Sophie's Sermon.

Called to scrub and preach.
By H. B. GIBBUD 
This unique sermon, to be published in two installments, was sent to the Editor by Dr. George W. Arms, pastor emeritus of the Bedford-Central Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. He knew Sophie Lichtenfels, who was born in 1844 and died November 2, 1919. “During the day,” said Dr. Arms, “she worked as a scrub and washer woman and frequented the missions at night, always radiant for her Lord.” She was a well-known figure in New York City and when her funeral was held at the Gospel Alliance Tabernacle, where she had her membership, it taxed the capacity of the building. 
The sermon was originally printed as a tract by Loizeaux Brothers, New York, and later issued by Dr. Arms for his church. Its quaint style gives a freshness to lessons in faith that we all need. 
I.
"PLEASE, sah, dar as a quah-looking pusson, at the doah who wants to see you. She says her name is Sophie, and dat she am a preacher. If you will allow me, sah, I think she am a Dutch loonatic, she looks so quah.” 
In the hall I found the “quah pusson.” She well bore out the description. Tall, thin, high cheekbones, and small, queer eyes. On her head was a bonnet much too large, profusely trimmed with bright red flowers. She wore one of those waterfalls of by-gone days, and over her shoulders was a black silk mantle, which once had been a grand affair. In her hand, she held an old-fashioned green parasol. She looked as though she had just stepped out of a comic valentine. 
As I advanced, she smiled, and all her face joined in as she said, with strong German accent, “Oh, brutter, at last I haf got here. I hear you tell of your night mishener [missionary] work, und I say, ‘Father, let me go see this brutter.’ 
“Today He said, ‘Sophie, you make fifty cents yesterday; now you go down und gif that for the work, und preach to the brutter.’ ‘But, Father, I haf no sermon.’ Father said, ‘You walk down, und gif them the car fare, und I gif you the sermon on the way.’ So here I was, und here is the money.” 
I hardly knew what to think of her. She had walked three miles, and given all one day’s work to the cause. I felt if she preached as well as she practiced, I should like to hear her, so invited her in. 
“No Preach, No Work” 
“Yes,” she continued, with that ever-present smile on her face; though now as I noticed it, it seemed to come from great inward peace, and give to her otherwise unattractive face a look of holy joy that fixed and held one’s attention: “Yes,” she said, “I vas called to scrub und preach. I vas a borned preacher, und as I vas poor, I learned to work. I do good work, und can be trusted, so the people wants me; but if they haf me, they must haf the preach also. No preach, no work; so I scrub as unto the Lord, und preach to all in the house. Where do I belong? I belong to Jesus, und I trusts God for all. When I am out of work I tell Father. He is the best employment office; you don’t haf to pay, nor wait: He sends it right away. 
“How many in the family? Four—Father, Son, the Holy Ghost, und me. I had three hundred dollars saved up, und a rascal found it out and gets me to marry him. I vas foolish und do it. In three weeks he got that three hundred and run away. Well, I got rid of him cheap at that. 
“I break the command, ‘Be ye not unequally yoked together.’ Christ says, ‘Take my yoke’; but you can’t let the Devil put his head through one side; they don’t pull together. The Devil got me on the train to hell, sure that time, und he laf, but I get me off at the first station. 
“I nefer went to school, but when I vas married, I call that my private school. three hundred dollars. 
“When my husband vas going away he said, ‘What will you do when I vas gone?” 
“Oh, go on,’ said I. ‘I got along before I saw you. I will trust—but not on the grocery.’ 
“I haf nefer seen him since; maybe God will save him; I did my duty and preached to him. I don’t want to see him unless he is borned over again; but now I can preach to other womans whose husbands run away; und can help them. I learned that much. 
“I thought I would gif up scrubbing und canvass for a book. I couldn't make out. The boss said, ‘If you can’t do better than that, you had better jump off the dock.’  ‘No,’ said I, ‘not that way; I hang myself—on Christ.’ 
“Cemetery Christians” 
“Well, I then went into a minister’s family. I vas tried there, sure. Why, brutter, they talk about reforming the drunkard. I think the best thing they could do vas to reform the Christians. There vas so many blue-mouldy Christians; cemetery Christians, I call them. They sits weeping and wailing on a tombstone; they nefer gets out into the resurrection life of Christ. We worships not a dead, but a risen Saviour; ‘ I went three weeks; cost me: and yet so many stop at the cross, satisfied with their sins pardoned, when they should press on to companionship with the risen Lord. 
