The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1918, Page 29

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

man, who had been watching him with the eyes of
a hawk, picked it up and devoured the rest.” An
American doctor coming down the mountainside
from the Lebanon noticed in the distance a crowd
of children, and wondered why so many were gath-
ered in one place. Upon coming near, he discovered
that a camel had died by the roadside, and these
famished children were in desperation picking the
last shreds of flesh from the skeleton of the fallen
beast. Children eagerly picking grains from the
dung of animals in the street have become a com-
mon. sight.

One of the hardest tasks for the missionaries is
that they are often compelled practically to sign the
death-warrant of hundreds of poor children. For
example, in one case there were 430 children to be
cared for while there were funds for only seventy
at hand. ‘The missionaries were forced to select the
seventy and say no to the equally or possibly more
destitute 360.

So far as Syria is concerned, Beirut, Palestine,
and the Lebanon have suffered most. Whole vil-
lages have become completely depopulated. An
American, in passing through a village last sum-
mer, saw only one house open. In one doorway sat

a little girl, apparently all alone in the world. She
kept on saying over and over, “I’m hungry! I’m

hungry!” ‘The children in all the villages have the
faces of old men and women. In Aleith no grapes
are expected because the children have eaten the
shoots and young leaves to quiet the gnawings of
hunger. In many eases children have pulled up the
planted wheat to eat the seeds clinging to the roots.
An American consular agent reported some time ago
that in his daily walk from his house to the consulate
he counted as many as twelve bodies of persons who
had died of starvation during the preceding night.
More than half the population of the Lebanon is
dead from starvation and resultant disease. An-
other writes of standing beside a trench which was
the grave of 2,000 victims who had been cruelly
murdered after they had surrendered their arms
upon the explicit promise that they would be spared.
The moment these poor people had become defense-
less they were compelled, at the point of the hayonet,
to dig the trench, into which they were forced, and
then hacked to pieces with axes.

To prevent the return of the deported hundred
thousands, their homes have been destroyed, their
orchards and vineyards laid waste, and the trees
that might afford lumber cut into lengths too short
for boards. Jiven the terraces that held up the soil

on the steep mountainsides have been broken down,
thus bringing about the destruction of what repre-
sented centuries of labor and toil.

May God bless the work of love which Ames
missionaries are doing among these stricken thou-
sands! May God continue to fill these laborers with
love and sympathy that they may break unto these
poor people bread for the soul and bread for the
body! May God also open the hearts and hands of
many, and impel them to assist in the work of mercy
which is just now so necessary in that land where
once our dear Savior performed His great deeds of
mercy and proclaimed the glad tidings of the Gospel
with His own sacred lips! F. J. L.

Don’t Look Down; Look Up!

_ ‘Two girls came to a greatly swollen stream of
water. ‘There was no bridge by means of which they
would have been able to go over conveniently; but
a little way down from where they had come up to
the stream they saw a log which might afford them
an opportunity to get across.* They proceeded to the
place where the log lay, and inspection showed them
that each end of the log was firmly resting on its
bank of the stream. The one girl went over quietly
and bravely; but the other stepped tremblingly as
the log shook under her, and cried, “I can’t go any,
farther; I-am getting dizzy; Vl fall!’ “Don’t
look at the log shaking, but just look up and walk
right along,” ‘sald the girl who had already safely
crossed oyer. ‘Ihe advice was taken, and the two_
soon stood side by side on the other bank. —

Don’t look down; look up! What o blessed
thing it would be for us Christians to do this at
all times! Look away from your sins to Christ,
your Savior from sin. Look away from your sor-
rows to Him that has promised never to leave nor
forsake you.

And then, also, do not mind your own feelings,
do not look at the state of your own heart, to see
whether you are in a fit state to receive forgiveness,
but look up at the promises of God in the blessed
Gospel. As sure as you look at the state of your

own heart, you will, sooner or later, grow uncertain
of your salvation; but if you cling to the Word of
God, if you look at the precious Gospel-promises
with a steadfast eye, you will reach the heavenly
shore in safety. Do not look down; look up!

F. J. L.