The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1908, Page 93

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

93

ee — —

that time did know

He was afraid of

Isaac at not anything about

reading.

the book and wanted
But the
Ile told

to run away from it as if it were a snake.

other boy explained the matter to him.

‘him that the black letters in the book were put

and these words would
Ile then read from the
Luke the Christmas Gospel
which tells of the Savior’s birth at Bethlehem, and
of the angels that .made known the glad tidings
and sang so joyfully in the holy Christmas night:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
good will toward men.”

Little Isaae listened attentively and then said,
“That must have been a wonderful child. Where
is it now? Can I see it?”

“Oh,”
us, although we see Him not.

together to “form words,
then tell you many things.

second chapter of St.

said the other boy, “Jesus is always near
But if you want to
hear more about this child, go to the mission sta-
tion, where
the Child
Little Isaac, with his father’s permission, soon
left his flock of sheep like the shepherds of old and
hurried away to the distant missionary village to
find the Savior. He arrived there on a Saturday
evening and was given a home by a kind Christian
woman. On Sunday morning he for the first time
heard the ringing of the church bell, and saw- the
people hurry away with their books. He did not
know what it meant. In the afternoon the bell
rang again, and the people again left their homes.
Isaac now followed them and soon entered the mis-
sion church, where he heard the congregation sing
hymns and heard the missionary preach on the love
of God, who gave Tis only-begotten Son to a sinful
world, that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.
After the services the boy went to the home of
the missionary, who told him more about the Say-

the teachers will tell you more about

Jesus.” .

-jor and later on instructed him in the Bible and

in the catechism and received him into the Chris-
tian Church by baptism. So the little African boy
became a child of God. The Bible which was given
him as a present was ever after his greatest treasure.
At one time, pressing the Bible to his heart, he
said, “I cannot give this book away; it has led me
to the Savior, in whom I have found and still find
all I-need.” As Isaac grew up a true Christian,
he proved a blessing to his family and to many
others. He often said: “In Jesus we find peace,
and salvation, and strength to bear the burdens of
this life. Te who does not believe in Him is poor,

even if he has all the treasures of this world; he
has no comfort in life and no hope in the hour of
death; for there is no other salvation and there is
none other name under heayen given among men
whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus.”
Thus he confessed the faith of his heart. In that
faith he lived, in that faith he died. In the midst
of many temptations he faithful to
the end.

We need not, like little Isaac and many other
people in Heathen lands, make a long journey to
find the Savior. He is preached among us and is
brought to us in the Gospel truths of the Bible to
be received by faith as our Savior. Luther well
says: “In the Bible are found the swaddling
clothes and the manger in which Jesus lies, whither
the angel also direets-the shepherds. Plain, in-
deed, is the clothing, but oh, how precious is Christ,
contained therein !”

remained

>
.

Christmas after the ‘Black Death.”

It was at the time of the “Black Death,” in
13853. One of the greatest pestilences recorded in
history had swept over every country in the Old
World, claiming its dead by scores of thousands.
Men fled in terror from their fellow-men, in awful

‘fear of their breath or touch, and for weeks sus-

tained a strange, weird siege in solitude. In their
terrible fear men became like wild beasts, refusing
even the cup of cold water and the simplest service
through dread of contamination.

So it continued until Christmas Eve, when one
man in Goldberg, believing himself the only in-
habitant of the city left alive, unbarred his door
at dead of night, and went forth, into the air. He
knew that it was Christmas, and as he recalled
other Christmases, with their sacred joys and their
festivity, he lifted up his voice in the song:

“To us this day is born a Child,
God with us!
His mother is a virgin mild,

God with us!
God with us! Against us who dare be?”

Through a barred door came another voice in
response to his own, and then the door was flung
wide, and a man joined him in the street and sang
with him. ‘Together they marched through the
town, giving it its first audible sound save wails and
cries of terror since first the plague descended
upon it.