The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1910, Page 21

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

Singing the Gospel.

A blaspheming scoffer in London one evening
began an infidel harangue to a crowd of working-
men who had gathered about him. When he fin-
ished, a railway porter stepped up in front and
said:

“Aren’t you going to sing before you go away ?”

“Oh, no,” was the reply, “we don’t sing.”

“Well, I do,” said the porter, and then at once
began to sing a few verses of Cowper’s familiar
hymn:

There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;

And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see

That fountain in his day;

And there have I, as vile as he,
Washed all my sins away.

On the next night he met the same speaker and
the assembly at the same place, with a powerful
accordeon under his arm. By his singing, with its
musical accompaniment, he entirely drew away the

audience from the infidel speaker, and sang to them -

the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to their delight and
profit.

A Blessed Death.

From all heathen lands missionaries report the
reign of the fear of death. ‘The heathen are with-
out Christ and therefore without hope. Their death
is marked with terror and despair; for they know
not the Son of God who became man, “that through
death He might destroy him that had the power of
death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime sub-
ject to bondage.” Only the Gospel of the risen
Savior, the Conqueror of death and the grave, can
free men from this bondage of the fear of death.
This Gospel proves its power also in heathen lands,
bringing sinners to faith-in the living Christ, so
that they die a blessed death, marked with peace
and hope.

Of such a blessed death one of our missionaries
in India writes in one of his recent letters. It was
the death of a poor Hindu leper, who suffered much
from the dreadful disease that crippled and con-
sumed his body. ‘The missionary for some time in-
structed him in the Christian doctrines, and the
poor sufferer gladly and thankfully received the

The Lutheran Pioneer.

21.

Word of God. When he first came to the knowledge
of the Savior of sinners, he hastily asked, “Where
is Jesus?” and was very happy when told that He
sitteth on the right hand of God and is with us
alway, even unto the end of the world. His only
desire now was to be wholly with Jesus, the Savior.
Several days before his death he was baptized in the
Christian faith. In spite of his great bodily weak-
ness, his mind was very active, and by his ready
answers to the missionary’s questions he showed
that he was well grounded in the Christian doctrine.
He confessed himself to be a wretched, lost sinner,
trusting in Christ as his only Redeemer from sin,
death, and the devil. He joined the missionary in
saying the Creed and the words of prayer and con-
solation. Until the end, in all his weakness and
suffering, God’s Word was his only treasure,
strength, and comfort. He departed in peace to
be at home with the Lord. The funeral services
were largely attended, the missionary speaking on
the lepers’ prayer, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on
us!” The body was-then laid in the grave to rest
until the golden morning of a blessed resurrection.

————~+2.—______.

“It is Easter Day.”

On the frontier of Austria, on a little stream
called the Ill, is the town of Feldkirch. In 1799,
when Napoleon was sweeping over the continent,
Massena, one of his generals, suddenly appeared
on the heights above the town at the head of 18,000
men. It was Easter Day, and the sun, as it rose, -
glittered on the weapons of the French at the top
of the range of hills. The council of the town as-
sembled to see what was to be done. Defense was
impossible, and surrender was talked of. Then
the old Dean of the church stood up. “It is Easter
Day,” he said. “We have been reckoning on our
owit strength, and that fails. It is the day of the
Lord’s resurrection. Let us ring the bell, and have
service as usual, and leave the matter in God’s
hands. We know only our weakness, and not the
power of God.”

The French heard with surprise the sudden
clangor of the bells, and concluding that the
Austrian army had arrived in the night to relieve
the place, Massena suddenly broke up his camp,
and before the bells had ceased ringing not a
Frenchman was to be seen. Faith in God had sayed
the little town and all its people. — CG. H.

a