“Well, the minister vas like that. Father used me to lead him out into the light. One day he said, ‘Sophie, how can I get the power in my sermons you get in your prayer-meeting inspirances?’  ‘Oh, that’s easy; you practice your sermon a week before you preach it. I mean you live what you preach for a week; then fire low, und you hit someone sure. Your sermons stick by the wall, you fire so high.’ 
“ ‘Sophie,’ said he, ‘you are always so full, while I am starved.’  ‘That’s your own fault; go to the table; that’s full; help yourself.’ 
“'Oh, Sophie,’ he says, ‘I wish I had your patience und humility; but my nerves are so unstrung I haf no patience.’  ‘Well,’ I said, ‘you can’t borrow from me; I haf none to spare; nor you can’t buy it in the apothecary’s shop; but you read your Testament right, you get it.’ 
Growl or Glory? 
“What you mean? I do read it right. I read it in Greek und English.’  ‘But, brutter, you don’t read it right. Brutter Paul says, Glory in tribulations. Now G-L-O-R-Y don’t spell growl; glory not growl; yet when trial comes, you growl like a dog over a bone. If you want patience, glory in tribulation; und Paul says that ‘tribulation worketh patience’; that’s the way to get it; ‘und patience, experience; und experience, hope; und hope maketh not ashamed.’ See how you go up those steps into a better insperience when you take the first step und glory instead of growl. Und about humility, Peter says, ‘Be clothed with humility.” You don’t need to go to any of the clothing stores. They don’t keep it; but instead of looking unviously at me, go ask Father for a suit of humility for yourself. He will clothe you. He is no suspecter of persons.” 
“Well," said he, "talking about clothing, Sophie. I dress plain, while you dress very gay, for a scrubwoman; how can you afford it?” 
"Oh, my clothes cost me nothing. I scrub for womans und she gif me some of her clothes. Why shouldn’t I look fine? I am the child of the King, and God is no ragpicker. He promises durable clothing. When I wants anything, I say, ‘Father, I wants so und so,’ und if it vas good for me, I always get it. Sometimes Father says, ‘That is no good for you, Sophie.’ It don’t do to gif children all they cry for.” 
II. 
Why she had no breakfast and lunch one day. 
"We ask for so many foolish things. If we get them we don’t know what to do with them. 
“I heard about a countryman who was in the city for the first time. He went into a restaurant, und made up his mind he would haf something fine, no matter what it cost. He saw a man at the next table put a little mustard on his plate, and he said that must be fine und expensive, he has so little, but no matter what it costs I will haf some. So he told the waiter to bring him a dollar’s worth of that stuff. And a big plateful was brought. He took a big spoonful; it bit him; he spit it out und did not want any more. 
“So we ask for things that if Father should gif them to us, we would only be bitten by them, und would be glad to get rid of them. We pray so foolish; why for twelve years I prayed: ‘Oh, Father, make me a foreign mishener. I want to go to foreign lands and preach.’ 
“One day I pray that; und Father say, Sophie, stop. Where were you borned?’  ‘Germany, Father. ‘Where are you now?’  ‘In America.’ ‘Well, ain’t you a foreign mishener already?’ When I see that, Father says to me, ‘Who lives on the floor above you?’  ‘A family of Swedes.’  ‘Und on the floor above them?’  ‘Why, some Switzers.’  ‘Und in the rear house are Italians, und in a block away some Chinese. Now you never said a word to these people about My Son. Do you think I will send you a thousand miles away to the foreigner und heathen, when you got them all around, und you nefer care enough about them to speak with them about their soul?’ 
“Well, I went to work at once; und I find if we do what is at owr hand, He will gif us more. I had some money saved up; und I learnt if I give a few dollars, I could send a boy to school in Japan. I do it, and now he is mishener among his own people. 
“As Though I Vas Triplets” 
“One day I hear about the colored people down South. ‘Well,’ Father said, ‘Sophie, you can give to that sure’; but I vas stingy-like, und hold on to half-dollar until the eagle scream most. I felt bad, und Father seemed to say, ‘All you haf I gif you, und you wan't gif a little back.’ I feel worser, until I go to the minister und gif himi enough to send a woman to teach. Und now I haf a woman teaching for me down South. So I vas in Japan, down South, und here in New York; preaching in three places, like as though I vas triplets. I tell you, brutter, it vas a precious thing to work for Jesus.” 
