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soothe your troubled souls. I will give you faith, to bring your burdens to Me. Yes, dear Saviour, we remember well, and can testify this afternoon, that Thou hast taken that heavy burden from our poor souls more than once. We praise Thy Holy Name, dear Father, for such a salvation and redemption, that we can have in Christ, our dear Saviour. Now Father, we ask Thee to bless our dear Superintendent, officers and teachers. Help us to teach our scholars the essence and doctrines and aim of all our Sunday schools, namely: To lead our scholars to Christ. Amen.
52. What the Little Girl did _____ One day a little girl, who was passing a prison on her way to school, saw a hand outstretched past the iron bars signaling to her. Upon nearing she was beseeched by the prisoner to bring him a book to read. Each Sunday she went to the prison and brought the prisoner, who had made the request, a book from her father's library. One Sunday she was led to the |
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deathbed of this prisoner. "Beloved little one," he said with a feeble voice, "you have saved my soul with the books you have brought me. Promise me that you will also do for others what you have done for me." She promised him and kept her promise. Linda Gilbert became a lifelong friend to prisoners. She opened good libraries in many prisons, visited and helped hundreds of prisoners. And of these, as far as she knew, at least 600 were brought back to an honorable life.
53. My Visit and Opinion of the new Church at the St. Jacob Mission in Buffalo, N.Y. _____ It was my privilege to attend the dedication of the St. Jacob Church on Sunday, November 14, 1909. Bishop Thos. Bowman was present and he presided. I have never heard him preach better as on this occasion and as far as collecting signatures he was masterful. He was excellent in the Sunday school. And I had the honor to address the Sunday school after him, |
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for which honor I paid $5.00, which I was happy to give since it was my privilege to deliver a short speech in the English language in my old age to many of my German Sunday school grandchildren from the First Church in Buffalo. It was a successful celebration. The beautiful sunshine, the magnificent church with an organ, the likes of which one seldom encounters, the splendid Sunday school facility with classrooms, and a nice Evangelical Church kitchen like no other in the Evangelical community as far as I know, can all be found here.
54. A Spiritually Rich New York _____ May 1, 1910 was Conference Sunday in Tonawanda, N.Y. It was a day blessed by the Lord. During the ordination sermon the Lord was inwardly near. It was an old gospel day of victory. No one had ever heard beloved Bishop Bowman preach with such power. This was the unanimous decision of his many friends. It would be quite irrational to take the staff of command from such a general and commander because of his young age. |
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If the people had a voice they would unanimously reelect him for his successful work of the past years. They would allow him to retain the bishop's chair. "Oh," some of the beloved brothers in the ministry have said, "what are we in comparison to such preaching?" "Yes, you also know what he did before be started?" "No, he would have prayed very hard." "No, that isn't it! Of course he would have done that. Others have also done that in true faith for him. But this wasn't it either. Hey, didn't you see when he called Brother Holzwarth to himself and said something in his ear?" "My wife sits right there behind an unreasonably large hat, he whispered to him. "Put her on a chair in the aisle so I can see her and she can see me. I can preach better when I can look into my wife's face." So it seems that she helps him preach without anyone recognizing it.
Wouldn't this encourage some of our preachers in the New York Conference to try this experiment so that a look from the loving wife would make them take their hands out of their pants pockets. Or if he has something which is not appropriate to the pulpit |
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then a certain look from her might warn him off. Or if he continues a story with an illustration which says nothing and he does it with a raised voice right up til the end and the main point which is supposed to be enlightening remains unilluminating, then his loving wife could give him a sign in order to get him on the right track.
35.[sic] "Do Not Quarrel along the Way" _____ It is truly a blessing when a community or a Sunday school or a family lives as though bound in love and peace as a group. The force of evil has been busy since the beginning of the world establishing unrest and it has gone to a lot of trouble since then, creating discord and mischief between the children of God. It has succeeded in raising envy in the heart of Kain against his brother Abel and whenever evil feelings are at hand in many cases one is not willing to forgive as our loving master warned us, that one should forgive the other. I would like to discuss here with God's help something about this subject in the hopes that my remarks may be a blessing for all. |
Text provided by Lockwood Library, State University of New York at Buffalo, BX8080.B65
Susan Kriegbaum-Hanks
