The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1919, Page 69

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‘The Lutheran Pioneer. 69

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One of the Good Shepherd’s Little
: Lambs.

He was just a little boy, perhaps seven or eight
years old. His clothes were no more than pitiful
rags, dirty as could be, and the bitter winter wind
passed through tlhe many rents and holes, and
sharply cut the grimy skin beneath.

During the warm days of summer he made his

home almost anywhere. At night he slept wherever

darkness and weariness might overtake him, in the
doorways of various buildings or in some out-of-the-
Way corner. During the day he eked out the scan-
tiest existence carrying packages for people from
the market near the great South Gate of Seoul.
But when winter came, he found it hard to exist.
The packages to be carried were few, and only too
often he was cold and hungry. Then, also, he was
compelled to exchange his open sleeping-quarters
for some hole dug in the ground. There, with
many of his kind, did he pass his nights as best
he could, while more fortunate children were warm
and comfortable in their beds.

The “foreign lady” made his acquaintance one
day by stopping at the corner shop and buying
a huge bag of cakes, which she gave to him and
his companions. With the cakes the good “foreign
lady” gave him something that was much better
than cakes. She spoke to him words of sympathy,
and told him and his companions of One who is
the friend of poor boys, and loves them as much as
He does the rich. The kind words and good deed
of the “foreign lady” made a deep and lasting im-
pression upon the little Korean boy. After that,
when jobs were few and he was hungry, he was
wont to watch for her. Sometimes she gave him
a few copper coins, and then again she asked him
to come to her house, where she fed his body, and
did not neglect to tell him also of the Bread of
Life. Something in the soft dark eyes of the little
boy and his bright, grateful smile quite won her
heart. —

Winter had once more come. The weather was
extremely cold and the little lad had not seen his
“foreign lady” for several weeks. In the dugout
with his companions he tried hard to forget the
pangs of hunger by trying to sleep, but all in vain.
At last the gnawing became go great that he de-
cided to crawl out and go to his lady’s house. Per-
haps he might catch her eye, and she would give
him some food. So he trudged on, growing weaker
and fainter with every step he took. When, finally,

he reached her home, the shutters were closed and
all was in darkness. Just about then a feeling
of great drowsiness came over him, and he lay down
to rest for just a little while. In a short time he
began to feel warm and comfortable, and hunger
and cold were forgotten in a: deep sweet ‘sleep. —

The next morning dawned bright and cold as
the “foreign lady” looked from her window. There
he lay on the frozen ground, the unwashed little
face upturned and the goft dark eyes closed. The
Good Shepherd, about whom the “foreign lady”
had often told him, had ‘come and gathered the
lamb in His arm, and hunger, want, and cold
would’ be known to him no more.

“When my father and my mother forsake me,
then the Lord will take me Up S27 uO:

~~

Liberal Giving.

The Methodists of China are to give $750,000
— three-quarters of a million — to the Centenary
Fund.

That doesn’t sound like a great deal, does it?

The Methodists of America will be called upon
for almost $80,000,000. The Sunday-school scholars
will give $10,000,000 of that sum. One single man,
it is rumored, has given as much ag the entire
church in China.

No, it’s not so much, viewed from Fifth Avenue
and Michigan Boulevard. But how about it when
viewed from the Street of Ten Thousand Ancestors
or the Road of Heavenly Virtue ?

Viewed through Chinese eyes, it is the most
lofty venture of faith that has come out of the
Christians of China.

There are thirty thousand members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in China. No one
knows what the total of their annual income is,
for the income tax has not yet reached that land.
And if it had, a large majority of the people called
Methodists would not be included in the number of
those making returns, The farmers, for instance,
live on $4 per person per month, and seldom clear
more than $20 or $30 a year from their farms.

A careful estimate, based-on intimate knowledge
of the church statistics; shows that the average in-
come of the Methodists of China is not over $240.
A great many people will claim that these figures
are too high, but in this kind of computation it
is well to err on the side of liberality,

Credit each one of our Chinese Methodists, then,