The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1911, Page 50

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50

Everybody’s Book.

The Bible is everybody's book. Some books
are written for the rich, some for the poor, some
for the learned, some for the ignorant, some for
the wise, others for the simple; some for little
children, others for grown people. Some are for
people of one Janguage, some for those of another,
and some for people of one occupation, which have
no interest to people who follow other pursuits.
There are works on navigation, agriculture, me-
chanics, mineralogy, mining, astronomy, geology,
biology, theology, finance, politics, archwology, ety-
mology, ornithology, ichthyology, and so on to the
end of the chapter. Then there are works on math-
ematics, music, art, sculpture, architecture, paint-
ing, drawing, and every other conceivable subject.
All these run in special lines, cater to special tastes,
and reach special classes.

The Bible touches every class. Translated into
hundreds of languages, it meets the wants of people
on every continent and every shore. The aged love
it, the young delight in it, little children lisp its
sacred lessons, and aged men and women murmur
its words of promise with broken voice and tearful
eyes. Men in the vigor of health rejoice in the
words of heavenly grace; weary souls on beds of
pain and sickness are comforted by its divine con-
solations. ‘Thousands of years ago, men found
these words of God more precious than necessary
food; now, after centuries have gone by, still they
remain the solace and the joy of ‘trusting hearts.
Savage nations find their best literature and in-
struction in this first book they learn to read, and
the civilized, the enlightened, those who lead the
march of human progress, and know the blessings
of culture and refinement, prize this book above all
other books the world has known. — The Armory.

——-—- ewe

Not Worth Much.

The man who has no money may be called poor;

the man, however, who has nothing but money is
poorer still. A slave of mammon, whose heart clung
to his money, said to John Bright, the distinguished
Englishman, “Do you know, sir, that I am worth
a million pounds sterling?”
_ “Yes,” was the calm, but significant reply, “I
do; and I know that it is all you are worth.” If
. five million dollars is all that a man is worth, then
he is not worth much. True worth consists not in
the amount of money a man has.

could set off on our five days’ journey on foot.

The Lutheran Pioneer.

A Lesson from Samuel’s Experience.

Our ship, writes an African missionary, Jay in
the harbor of Port Natal. My brother-in-law had
sent Samuel, a baptized Zulu, to meet me and to
be my guide on the journey to the mission station.
He had to stay several days on the ship before we
On
Sunday morning we were permitted to use fresh
water for washing ourselves, while on the other
days of the week we washed ourselves only with
salt water. When I was through washing on Sun-
day morning, I left the rain water to Samuel and |
went below deck for a short time. On my return
I could see Samuel nowhere. Soap and towel were
also gone. At last I looked overboard, and sure
enough there stood Samuel on the ship’s ladder,

washing himself with soap and salé water. But
salt water, you know, will not admit soap. ‘They

will not mix. And so Samuel had rubbed the white
soap in his face and hair, and he surely was a sight
to laugh at. He was not clean, but looked un-
naturally white in his face, hands, and hair. It
took much effort and much fresh water to rid him
of the soap.

Samuel’s experience, later on, often served me
as an illustration to impress an important lesson
on the minds and hearts of my hearers. ‘The lesson
is this: As black Samuel used the wrong kind of
water to wash himself and did not get clean, but
dirtier than he was before, so many people use the
wrong means to cleanse themselves from the filth
of sin. The heathen try many foolish, wicked ways
to rid themselves of sin. Papists want to get rid
of sin by the intercession of Mother Mary and by
their own works. Fanatics think the mourners’
bench a means of grace, and trust in their nervous
shouting and wild screaming and good feelings.
Bué all in vain. ‘There is but one thing which
cleanses us from sin. It is the blood of Christ,
offered to us in the Gospel by God Himself. “The
blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from
all sin,” 1 John 1, 7.

-— a

Christ Is All ie All.

Christ is the center of all writings of the
apostles and prophets, the foundation of the Church,
the treasure of our hope, the source of salvation
and grace; after Him we are called Christians,
from Him flows all that is ear for our sal-
vation. — Walther.