The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Sheet 177

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

17

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discovery. Bertrand had been compelled to go into
the interior of Central Africa to find his Savior!
After this discovery, Captain Bertrand spent his
days in bearing testimony to the Savior whom he
had found in, Africa. His one wish from that time
on was to tell others of Jesus, the Savior of sinners.
Who of us does not wish that all enemies of mis-
sions and all unbelievers would be brought to such
a mission-station, so that they might there learn for
themselves what great power the Gospel of Jesus has
to change men? But since that cannot be, let us
who have found the Savior and have experienced the
changing power of His Gospel bear witness of Him
and His blessed Gospel in our lives, so that by our
witness others may be induced to find and accept
Him who alone can save. F.J.L.

The Paralytic on His Way to Church.

A public infirmary is a permanent home and
refuge for the aged, the poor, the helpless, and the
infirm. Many of the inmates of such an institution
are bed-ridden, others are confined to wheel-chairs,
still others are unable to walk without proper
support.

Among the stations served by an institutional
missionary the infirmary is, in most cases, a promi-
nent one. Invariably it is also a preaching-station.
The missionary will encourage his aged and feeble
charges to attend services regularly and in great
numbers. But how can he get the infirm, the
lame, and the halt into the chapel if no one will
take them there? In their helplessness they will say
with the poor invalid on the porch of Bethesda,
“T have no man, when the water is troubled, to put
me into the pool.” It is the volunteer worker to
whom the missionary looks for assistance. With a
grateful heart the handicaped inmate will accept his
help when he assists him to reach the chapel, where
he can join others in public worship and in receiving
the Lord’s Supper.

On a Sunday morning, at one of these institu-
tions, there sits in a wheel-chair, near the altar,
a paralytic. Jor eighteen years he has regularly
attended the services conducted by the missionary.
But under what difficulties does this afflicted brother
go to church! He is unable to walk. -His hapless
condition often causes him much pain. In order to
get to the chapel, which is on the second floor of the
large institution, he wheels himself to the foot of
the stairway, slips out of his chair, covers his hands
with canvas gloves for protection, gets on his knees,

and climbs the slate stairs, for there is no elevator
to assist him to the chapel on the second floor.
Sympathetic friends follow him with his chair.
After his arduous climb he again slips into the chair
and wheels himself into the chapel. At the conclu-
sion of the service he returns under the same diffi-
culties to his room on the first floor. For eighteen
years he has virtually crept to church. Think of it!
This sadly handicaped man rarely misses the church
service; on Sunday he is at his accustomed place in
chapel, and on time.

What an impressive, though silent, monitor he
is not to despise preaching and God’s Word, but
to hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn the Word
that is able to save our souls! What a bright ex-
ample is this paralytic to those who by the grace
of God have the full use of their limbs and are
enjoying good health, yet are so negligent in their
church attendance! Let us give due thanks to God
for these unmerited benefits and apply them to His
glory and to our salvation. “He that is of God
heareth God’s words,” John 8, 47.

E. A. D., in Northwestern Lutheran Annual.

BOOK TABLE.

Follow Jesus.
Edition.

By William Dallmann, D.D. Second
Northwestern Publishing House, Milwau-
kee, Wis. Fine cloth binding; 300 pages. Price,
$1.50. May also be ordered from Concordia Pub-
lishing House, St. Louis, Mo.

We are not in the least surprised to learn that this
unique collection of sermons should have a second edi-
tion. After the readers have been invited in the first
discourse to accept Jesus as their Savior, Jesus is pre-
sented to them as a inodel for daily life in the sub-
sequent sernions. These sermons are of such a character
that it isn’t strange that those who heard them from
the lips of the author “learned not only to believe the
Gospel, but also to live up to it.” God grant that the
printed Word as found in this book may lead many to
“follow Jesus” in their daily lives! The appeal to prac-
tise a consistent discipleship of the Lord Jesus found
in these discourses is well-nigh irresistible.

Luther’s Letters to Women. Edited by Mary Cooper
Williams and Chaplain Edwin F. Keever. Wartburg
Publishing House, Chicago, Ill. Red cloth binding;
110 pages. Price, $1.25. Order from Concordia Pub-
lishing House, St. Louis, Mo.

We have in this book sixty-five letters written by the
great Reformer to women in all stations of life, from
a queen down to those occupying humble positions among
their sisters. The many-sidedness and versatility of Lu-
ther is shown in these letters to 2 wonderful degree. One-
should not think it possible that a man so engrossed with
the weightiest matters of Church and State could find
time and pleasure to concern himself with the joys and
sorrows of private persons and the petty problems of the
every-day life of common people. Strange as it may
sound, Luther’s marvelous greatness looms up to great
heights just when he descends so kindly and sympathet-
ically to the level of the r and lowly. However, the
myriad-minded Luther finds himself not at a loss to ad-
vise and counsel those of high station and wide influence,
as these letters show again and again.