I felt just then very small indeed; and as I looked at her, I lost sight of her odd appearance, and saw her only as the King’s daughter. Here was this woman working, witnessing for Christ, earning only a trifle, yet denying herself, educating a missionary, and sending a teacher to the South. What a rebuke to many of us! 
“I Live Plain” 
“How do you live, and yet have so much to give away?” I asked. 
“Oh, I live plain; my clothes cost me nothing much. I haf a cup of coffee und roll for my breakfast, und get my other meals where I work. I only haf one small room; that is all I want here, but, praise God, I haf a mansion in Heaven. My Elder Brutter, He vas making it ready for me, und He is coming again to take me there, He promised; und if I die before He come, that will only be moving from the tenement into the mansion; und there will be no rent to pay, und no mortgage on it either. What I needs here, Father sends. I can trust Him. Is not two sparrows sold for a farthing? That bird, he nefer goes to church; und yet the Book says he nefer falls to the ground without Father knows it; und I vas worth more, cause I vas His child. We forgets how He minds us; but He nefer forgets.us. Only the other day I vas learned a lesson on that thing.  
“In the mornink I always get down the Bible. I call it my love letter from Father. Sometimes He scolds a little in the letter; but it vas for ‘reproof and correction’; und we need that sometimes. Well this mornink, I open to the prayer, ‘Our Father which vas in Heaven,’ und I says, ‘Oh, Father! I know that by heart; gif me something fresh.’ So I read something else. That mornink I haf no money to get the coffee und roll; but I did not worry. I thought I gets my breakfast where I was to work; but they vas all through when I got there. ‘Well,’ I say, ‘nefer mind, I wait till dinner’ Before dinner the woman goes out und forgets all about me; so no dinner. I got through early, und I vas so hungry, I go home ready to cry, und I say, ‘Father, how is this; You say You nefer leave me; but I work all day without anything to eat?’ Und I began to complain. ‘Look here, Sophie,’ said Father, almost speaking to my soul plain. ‘Look here; this mornink you read in My Book, und when you comes to the prayer where it says, “Gif me this day my daily bread,” you don’t read it; you say, “Gif me something fresh.” Is that stale? Because every day these things come, you forget to be thankful.’ At once I see where I sin, und gets down und say, ‘Father, forgive me, gif me this day my daily bread, for Thy child is hungry.’ 
“When I got off my knees, there came a knock, und my landlady vas there with a cup of coffee und some biscuits. She said, ‘I thought you were tired, und might not like to get supper; so I brought these in.’ Then I thank Father, und begin to shout. 
“I tell you, brutter, we so quick forgetting those everyday blessings what comes right along. So many peoples nefer are polite enough to say, Thank you, to God for the hundreds of every-day gifts. The landiady’s husband heard me shouting, and came up. He is an infidel; but he vas touched when I told him the answer to my prayer. 
First Get Acquainted With the Son. 
“The woman was a Catholic, und she says, ‘Sophie, you always praise Jesus, und talk about Jesus. Why you nefer talk about the blessed Virgin? I pray to her, und expect to see her in Heaven.’ Well, I told her if she ever expected to see the mother of Jesus, she must first get acquainted with the Son, or she would nefer get into Heaven. 
“'Well,' she said, ‘don’t Peter hold the keys?’ I told her I did not care who held the keys; that Jesus said, ‘I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.’ Und as I had the open door, I did not care who had the keys. 
“It is precious to have Jesus only, and to live for Him. But now I must go, brutter. I will come again if my Father will let me.” 
I saw her to the door, bade her good-by, returned to my room, and thanked God for the sermon to which I had listened. I had been sitting in heavenly places in Jesus Christ. There was about the plain scrubwoman an atmosphere of Heaven that seemed to lift me into closer relationship to God, my Father. The lessons I learned of trust and fellowship with Christ, from her talk, have been helps toward the Golden City and the King; and I look forward with pleasure to the time when I shall have another opportunity to listen to one of Sophie’s sermons. 
“Sophie’s Sermon,” 10 cents each; $7 per hundréd; “Sophie’s Second Sermon,” 7 cents each; $5 per hundred (Loizeaux Bros., Inc., 19 W. 21st St., New York 10).
"The Sunday School Times" Oct. 18, 25, 1958