# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1922_S60 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Lutheran Pioneer. : 59 eee OOOO EEE day, June 18, when all the members of Conference, together with the members of the various congrega- tions of the city, met at a large hall to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Synodical Conference. The spirit of the occasion was mani- fested in the sermons and singing. With all due respect; to those who delivered sermons and ad- dresses, — and they were excellent sermons and ad- dresses, too, — the singing was easily the feature of the day, and especially the singing of the children in the morning service. Brother, you should have heard those children sing! A chorus of three hun- of the prison” (spiritual), and to save just such as they are. So well did the children sing that one of the brethren remarked that even if the singing in heaven was no better, he would be perfectly satis- fied. And if you, dear reader, haye been fortunate enough to have heard a band of untrained Negroes sing, and especially Negro children, you’ will appre- ciate the force of that remark when it is applied to a chorus of trained Negro singers. On Sunday night, after the sermon and address, the conference was brought to a close, and a fitting close it was with the choir singing “With Us Abide.” First Joint Conference of All Workers in Our Negro Missions. dred and fifty of them sang from a balcony “Lead Us, Savior, Lead Us.” The strains of that song floated out through the open windows and penetrated the walls of the Parish Prison, located just across . the street from the place of meeting. From the balcony, where the children sang, *one could look down into the prison-court and see the unfortunates at play. The song of those children found an an- swering echo in the hearts of some of those men behind the bars; for at the end of the song, a quartet of prisoners gathered behind the iron-barred windows and answered with blind Fanny Crosby’s immortal paean “Saved by Grace.” God grant that they be “saved by grace”; for the Savior, to and of whom the children sang, came to “open the doors After one of the brethren had spoken a few well- chosen words of thanks to the good people of New Orleans for the wonderful way in which they had entertained the out-of-town guests, the entire con- gregation joined in singing “God Be with You.” On Monday morning the brethren struck their tents and with a heart full of gratitude to-God and the good people of New Orleans turned towards their yarious fields of labor to build higher the walls of Zion and to work diligently while it is yet day, for “the night cometh when no man can work.” All were glad to shake hands and chat with the one who every month, as the chairman expressed it, sends out a batch of love-letters to-the workers on the field. We refer to the Treasurer-of the Mission