The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1909, Page 86

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86 . The Lutheran Pioneer.

enables her to bear adversity with patience and”

fortitude. If she is rich and prosperous, it lessens
her desire for mere show. And when she comes to
die — well, if she is in error, she is as well off as
you and I, and if we are in error, she is thousand
times better off than we can be.”

I asked him if he knew of any other system
attended with so many advantages. ‘ His reply was
not to the point. But what he had said led me to
examine the subject for myself, and I often look
back to that conversation as one of the most im-
portant incidents of my life, and to it I trace my
determination to study the Bible carefully, by
which I, a poor sinner, have been led to a full and
living faith in the Savior.

A Missionary Tale.

The teacher of a certain mission school has a
strange history, and a brief account of what hap-
pened to her in early life will, no doubt, interest
you. Her parents were heathen. The mother was
of a caste above that of her father, and she and
her relatives would not allow any of the children
horn to her to live. The father quietly yielded and
allowed the first babe to be killed. But when a

_ second babe was born he wished to keep it. He

tried to spare its life, but the mother’s relatives
succeeded in taking its life. The third babe was
a fine girl. The father pleaded that it might live.
But when he was away from home his wife’s rela-
tives seized it and carried it off. One of the many
ways in which they put children to death in heathen
lands is to dig a hole, throw in the babe, cover it
with a plank or stone, and then cover it with earth.
This they had done with this babe. When the
father returned and was told what had been done,
he hastened out, uncovered the babe, and found it
still alive. He carried it to a friend some seventy-
five miles distant, and here the babe was cared for,
and grew up to be a fine young woman.

The father never told his wife that he had saved
their daughter. Some years after he had died the
widow became a Christian, and then realized what
2 sin she had committed by killing her babes. One
day when she was lamenting about this, a distant
relative told her of how one of her daughters had
been taken from the grave, and was now living with
the relatives who had reared her about 75 miles
distant,

“The mother left her home in search of her
daughter. On reaching the place where the relative

lived, she saw a young lady, the very picture’ of

herself, standing in the doorway. She knew it was

her daughter, and hurried to clasp her to her bosom, ~
exclaiming: “Rejoice with me, for this my child

was dead, and is alive again.” And it is this young

lady who became such a help in the Christian

schools of her native heathen land.

a

A Merited Rebuke.

At the beginning of the Civil War companies
of volunteers from different states of the North
gathered near Washington to be formed into the
army of the Potomac.- Among them was a com-
pany from Concord, Mass., under Captain Prescott.
A cadet, freshly graduated from West Point, was
directed by General McDowell to drill the different
companies in succession. Having but slight re-
spect for volunteers, the young man thought he
would give his orders emphasis by a plentiful use
of profane language.

When he came to the Concord company, Cap-
tain Prescott, who was standing by, walked across
to him and said: “I must request you, sir, to give
the orders in the plain terms of the military code,
for my men do not like profanity. If you do other-
wise, I shall order them to march off the ground,
and they will obey me and not you.”

The drill went on without an oath.

—_—_-_-—_+e-2—_-—__—

Two Kinds of Neighbors.

Mr. Jones and Mr. Gregory were’ neighbors.
Mr. Gregory’s cattle trespassed on Mr. Jones’s
property, and Mr. Jones dealt with him strictly
according to law, making him pay the fines every
time it occurred. But one day matters were turned
around; Mr. Jones’s cattle found a weak place in
the fence, and trespassed on Mr. Gregory’s prop-
erty. When Mr. Jones sent for them, he sent also
the money to pay the fine. But Mr. Gregory would
not take it, saying he did not want his money, for
he knew that it was only through an accident that
the trespassing had occurred. Mr. Jones was struck.
He declared he had never had anything touch him
as that did. The action of Mr.-Gregory was like
the heaping of coals of fire on Jones’s head. (Rom.
12, 20.) :

A few days later the two neighbors shook hands
for the first time in years.