The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1909, Page 77

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

The Lutheran Pioneer.

74

Filled with wrath and rage, the priest cursed
the evangelical missionaries for having given the
Bible to the people. But the missionaries thanked
and praised God for the precious fruit which His
Word bore among the natives of Tahiti. God’s
Word won the victory. The people continued in
Christ’s Word, and though the Romish priests
labored on the island for more than sixteen years,
they gained not a single member for their sect.

These faithful natives of Tahiti put to shame
many church members in Christian lands.

+2

Why. She Became a Lutheran.

Veit Winsheim, a professor in the university
of Wittenberg, had an aged.mother living in Trance
devoted to, and zealous in, the Romish faith.
Though often urged by her son to give up her errors
and accept the true faith of God’s Word, as taught

*by the Lutheran Church, she persistently refused
to do so.

After an absence of some years, the son came
home on a visit to his mother.’ He learned that she
had embraced the Lutheran faith with all her heart.
Anxious to know what had produced such a change
in her convictions, he upon inquiry learned that his
mother had been much around the sick and the
dying, and had observed that those who died in
the Romish faith were restless, without peace, and
troubled with doubts, while those of the Lutheran
faith, resting alone in the saving merits and par-
doning mercy of Jesus Christ, had calmly fallen
asleep in peace and in the full assurance of salva-
tion. “This,” she said, “convinced me that the
swords of St. Paul are true: “Therefore being justi-
fied by. faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5, 1.) ‘This induced
me to embrace the Lutheran faith, and I thank God
for this great grace.”

“All Glory Be to God on High.”

The Lutheran inhabitants of Austria had to
suffer much tribulation up to 1781, the Romish
priests persecuting and torturing them as though
they were heathen. But in-the year named, the
Emperor Joseph II granted them religious liberty.
They were permitted to build chapels, and every-
where the hymn resounded: - “All Glory be to God
on High.”- Upon a Sunday, toward the close of
that year, the church newly built, on the shores of

the Lake of Hallstadt, was dedicated. The people
gathered from every quarter. Joyful songs re-echoed
from the skiffs that studded the lake. One of the
pastors present began the hymn “All glory be to
God on High.” It was transmitted from vessel to
vessel, until the whole congregation floating on the
lake were singing the hymn of praise. 7

—- > —

“Can’t God Count?”

This was a question a tiny little girl asked her
brother. I¢ occurred in this way. This little girl
and her brother were carrying a basket of cakes to
their old grandmother. They were curious to see
what was in the basket, and so they carefully raised
the cover and looked in. They saw the tempting
cakes, and their mouths watered to taste them.
After counting them over several times, they almost
made up their minds they might eat just one of
them. “Nobody would know it, and it would taste
so good.”

While they were gazing at the cakes, and just
ready to take one, the little girl looked up in her
brother’s face and asked the question, “Can’t God
count?” This settled the matter. The lid was shut
down, and all the cakes were carried to their grand-
mother.

Assurance of Faith.

Duke John George of Mecklenburg, when on his
dying bed in the year 1675, spoke many edifying
words. After having received the Lord’s Supper
for the strengthening of his faith, he said to his
pastor: “When still a boy, I learned my Catechism.
I have not yet forgotten it, especially not Luther’s
words: ‘Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is
also life and salvation.” I now have received for-
giveness of sins, therefore I have also life and sal-
vation, and I shall die a blessed death.”

What the Priest Could Not Burn.

A boy of Romish parents, who attended a Prot-
estant school, had committed to memory several
chapters of the Bible. When a Romish priest had
taken his New Testament from him and had thrown
it into the fire, the boy was able to say: “Thank
God, I have learned seven chapters of St. Matthew
which he could not burn.”