The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1911, Page 28

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A Captive’s Easter.

Many years ago a German youth was taken
prisoner by the Turks, and as nothing was done
for his release, he’ was compelled to live among
these fanatical followers of the false prophet Mo-
hammed, and to work as a captive slave for a
Turkish master. But he never gave up his Lu-
theran faith. He put all his trust in Jesus, the
blessed Savior, who died -for our offenses, and was
raised again for our justification.

One Easter morning he had to plow his Turkish
master’s field, but none the less as he followed the
plow he kept the great festival day in mind, and

The Lutheran Pioneer.

away from my fellow Christians, yet I in spirit cele.
brate with them the joyous resurrection festival.”

The officer of the German government succeeded
in obtaining the man’s freedom, and the former
slave went back to his own Christian country, where
he lived to celebrate many an Easter Day with the
followers of the risen Lord.

ial

“The Blind Shall See.’’

“One evening about sundown,” says the Rev.
Kincaid, a missionary to India, “I stopped at a city
on the Irawaddy. I sat on the boat, a short dis-

Waele ace REN SS

THE EASTER MESSENGER.

his heart rejoiced in the risen Lord. As he walked
in the furrow behind the plow, he sang in his
mother tongue one of Luther’s good old Easter
hymns:

Jesus Christ to-day is risen,

And o’er Death triumphant reigns;

He has burst the grave’s strong prison)

Leading Sin herself in chains.

At that moment the representative of the Ger-
man government, who was stationed at Constanti-
nople, happened to be riding by. Surprised at

’ hearing a German church hymn in that Jand and
place, he got out of his carriage and went to the
singer. The man told him his story and closed by
saying: “I don’t think that I shall ever be able
to go back to my fatherland, but I shall keep my
Christian faith, though I live among Turks. I
know that this is Easter Day, and though I am far

tance from the bank, and began to read from my
tracts. The people sat on the shore; some, how-
ever, went to the town to say that a foreign teacher
had come. ‘The crowd increased, and I read on till
sundown. At length a tall young man came wad-
ing to the boat and said, “Teacher, have you the
Acts of the Apostles? Imagine my surprise at
hearing such a question in that place. I replied,
‘Yes.’ He said again, “Teacher, have you the Gos-
pel of John?’ He was evidently well educated;
I asked, therefore, ‘How did you learn about these
books?’ He told me that long ago his grandfather
had obtained them from Mr. Judson, but had lost
them in a great fire; and now, hearing of the -
foreign teacher, the old man had sent him in the
hope of getting them again. I complied with his
request, and he hastened away. <A storm soon came