# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1897_S42
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

LF FEIT

42 The Lutheran Pioneer.

The Ark of the Covenant.

Our picture represents the Ark of the Cove-
nant together with the Mercy Seat. The Ark
of the Covenant was an oblong chest of acacia
wood, gilded. It was made by Moses accord-
ing to the directions given to him by God, as
you will find in Exod. 25.

The contents of the Ark were the two tables
of the law, the pot of manna, and Aaron’s rod
that budded.

On the lid of the Ark was the Mercy Seat,
overshadowed by the wings of the two cheru-
bim. This was the place where God revealed
Himself, made His presence felt among the
people of Israel; consequently the Holy of
holies, in which was the Ark with the Mercy
Seat, was the dwell-
ing of God. The
Ark was covered and

kept behind cur-
tains, firstin the tab- °
ernacle and after-
wards in the temple
of Solomon. The
high priest alone saw
it, and could see it
only when it was sur-
rounded by clouds
of incense.
* The Mercy Seat,
where God revealed
Himself to Israel,
was anjemblem of
Christ, in whom God
has revealed Himself
to man, and ‘‘whom
God hath set forth
to be a propitiation
through faith in His
blood, to declare His
righteousness forthe
remission of sins,’’
Rom. 3,25. In Christ
we find the grace and mercy of God, and every
sinner can boldly come to this Mercy Seat.
Therefore the apostle says, ‘‘Let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we
may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in
time of need,’’ Hebr. 4, 16.

——> + ome =

Tramps in Africa.

‘A missionary in Liberia, Africa, writes:

In our journey we passed a bit of a deserted
hut, scarcely more than five feet high and six
feet square, with only one opening, though
whether door or window we could not tell.
How a man could live in it we could not
understand; but when we recall that these
people live a strictly ‘outdoor life,”” it does
not surprise one to find such huts of boughs,

branches, leaves and thatch. From our stand-
point, ‘however, it has one redeeming feature:

when built among trees or vines or bushes, it
looks quite romantic. ‘The natives, when not

living closely together in villages, build their
homes back from the roads or pathways, so
that they are not easily discovered, and are
thus afforded considerable protection from
marauding bands, tramps, etc.

Have we ‘‘tramps’’ in Africa? Oh, yes,
plenty of them. Should one member of a
tribe become a little more successful in any
undertaking, the others harass him with taunts
and accusations of becoming proud ‘‘like white
man.’’ Not far from here lives a poor widow,
with several children. Her little rice crop
ripened before those of her neighbors, and in
a short time they came, smiling and saying,
“How do, heah! How do, heah; goin’ to
help you pick rice, heah! Gwine to help

you, just now, heah?’’? The poor woman did

Do Missions Pay?

This question, says an exchange, needs to
be answered from time to time with cold facts
and figures, which are accessible in large
abundance, in order to quiet the fears of the
doubtful and silence the sneers of scoffers
who belittle the work of missions and have
no understanding for any but a mathematical
demonstration.

One of the missionary journals of England
reports that, among the recent contributions
to the London Mansion House Fund for fam-
ine relief in India, is one of over $4000 from
the Fiji Islands. In this connection it is well
to call attention to the fact that, when Queen
Victoria ascended the throne, sixty years ago,
the Fiji Islands were
inhabited by pagan
cannibals, to whom
not a single ray of
light from the Chris-
tian world had come.
These people were
peculiarly ferocious.
The missionary soci-
ety, which in 1838

planned to com-
mence work within
the group, declared
in its report of that

The Ark and the Mercy Seat.

‘theah’’ with dismay, for it meant that they
would eat and carry off about seven-eighths
of what they would pick; so she delayed the
gathering of the rice, and stole out at nights
to pick some for her small family, fearing that
there would be none left if her friendly (?)
neighbors once got into her field. Oh, yes,
we have tramps here.

The missionaries say there is little use plant-
ing any fruit about the grounds; for all such
are regarded as public property, and whoever
came along would “help himself.’”” Mr. Hub-
ler planted a big field of pineapples— but not
a pineapple did he get. The pawpaw trees,
the banana, orange and other trees, are rifled
of their fruit long before it is ripe. It is not
much better with the vegetables, cossado,
eddo and sweet potatoes; they all disappear
with singular regularity; but as there are al-
ways plenty of them, noonecares. The thing
we do object to having stolen, though, is coffee,
either from off the trees or out of the driers,
for that is the ‘‘money”’ in this country.

year that the mis-
sionary must prose-
cute his work ‘‘be-
fore the sailor and
the merchant will
dare to frequent
those now inhospi-
table shores.’’ And
now we have another
illustration of what
the missionary with
the Word of the cross
has accomplished.
The ferocious natives of these islands have
been christianized. Out of a population of
125,000 about 100,000 are reported in the gov-
ernment statistics as Christians. ‘The whole
face of society has changed. In place of
brutal orgies there is an orderly and thriving
community, and now the grand-children of
the cannibals, among whom it was not safe
to dwell, and whom the first missionaries ap-
proached in the Lord’s name in the face of
the peril of being slain and eaten by those to
whom they were bringing the light and power
of a new life, haye sent a contribution of over
$4000 to feed the poor of India. These Fijian
Christians have the missionary spirit, and they
not only answer the question, ‘‘Do missions
pay?’’ but, in their liberality, they put to
shame the niggardliness of many in older
Christian communities that have enjoyed the
light of the Gospel for many generations.
——s- +e - —o

Ler not thy tongue say what thy heart
denies. : ;