The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1928, Page 2

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

Constraining Love.

Thy love, O Christ, constraineth me,
Thy love of me, my love of Thee,

To serve Thee e’er in righteousness,

In diligence and joyfulness, ;

To be Thine own forever;

For Thou didst suffer, bleed, and die,
And rise again for me that I

Might be redeemed from sin and shame
And have salvation in Thy name.
Grant I forget it never.

Thy love, O Christ, constraineth me,
Thy love of me, my love of Thee,

To spread Thy Gospel far and wide,
As well as at my fireside,

With holy zeal and fervor

That Thine elect throughout the earth
May reap the blessings of Thy birth,
Thy sinless life, atoning death,

And resurrection —all by faith —
And serve with me our Savior.

Thy love, O Christ, constraineth me,
Thy love of me, my love of Thee,

To shun no cost or labor great

When serving Thee, when making straight
Thy way, when therein working.
Though many flee Thy Cross, O Lord,
And take exception to Thy Word,
Thy love moves me with joy to bear
The stripes to which all they fall heir
Who serve Thee without shirking.
Thy love, O Christ, constraineth me,
Thy love of me, my love of Thee,

In view of my unworthiness

Thy boundless mercies to confess

In grateful adoration,

To seek each day anew Thy aid

That I may ever unafraid

Continue in the godly way,

At once return whene’er I stray,

In earnest supplication.

Stewardson, Ill. C. T. Srrrz.

Wonders of Transforming Grace.

The Pitcairn Islanders.

The story of the Pitcairn Islanders stands
unique in the history of missions. It is the story
of how a stray copy of the Bible first became the
means of converting a reckless, godless mutineer,
and then,-through him, the instrument used by God
to change a degraded community into a congrega-
tion of exemplary Christians. This is the singular
and romantic story: — ;

In the last month of 1787 the ship Bounty, in
command of Lieutenant Bligh of the English navy,
set sail from England. The object of the voyage

was to bring specimens of breadfruit-trees and other
plants from the South Sea Islands to the West
Indies for experimental purposes. All told, the
little ship carried forty-five persons on board.

Soon after leaving England, Lieutenant Bligh
proved himself to be a coarse and brutal man. Thus
he compelled the crew to eat rotten pumpkins and
flogged those of the men who demurred. When
one day a sheep died, Bligh ordered the carcass to
be served to the men, claiming that it would make
a delicious meal. The men cannot be blamed for
throwing the sheep’s flesh overboard and making
their dinner of dried shark’s meat.

The Bounty did not reach Tahiti till October
of the next year, no less than ten months after
leaving England. During these ten months quarrels
almost without number arose among the officers
and between Bligh and members of his crew.
From October, 1788, till April, 1789, the men were
kept busy gathering. plants under the supervision
of a botanist and practical gardener. In these
months more than a thousand plants were secured
and stowed away on board the Bounty. When all
was ready, the ship set sail for its homeward voyage.
But only a few days after leaving Tahiti, the
troubles that had been brewing for months came to
a final point. The commander missed some cocoa-
nuts, and accused the men of having stolen them
with the knowledge of the officers. Fletcher Chris-
tian, second in command, was the particular object
of the commander’s attack. To him Bligh said,
“T will flog you and make you jump overboard
before we sail much farther.”

Such. threats had been made by Bligh before
upon many occasions. But it so happened that this
threat was the one that proved to be the straw which
broke the camel’s back. Christian said nothing, but
went to his cabin and there formed the plan to
leave the ship upon a raft that he had made some
time before with the knowledge of a number of his
shipmates. But the early morning watch of the
next day was his, and as darkness gave place to the
gray dawn, the thought came to him to take pos-
session of the ship. At once he talked over the
matter with seven of the crew who were just as
dissatisfied with Bligh as he was. They agreed to
his plan, and a few minutes after the plot had been
conceived, it was executed. Bligh was made a
prisoner, and the arms on board were seized. What
all happened in the next few hours on board the
Bounty is hard to make out, but the upshot of it
all was that Christian decided to set Bligh and a
part of the crew adrift in the small laungh of the

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