The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 47

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER 47

before? If they had only come when I was young,
I, too, might have worked for Christ !”

When Jesus blessed the five loaves and the two
fishes and then bade His disciples feed the thou-
sands present, the disciples unhesitatingly began
with their distribution, never doubting that the
Lord would provide enough for all and that they,
the distributors, would not fall short of the bread
and fishes needed for the multitude. But His
present-day disciples, though provided with bread
enough and to spare to feed the thousands of hungry
about them, hesitate. They provide plentifully for
themselves, but forget the command to distribute
the loaves of the Bread of Life entrusted to them
just for the purpose of distribution. Ah, should
not our hearts be touched by the wants and woes
and upbraidings of the heathen world? Should our
hearts not glow with an all-embracing benevolence ?
Should not the loyalty due to our adorable Re-
deemer, who died for us and rose again, bring us
to a full appreciation of the claims and the scope
of Christ’s reign of grace? F. J. L.

How God Changes Men.

In New Guinea the people who live along the
coast are different from those who live higher up
in the hills. The same thing holds true of Burma
(India), where Missionary Judson worked many
years ago. The first one of these mountain people
whom Judson learned to know was named Kothabiu.
Judson freed him from slavery by paying for him.
Kothabiu was very thankful for this deed of kind-
ness. Although he was told that he was free to go
where he wanted to go, he stayed with the mission-
aries. He was faithful and true; but at the same
time he was very -hot-headed. And what a life he
had led! He had been a robber and a murderer.
When he heard the Gospel, there was a fight in his
heart between good and evil. Again and again his
temper got the best of him; but by and by, by the
grace of God, the good won out. At last he came
to his missionary and asked him, —

“Ts the forgiveness of which you preach good for
a murderer, too?” :

“Tf he is truly sorry on account of his sin, yes.”

“But if he is a fivefold murderer, can he still
be forgiven ?”

“Yes.”

“But suppose he is a tenfold murderer?”

“Then, too.”

“What if he killed even thirty people?”

“The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth
us from all sin.”

“Then there is help for me, too, as I am the
thirtyfold murderer.”

The wish to be saved grew strong in the old
robber’s heart. He began to pray with such a loud
voice that the missionary could not stand hearing
it and told him to go into the woods, where he
could pray with as loud a voice as his heart
bade him.

Kothabiu became the first Christian among the
hill people. Though he had had no schooling, he
became the tool in the hands of God by which thou-
sands were brought to God. He, the one-time mur-
derer, never tired of telling about Jesus and of
praising Him as the Prince of Peace and the Re-
deemer from sin. ‘To his last moment he traveled
from village to village in forest and mountain, up-
hill and down-hill, to bring his countrymen the
good tiding of the Savior. His words made a
deeper impression than the words of the missionary.
The people listened eagerly, and many of them be-
came Christians. Thus God changed a robber and
a murderer to a missionary.

In New Guinea similar things happen. When
the heathen become Christians, some of them are
trained; and then they go and tell others the good
tidings about Jesus. They are then called “helpers,”
and the places where they live and work are called
helpers’ stations. —The Lutheran Missionary.

A Brand Plucked out of the Fire.

We take the following from the current number
of the Northern Illinois Messenger. It relates the
experience of Missionary H. Sandvoss.

“A middle-aged woman was taken to the Munic-
ipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium in Chicago. When the
missionary called on her for the first time, she said:
‘I am not interested in religion and do not wish to
be bothered with such nonsense. Please leave the
room.’ The missionary replied: ‘If you are not
interested in your soul’s salvation, in the fact that
you are a sinner and as such a child of eternal dam-
nation; that Christ Jesus, the Son of God, suffered
and died for your sins; that through faith in Him
you might be saved from sin and death and enter
heaven when you must die, —I shall not bother you.
There are too many others in this sanitarium anx-
iously waiting for the Gospel of Jesus and His love.
I have no time to waste with you if you are not
interested in the message of salvation. But you