The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1885, Page 6

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6 The Lutheran Pioneer.

The colored people need not only the spelling
book, but the Bible along with the spelling
book. They need the Gospel. It is this which
will save them. This cannot be given them in
the public schools. The State does not and can-
notaim to make people religious. To the Church
Christ gave the command, ‘‘Preach the Gospel.’’
The Church alone can give the colored people
what they need—a thorough religious education.
The work of our Lutheran missionaries among
the colored people in church and in the day-
school may be thought light of by many, but
it amounts to far more than all the costly
efforts recently made on a large ‘scale in the
direction of a secular education. In our schools
the colored pupils not only learn what they
need for this life, but also what they need for
the life to come. May God bless the work of
our self-denying missionaries! And may our
Lutheran people be awakened to a greater
interest in this most important work; for the
duty of sending the colored people the Gospel
—the Bible along with the spelling book—is
one that no Christian should disregard.

wished for. There are exceptions of course.
In the Sunday School which numbers 200
scholars Miss Mary Joseph and Mr. Berkhalter
are assisting. Mr. Berkhalter takes an active
part in our mission work.

On Christmas eve young and old flocked to
their respective houses of worship. After ap-
propriate services, the Christmas-trees were
lighted and presents distributed to the chil-
dren. Mrs. Benfore, a member of the St. Paul’s
congregation, presented the church with a neat
contribution plate, for which we hereby return
our grateful acknowledgment.—During sum-
mer vacation the Mt. Zion Church received
some needed repairs. The ceiling being in a
dangerous condition it was taken down and re-
plastered and the walls whitewashed. Congre-
gation and Sunday School have presented the
Church with beautiful chandeliers, which will
do away with the smoking reflector, reduce
the gas bills, and be an ornament to the church.
Rey. Prof. A. Crull of Fort Wayne, who was
here on a short visit, preached for us last Sun-
day, but owing to disagreeable, bad weather
the colored people did not turn out as they
otherwise would have done.—At the last meet-
ing of the Synodical Conference, the Honor-
able Board of Mission was empowered to in-
crease the missionary force in New Orleans as
soon as sufficient means were on hand. It is
to be hoped that the friénds of our mission
will at an early date send in their contributions
and thus enable the Board to send us the much
needed help. May the Lord, who has begun
the work and hitherto richly blessed it, con-
tinue to respond to our prayers, and in our
churches and schools add blessings to the
works of our hands.

New Orleans, La., January 14th, 1885.
MIssIonaRry.

Letter from New Orleans.

DeEaR PIONEER: —

As it might be of some interest to the readers
of the PronEER to learn what has been done in
the field of our Colored Mission during the past
year, we will here give a condensed statement.
With the year that once was future and once
was ours we started out with many good reso-
lutions and many bright hopes. But as we
now reflect a little on the past, we find, like
many others, perhaps, that we have not been
able to carry out all our resolutions, and
all our hopes have not been realized. We
did not indulge in any silly reveries, nor did
we build castles in the air, but we cherished
the hope that we would be instrumental in
bringing a larger number of redeemed souls in-
to the fold of the church than the year previous.
‘But. my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, saith the
Lord.” So far from being disappointed be-
cause our plans and hopes have not been real-
ized, we are content with and thankful for
whatever little God has been pleased to ac-
complish through his servants.

Our sanctuaries have not always been
thronged with hearers hungry for the bread
of life. “We have, indeed, had many a large
assembly, that has listened devoutly and attent-
ively to the preaching of the Gospel, but the
average attendance has not exceeded sixty.
The Lord’s Supper, celebrated once every six
weeks, has been administered to 116 commu-
nicants. To the number of members 20 have
been added and 24 have been received into the
church through Holy Baptism. The majority
of these were catechumens. The colored
people, as a general thing, do not baptize
children in their infancy; with some it is utter
negligence, with others principle, but whether
it be the one or the other the Savior’s com-
mand as well as the Savior's promise are dis-
regarded. We have thought it our sacred
duty to admonish all parents who send un-
baptized children to our schools to bring them
to Jesus Christ in Holy Baptism. In this as

in many other things it takes time before the
people can be convinced and persuaded to obey
the will of the Lord. But our endeavors have
not been entirely without success. Eight are
now being instructed preparatory to Baptism
and fifteen are preparing for Confirmation. To
Church, mission and other purposes our con-
gregations and schools have this year contrib-
uted about $200.00, not a very small sum
considering the number of contributors and
their straightened circumstances.—190; mostly
regular scholars, have crowded our school-
rooms. Numerous applications have been and
are still being made. for admission, but the
teachers have more already than they in justice
to themselves can attend to. The deportment
of the children is not so much complained of as
before, and the diligence with which they pur-
sue their studies is every thing that could be

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Persecution in Madeira.

A Portuguese servant girl has been living
for some time in an English family, and has
been taught Scripture texts, and many hymns,
which were translated into Portuguese by Dr.
Kalley; latterly she has expressed great dis-
like for the mass and ‘other ceremonies of the
Church of Rome, refusing to attend them, and
showing real conversion of heart to God’s truth
as it is set forth in His Word. She repeats
with great facility whole chapters of the New
Testament in Portuguese. Her father is a
bigoted Romanist, and the other day demanded
her Bible; the girl cried bitterly, and positively
declined to part with it unless it was returned
to her. This was promised. The Bible was
taken to the bishop, who is a Jesuit. He said,
‘‘The Book has some good and some bad things
in it.’’ After the bishop’s opinion had been
given the father took the Bible to some Jesuit
Sisters of Charity of the order of St. Vincent
de Paul, who have succeeded in getting a great
deal of money from the Protestant visitors to
the island by means of bazaars, &.; these
sisters said, ‘‘The Book is a very bad one, and
ought to be burned immediately.”” The father,
however, had promised his daughter to give
the Book back to her, and this he did. He
has since made a great effort to get the girl re-
moved from her situation, and on one occasion,
when he had taken her out by the front door,
she ran down a side street and went into the
house by the back door. Since then she has
been left in comparative peace. Occasionally
she visits her father, and always begins and
ends her conversation with the Bible.

to

What do the Colored People Need ?

“‘What do the Colored people in the South
need??? was asked of some one who had been
traveling in that part of our country. ‘The
spelling book,” was the answer. Well, yes,
they need the spelling book. But this alone
will notdo. A secular education is not enough.
A clergyman writing from a part of the South
says that the brighter ones among the colored
people are beginning to reach up after the in-
telligence of which they get some conception
from the schools and teachers, and they also
turn away from the superstition which passes
among the colored masses for religion. But
they at the same time turn away from all re-
ligion as if it was all alike ridiculous. Some of
them have even grown so far as to ape some
foolish white people and announce themselves
“skeptics”? and “agnostics.” The danger is
that as intelligence increases the old ‘‘religion’’
will be exchanged, not for true Christian re-
ligion, but for downright unbelief, and that the} A DEAR old Christian woman said, ‘“‘If God
whole colored population may thus be turned | saw nothing in me to love before I was born,
in the direction of indifference and infidelity. | I am sure He has seen nothing since.’”