The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1921, Sheet 35

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The Lutheran Pioneer,

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PousiisHepD BY THE EvancenicaL LutiERAN

Synopicat ConFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA.

REV. F. J. LANKENAU, EDITOR.
Published monthly by Concordia Publishing House, St. Louls, Mo. Subscription price, 80 cts. per annum, payable strictly In advance.

Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office

Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for In section 1103,

Wel: “AREA

ST. LOUIS, ‘Mo., MAY, 1921.

at St. Louls, Mo., under the Act of March 3, 1879.

Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 5, 1918,

No. 5.

Faith.

(Tune: C. M,)
By faith in Christ we're justified
And from our sin set free;
How precious is His Word, our guide,
Ifow sweet our liberty!

By faith we're walking in His way;
No ill our souls shall harm:
Immanuel, our mighty Stay,

Will all our foes disarm.

By faith all Christian work is done,
A life of service led,

Our spiritual conflict won,

The needy clothed and fed.

By faith fresh hope is still obtained,
Which fills our hearts with peace,
This world despised, and heaven gained, —
Dear Lord, our faith inerease!

If. OSTERUUS.

.-es>

Emma.

For many, many weary weeks Emma lay upon
her straw-mattiress and watched the days come and
go with relentless regularity. Some days were
bright and full of sunshine, others were dark, rainy,
and full of gloom for the poor sick girl. On the
bright and sunny days, Emma would watch through
the many crevices in the sides of the dilapidated log
hut the sun as he slowly climbed the horizon on his
daily pilgrimage to the far-away land of the West.

~ When he had reached a certain point in the sky, and
his rays, coming through a hole in the little cabin
roof, made a pool of light at the foot of Emma’s
bed, she knew that it would not be long before

“Ma,” Sis, Bud, and John Henry would come in
from the fields and bring her a nice cool drink of
fresh water from the spring just below the fowl-
house. She knew also that “Ma” would “cook” her
a nice cake of corn bread and give it to her for
dinner, together with syrup and greens, and that,
before going back to the field, she would “shake up”
the straw in the mattress and pillow and place a tin
pail of water at her bedside, where she could easily
reach it when she became thirsty. And then, when
all were gone, she would again watch the sun as he
traveled on down the sky*to the place where he
would go to rest in a bed of blazing gold.

But there were also gloomy days; days when the
rain came on with a steady downpour, finding its
way through the rifts in the roof, some drops falling
upon her bed, some upon the floor, and some into
the pots, pans, and other utensils placed there for
‘that purpose; and days when the atmosphere was
heavy and the wind blew through the cracks between
the logs, up through the crevices in the floor, and
down the shaft of the stick-and-mud chimney, forc-
ing the acrid smoke back into the dingy room, —
these, ah, these were days of sore trial’ for poor
Emma. On these days “Ma,” Sis, Bud, and John
Henry had to take turns in holding her head when
she was seized with violent and prolonged spells of
coughing; and these came often, all too often, for
her weakened and emaciated condition. As night
came on, her fever would burn high and her eyes
glow like the dying embers on the hearth, and her
cheeks would assume an ashen gray color as she lay
back panting after the paroxysm of coughing. On
such nights “Ma” and Sis found sleeping with her
a task, for, tortured by the burning fever, and .