The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 60

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60 THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

asked to present herself for baptism. This attitude
the missionary found very strange, for he could see
no reason why the old lady should hold back.
Finally one day the good old soul unburdened
herself.

“Alas,” she said, “if only I could be a true fol-
lower of Jesus and be baptized!”

“And why should you not be?” said the mis-
sionary, curious to hear what the hindrance
might be. “Is there anything to hold you back?”

“Sure there is,” cried the old lady. “How could
I be a true disciple of Jesus? I could never do the
work He requires.”

“What work?” exclaimed the missionary in sur-
prise. ‘Did not Jesus do all there was to do for
your redemption ?”

“Oh, yes; of course He did; and I love Him
and am trusting Him alone for my salvation. But
the Lord Jesus said that His disciples should go
into all the world and preach the Gospel to every
creature, and I am not able to do that. I do delight
in speaking of Him to others. I have told my son
and his wife and all our neighbors, and in the sum-
mer-time I can go to several villages near by. Oh,
I am not afraid to speak of Jesus; it is not that.
But I am old and feeble; neither can I read, for my
eyes are growing dim. And I can only walk a little
way. You see it is not possible for me to go to far-
off countries and tell the people there about Jesus
and His salvation. If you had come when I was
young, — but now it is too late. I cannot be His
true disciple.”

Who of us is not put to shame by this simple
story of the poor old Chinese woman’s understand-
ing of the Lord’s command to preach the Gospel to
every creature? Have we tried to do our share of
the work? Can we say that we have done our part
to bring the Gospel to every creature while millions
are perishing without this Gospel? This old Chinese
woman said, “I cannot be His true disciple,” be-
cause she believed she could not obey the command
of the Lord Jesus. We accept the discipleship and
often unconcernedly disregard the command.

What is the trouble? The sense of God and of
mission is lacking; the conviction of responsibility
for the unevangelized world is not strong in us; we
do not realize that, if we falter in our duty, we lose
. Our opportunity and our crown. The Church can-
_ Xot live without this sense of mission. If she fails,
' she dies. But there will be no failure if the Church
“is true to her Lord and ready to do His will.

At the Eleventh Hour.

A female medical missionary in China writes:
“A few weeks ago I was called into the country to
a woman who was seriously ill. In this village,
about twenty-five li (eight miles) from the city,
there was not a single Christian; all were heathen.
Soon after my arrival a large crowd had gathered.
All of them had some kind of ailment of which
they wished to be cured.

“After we had attended to the old woman to
whom we had been called, we were told that there
was also a young woman, the wife of the oldest son
of the house, who had arrived only a few days before.
She was very shy, we were told, and not very de-
sirous of meeting strangers. We asked to be allowed
to see her. There she lay, emaciated and pale, hav-
ing every appearance of being broken by sickness
and pain. When she saw us, a smile lit up her wan
countenance. Quietly she allowed us to feel her
pulse and showed us the large wound she had on
her breast. All joy and pleasure of life had died
within her. We felt certain that she was hastening
to the grave; and while I conversed with the people,
my companion, a converted native Chinese woman,
spoke to her of Jesus. Her relatives told me she
had always been a good, obedient child and, being
so sick, had refused to be married. But her parents,
on account of an early betrothal, had compelled her
to take the step. They spoke of her many suffer-
ings and expressed their conviction that she had not
long to live.

“With a silent prayer to God for help I again
turned to the poor sick woman. She was too weak
to speak, but in her eyes shone a light which told
me that the words of the native helper had found
good ground in her heart. The grandmother,
a fanatical heathen, refused to allow us to speak
any more to the poor young wife, and so we de-
parted. All that I could further do was to tell her
people to bring her to the city, where we could take
better care of her.

“Three weeks passed, during which time my
thoughts often concerned themselves with the poor
young woman in the village; but all my efforts to
pay her another visit proved in vain. However, one
day an ox-cart arrived, bringing the patient, now
almost dying, to our mission. To go back home
again was impossible for her; for which reason she
stayed with us at the mission. For days before
being brought she had begged her parents-in-law to
bring her to us. The latter, realizing her hopeless