# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1906_S6 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 6 The Lutheran Pioneer. / “Only a Few Days More.’’ A merchant was hurrying one stormy New Year’s morning through a strange city, thinking of his heavy losses in the past year, when his atten- tion was arrested by a hoarse voice: “Matches! fine matches! two boxes for a fip!” He turned and saw on the street corner, before a little stand, an old colored man bracing himself against the wind. His hair was as white as the snow falling at his feet, but he had a good, pleasant face, and the stranger stopped to buy matches. While passing over the change, he kindly asked the old man whether the cold did not prove too much for him. He replied that he was quite used to it, having made his living for many years by selling matches. He grew quite talkative and spoke of his humble cabin in which . _ he had lived seventeen years, always content. with - the little he had. The gentleman, who for many years had found his own comfort in the Gospel of Christ, could not pass on without expressing a hope that the poor old man had something beyond this world to cheer him. At this the old man’s face lighted up, and he said that he had — that his trust was in Jesus, the Savior of sinners, and that through God’s Word he was sure of everlasting rest and happiness as soon as his little toil here was ended. He smiled as he added, in the same husky tone, “Only a few days more, sir, only a few days more!” As the merchant went on his way, a change passed over him. His cares were gone. As a Chris- tian he had wished to teach the poor old colored man, but he had taken away more than he gave. He had learned the lesson of contentment and of sure hope, and this filled his heart with joy when far away. He could see with a brighter eye the peace and joy awaiting him in the eternal home, and when sorrows came, he would think of that poor old colored man and would say to himself, “Only a few days more, only a few days more!” Father Mitchell’s Opinion. Under the leadership of Prof. Booker T. Wash- ington a conference of colored men is held annually at Tuskegee, Ala., the home of Mr. Washington’s great Industrial College. At one of these con- ferences an address was delivered by “Father” Mit- chell, a gray-haired colored farmer, in the course of which he gave utterance to the following inter- esting remarks, as reported in The Colored Ameri- can: — “T tank God I is livin’ yet.... I is a hard- workin’ man. I’se got sons and daughters. . . . De nigger race can make de best people in de world. Jest allow me to call you niggers, case you’se all black. We can get land if any people can. We knows how to work and make a happy home and a good school. I has learned more in de last five years ‘since dese conferences started, dan I ever knowed before in all my sixty years... . “De people don’t count as much on religion as dey ought. Religion is a mighty nice thing if you use it right. It takes a pious man to live religion. De longer de world stands de wiser it grows. Some of our people is gettin’ too wise. Many likes to dance too much. De jail-house is full and we is runnin’? excursions. We hollers and shouts too much, and jumps like we was crazy. Our churches is plumbfull of hypocrites. If a.man preaches de pure Gospel, dey don’t want to hear it.... Dey tinks more of a bad parson dan dey does ob a good one. You let a man preach de true Gospel an’ he won’t git many nickels in his pocket; but if he hollers und jumps he gits all de nickels he can hold, and chickens besides. . . . “Now, Mr. President, I fotch you a hog yester- day to help feed dis conference. I hoped to see eight or nine in de pen, but mine is de only one.” There is homespun truth in “Father Mitchell’s” remarks. What he says about the world getting wiser, must, of course, be spelled to read: Some few people in the world are getting wiser, while the great majority is growing more foolish, the longer the world stands. But this aged colored father de- serves to be heeded by his race. There ought to be a million “Father Mitchells” among the colored people of the South, for if there were, many things would be better than they are. : K. K. A Christian Farmer. I know of a Christian farmer that wanted to sell a cow, but could not agree with the purchaser on the price. The latter considered it too high and swore that he could not pay so much. “If you can- not give it, well and good,” said the farmer, “but you should not take God’s name in vain on that account!” The purchaser laughed, resumed his haggling, but finally agreed to pay the price that the owner had asked. “No,” said the latter now, “you cannot have my cow; I do not want to be the cause of your swearing falsely.” And to this he adhered.—Hachange.