# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1916_S86
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

86 Proceedings of the twenty-sixth convention

thank the good people in the North enough for taking such care of us and sending us preachers and teachers who preach us the truth and point out the way to heaven.'"

Our Negro Christians show their faith also otherwise by their works. They practice Christian charity toward their needy fellow believers. Some congregations have a special fund for the sick and the destitute. Because of their dependability our colored Lutherans are also in demand as workers and servants. A real-estate dealer in Concord, who has much business dealing with blacks, said in May to the undersigned: [Printed in English.] "If all the Negroes were like the Lutheran Negroes, they would be all right." A Lutheran pastor in the South, who does not belong to our Synodical Conference [*Synodalkonferenz*], wrote some time ago in the Lutheran Church Visitor: "Many of our people will tell you that the Lutheran Negroes, taking them all 'round, are the best we have."

We do not at all wish to give the impression that our Negro congregations are a paradise. No; the devil also frequently throws his filth into them and gives our missionaries cause for complaint. But our dear Negro Christians do not leave this filth lying in indifference. They practice brotherly rebuke and church discipline. This is one reason why so many Negroes do not want to join our congregations; they find them too strict with regard to doctrine and life.

The Negro is by nature frivolous. We are therefore often asked: "How do matters stand, are our Lutheran Negroes also steadfast and faithful?" Answer: In this respect it stands similarly as in our white congregations. How many of those who at the altar vow fidelity to God and their church unto death let themselves be led away from the known truth by false doctrine, fleshly lust or the deceit of the world! How should it be otherwise in our Negro congregations? And yet we can and must confess, to the glory of God, that we have faithful, steadfast Negro Christians. "By God's grace I am a Lutheran, and by his grace I want to die as such" — this confession we were able to hear again and again, to our joy and encouragement, at the visitation mentioned, publicly and privately. A splendid example of faithfulness we have in the little flock at Little Rock. This is our first and oldest congregation. It was founded on July 3, 1878, by our present Director F. Berg with four members. In October 1895 the missionary of that time gave up his work, and the commission resolved to give up the mission work in Little Rock. A year later the chapel was sold. The pastors of the large German-English congregation served the abandoned little flock in a makeshift way with Word and Sacrament. What has become of the little flock in these 21 years? The sects surrounding them have called out to them: "Come to us; the Lutherans do not give you any