to
move her in her present condition. The sick woman
received me with the words: “You come to take
me away.” I had to tell her the doctor had for-
“But,” she cried, “you will
not let me die here!” She was very much excited,
but at last seemed to be resigned to God’s will,
thankful for having found the Savior. I again
read to her and prayed with her and again found
the inmates of the house assembled behind the
curtain.

In the evening I called once more and found
the woman much worse. Her fever was very high;
but again and again she uttered her ery: “Do not
let me die here!” Again she was quieted by the
promises of the Gospel.

When I called the next morning, the woman
was dead. I thanked God that I had answered her
call for help.— From thousands in the prison-
house of sin the call for help still comes to us,
urging us to greater zeal in our mission work.

2 0

The Festival of Sih-Kou.

The Chinese worship the spirits of their de-
parted parents and grandparents. At regular times
they present offerings both at their tombs and be-
fore the tablets on which the names of their ances-
tors are written. It is a great misfortune for a per-
son to die without leaving a son to perform these
religious rites. It is believed that the spirits of
those who thus die wander about as hungry and
dangerous ghosts, who require to be appeased by
offerings of food, clothing, etc. These offerings are
provided by rich men who think that they thus
merit the fayor’of the gods. The articles of cloth-
ing are given away to the poor after they have been
presented to the spirit of the children dead.

The Sih-Kou is observed at the end of the sev-

enth Chinese month. This display of liberality is
the chief feature. A wide platform is erected on