The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1880, Page 28

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28

The Lutheran Pioneer.

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The Outlook from the Editor’s Window.

As we open our window to chat with our
readers, we find that we have not much news

to tell them. So we shall take a look into dis-
tant lands, and we will tell our readers what
we lately read about some of those countries.
Let us first look at Arrica. Africa, you know,
is often called ‘‘The Dark Continent.’’ And
a dark country it is; for though missionaries
are laboring for the spread of Gospel-light in

some parts of the country, still the darkness of
superstition and idolatry reigns in the largest

part of Africa. How awful is the scene de-
scribed by Cameron, one of the African travel-
lers, as taking place at the funeral of a chief!

Cameron says: ‘The first proceeding is to di-

vert the course of a stream, and in its bed to
dig an enormous pit, the bottom of which is
then covered with living women! At one end a
women is placed on her hands and knees, and
upon her back the dead chief, covered with his
beads and other treasures, is seated, being sup-
ported on either side by one of his wifes, while
his second wife sits at his feet. The earth is
then shovelled in on them, and all the women
are buried alive, with the exception of the
second wife. She is killed before the huge
grave is filled in. This being completed, a
number of male slaves, sometimes forty or fifty,
are slaughtered, und their blood poured over
the grave, after which the river is allowed to
resume its course.’’? May the light of the Gos-
pel soon spread in that country

“Where Afric’s sunny fountains

Roll down their golden sand.’’”

Cura is another dark country. Moung
Edwin, who has been educated in this country
as a missionary for China, lectured lately in
Baltimore. Speaking of the deplorable con-
dition of women in China, he said: ‘Girls in
China are believed to have no souls, and to kill
them is not murder, and, therefore, not to be
punished. Where parents are too poor to sup-
port the girl children, they are disposed of in
the following way: At regular intervals an
appointed officer goes through a village and
collects from poor parents all the girl children
they cannot care for, when theyare about eight
days old. He has two Jarge baskets attached to
the end of 2 bamboo pole, and slung over his
shoulder. Six infants are placed in each basket,
and he carries them to some neighboring village
and exposes them for sale. Mothers who desire
to raise wives for their sons buy such as they
mayselect. The others are taken to the govern-
ment asylums, of which there are many all
through the country. If there is room enough,
they are taken in; if not, they are drowned.”

pax is another dark country. It is not
exactly a pagan country, but the darkness of
Romish superstition and idolatry reigns there.
The Protestant ministers, who labor there for
_ the spread of the Gospel, are persecuted by the
_ pope's people; for the priests hate the light of
the Gospel, loving the darkness of superstition,

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because their works are dark. The Rev. Flied-
ner lately said to a member of the Romish
church that he thought many of the priests
would become Protestants if the Protestant
church could give them as high a salary as they
have in the Romish church. But the Romish
member told him that those priests love the
Romish church because they could there best
carry on their scandalous doings and lead im-
moral lives.

WE could now close our window, but here
are some friends who wish us to ‘‘ throw light
on some dark subjects.’’ Here is a young friend
who writes that he likes the ProNEER very well
and would be glad if the Pronger would bring
an article on dances and worldly parties.’’ We
thank our friend for his compliments and shall
comply with his wish as soon as we find time.
Perhaps one of our friends in the ministry will
write an article for our paper on that subject.
We would be very thankful for it.

Awp here is a very young reader who wishes
the Pioneer to tell him ‘‘something about our
Presidents.’? Our young reader must ask his
father or teacher ‘‘about Presidents.’’ Our
little PronErR is so young yet, you know, he
does not bother himself about Presidents. He
perhaps knows very little about them, and
would not know what to do if he should become
President. He might be like the bright little
colored boy we once saw down in Old Virginia
sitting on a fence and singing as merrily as a
bird in the forest:

‘‘Tf I’d be de President ob dese United States,

I’d eat molasses candy and ride upon de gates.”’

It is getting dark, and we close our window.

The Solitary Witness.

Some years ago a missionary went to a
heathen village in India, but no one there
would attend to his words. When he went
away, he left one New Testament behind him
in the shop of a native. It was but a single
seed cast into a bad soil, and he feared that it
would perish there; that the precious volume
would be thrown aside, or else that its sacred
leaves might be used to wrap up tobacco, rice
or salt. But no! The eye of God was upon
that book. Like Lot in Sodom, like the Cap-
tive Maid in the house of Naaman, that New
Testament was a solitary witness for Johovah
in the midst of idols and idolaters; and it be-
came a light to them that sat in darkness.
Some of them it led into the way of peace.
Soon after it was left, three or four heathen
came to that shop. They saw the strange book.
They asked that they might read it. They
took it home. As they heard what it told
them about God and man, sin and salvation,
hell and heaven, they wondered, they trembled,
they believed. A church was formed in that
village, and two of those who borrowed that
Testament became
Jesus Christ.

preachers of the Gospel of

The Story of the Pigs.

Two friends once entered Surrey Chapel pre-
vious to going to India. One was a Christian,
the other not. The Rey. Rowland Hill preached
from the text, ‘“‘We are not ignorant of his de-
vices;”? and immediately told the following
story:—‘‘ Many years since I met a drove of
pigs in one of the narrow streets of a large
town, and, to my surprise, they were not driven,
but quietly followed their leader. This singular
fact excited my curiosity, and I pursued the
swine, until they all quietly entered the butch-
ery. I then asked the man how he succeeded
in getting the poor, stupid, stubborn pigs so
willingly to follow him, when he told me the
secret. He had a basket of beans under his
arm, and kept dropping them as he proceeded,
and so secured his object. Ah! my dear hear-
ers, the devil has got his basket of beans, and
he knows how to suit his temptations to every
sinner. He drops them by the way, the poor
sinner is thus led captive by the devil at his
will; and if grace prevent not, he will get him
at last into his butchery, and there he wil] keep
him for ever. Oh, it is because ‘we are not
ignorant of his devices’ that we are anxious
this evening to guard you against them.’’

As the Christian friend listened to this tale
about the pigs, he feared it would excite a
smile, but not produce conviction in the mind
of his unbelieving companion. After the service
they left the chapel, and all was silence for a
time. -

‘What a singular statement we had to-night
about the pigs, and yet how striking and con-
vincing it was,’ remarked the young infidel.
His mind was impressed—he could not forget
the basket of beans, the butchery, and the
final loss of the sinner’s soul. He left his coun-
try, but soon after corresponded with his friend,
and referred to this sermon as having produced
a deep impression upon his mind, and as hav-
ing driven him to Christ for salvation.

2+ oa o>

Very often we hear parents say: Let the
children have their own way in matters of re-
ligion, let them choose for themselves, when
they are old enough. <A farmer is shrewd
enough to know that, if he lets his field have
its own way, it will bear weeds, briars and
thistles. So with children. You will laugh at
aman and call him a fool, who would say in
the fall of the year: I am not going to plow or
sow, my fields may have their own way of it,
but still I expect to reap when harvest comes.
Likewise it must be when you let the hearts of
your children uncultivated; they will grow up,
bearing bitter fruits of infidelity and vice.
a

TERMS:

Tre Lurneran Pioneer is published monthly,
payable in advance at the following rates, postage
included, to-wit:

5 o we + 1.00
12 m+}
25 4

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