The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1910, Page 3

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The Lutheran Pioneer. 3

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and more appreciative of His goodness which
prompted Tim to give us this memorial of His

love. F. J. T.

nad -

Alone, Yet Not Alone.

Speaking of his visit to a poor aged widow, a
pastor writes: ;

She lived quite alone, and she was old, poor,
That was all I knew of her as I entered her
little room. ‘This room was yery narrow, and it
seemed to me so cold, so bare, so empty! There
was nothing to be seen but a bed, a table, two
chairs, and an old-fashioned trunk. It was my
first acquaintance with real poverty, and it all
seemed so comfortless.

A weak woman slowly rose from one of the
two chairs. She was very small, bent, pale, and
thin. How different she must have looked in the
days of long ago! Her life was not always spent
in loneliness. ‘Uhere was a time when she lived at
the side of her husband in the strength of youth
like other women. Happy children did play around
her, until all passed away like a shadow, and she
was left alone. Looking again at the small, bent
woman, I noticed the wonderfully bright, friendly
eyes fixed upon me.

sick.

Alone, old, sick, poor! ‘This I had known of
her when I went to see her, and it had been my
heart’s desire to bring her not only outward help,
but also a fitting word of comfort. But I now saw
such a calm chcerfulness in the face of the dear
old woman that no word of comfort came over
my lips. ;

She praised her little room and was well pleased
with its being so narrow; for, she said, when her
sick feet were very sore and swollen, she could
easily get to the hearth. From her bed.she could
lay hold of a chair, from there she could right
away get to the table, from the table to the trunk,
from the trunk to the hearth. Sometimes, she
said, when friendly neighbors brought the meal
warm to her room, she need not warm it at all.

When I asked her if she did not feel very, very
lonesome, she replied with a smiling face, “Why,
T am never alone.” Saying this, she pointed to a
Bible verse which hung above her bed. I there
read the Savior’s promise: “Lo, I am with you
alway, even unto the end of the world.”

Pointing to these words, the dear woman said
softly, in a voice of deep emotion: “That He has

promised me, and that promise He has also kept;
He never leayes me alone!”

I had come to comfort, but Another had al-
ready comforted according to His promise: “As
one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort
you,” Is. 66, 13. _

On my way home I thought of all I had heard
and seen in that little room of the poor, sick, lonely
widow, and it all was to me a living illustration
of the words of the psalmist: “Whom have I in
heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth
that-I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart
faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and
my portion forever,” Ps. 73, 25. 26.

Resigned to God’s Will.

When Stonewall Jackson, the famous general
and Christian soldier, lay mortally wounded on
his dying-bed, he looked at his mutilated arm,
after an amputation had been performed, and said,
“Many people would regard this as a great mis-
fortune. I regard it as one of the great blessings
of my life.”

An officer, who had long been associated with
him and who knew his religious life and well under-
stood..his meaning, said, “All things work together
for good to them that love God.”

“Yes, yes!” was the earnest reply, “that’s it!”

Later the Genéral again said, “I consider these
wounds a blessing; they were given me for some
good and wise purpose, and I would not part with
them if I could.”

To his wife, who was with him in his last
hours, he said, “I know you would gladly give your
life for me, but I am perfectly resigned. Do not
be sad, I hope I shall recover. Pray for me, but
always remember in your prayers to use the peti-
tion, ‘Zhy will be done.”

In the event of his death, he advised her to
return to her father’s home, and said, “You have
a kind, good father; but there is no one so kind
and good as your heavenly Father.” :

When told that his last moments were near, he
calmly said, “Very good, very good; it is all right.
It will be infinite gain to be translated to heaven,
and be with Jesus.”

Ix tribulation takes all away from us, it still
leaves God; for it can never take God away. Nay,
indeed, it brings God to us. — Luther.