The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1909, Page 5

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The Lutheran Pioneer. ‘ 5

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Too Late.

Many years ago, we are told, a rich merchant of
New York went South and married a wealthy and
cultured young lady. The young couple took up
their dwelling in New York and soon became prom-
inent in “high society.” ‘The wife had been brought
up in a Christian family and had been known for
her piety and her kindness towards the poor and the
sick. However, since her husband, whom she con-
sidered very smart, did not care for religion, she
soon adopted his views of life. Her Bible and her
hymn-book were laid aside, and the services of God’s
house were neglected. The pleasures of this world
took possession of her heart. Her time was given
up to society, to the theater, and to dancing. How
to dress and adorn herself according to the latest
fashion was with her the most important question.

About twelve years ago she traveled to some dis-
tant friend. During the journey a terrible wreck
occurred, in which she was seriously injured. She
was taken to the next station, and a doctor was called
from the nearest village.

Of this meeting with the lady the doctor says:
It was one of the most painful experiences I ever
had. I had to tell her that she had but an hour to
live. She would not believe that her case was so
serious. :

“T must go home,” she said ;
York.” Y

“Mrs. L., that is impossible. Moving you now
would only shorten your life.”

She lay on the floor; the brakemen had rolled
up their cloaks to furnish her a pillow.

“T have but one hour to live? Is that what you
said, doctor?”

“It is my painful duty to tell you so.”

She sighed deeply: “Thus I must end! What
is left to me of the world? It is not much, doctor,”
she said with a bitter smile.

The men left the room, and I closed the door lest
she might be disturbed.

For awhile she lay silent; then she said with
great excitement: “How much good could I have
done! , All the money, all the time I had! All was
wasted! Now it is too late! Only one hour to live!”

My words of comfort were in vain. She grew
more excited. oe

“Doctor,” she said, “I wanted to shine in the
world, I wanted to outshine all others. Great God,
fashion, fashion! Now I have only one hour — one
hour! It is too late!”

“T must go to New

But she had no hour. Her excitement had been
too great. Soon after those words she passed away.
Nothing ever made such an impression on me as
that ery of despair: “It is too late!”

“The night cometh when no man can work.”

S.C.

Looking On While a Woman Drowns.

Under this heading a Chicago paper says:

A terrible illustration of the spirit which is
beginning to take possession of the hearts of some
was manifested when recently a woman in Chicago
fell into the lake and two hundred men and boys
stood idly by and watched her as she struggled and
uttered screams for help.

One of them rushed up and seized her purse
which lay at the spot from where she had fallen.
Before the life-saving men could come, she had
gone down for the last time. E

The captain of the life-saving crew said: “Those
men acted like a pack of dogs; any one of them
could have stepped down and pulled her out by
hand without any peril to themselves.”

No one can read this without feeling a thrill
of righteous indignation sweep over his soul; but
let me ask: Are there some in your community who
are being overwhelmed by discouragement and
despair and who are losing their souls while you
are looking idly on, never reaching out a helping
hand to them? No matter what your professions
are, in the Day of Judgment will you not have to
line up with those two hundred men and boys?

H. K.

God Able to Make Happy.

Christians might avoid: much trouble if they
would only believe what they profess — that God is
able to make them happy without anything else.
They imagine if such a dear friend were to die, or
such and such blessings to be removed, they should
be miserable, whereas God can make them a thou-
sand times happier without them. To mention my
own case, God has been depriving me of one bless- ’
ing after another; but as every one has been re-
moved, He has come in and filled up its place; and
now, when I am a cripple, and not able to move,
I am happier than ever I was in my life before, or
ever expected to be; and if I had believed this
twenty years ago, I might have been spared much
anxiety. — Dr. Payson. o =f