The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1885, Page 22

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22

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Se — em

Obituary.

In the death of Mrs. Mathilde Nicholls the
Ey. Luth. Mt. Zion Congregation has lost an
active and faithful member. Sister Nicholls
was born in South Carolina. When the late
unpleasantness between the North and South
was happily settled and the Colored people were
permitted to go out of the house of bondage
she went to Mississippi and lived there for
some 15 or 16 years. During the last 6 years
of her life she resided with her daughter, Mrs.
Lightfoot, in this city. After having been
duly instructed in the doctrines of the Christian
religion she was baptized and confirmed in the
Ey. Luth. Mt. Zion church on the 11th day
of February, 1883.

The deceased was a pious woman, a devout
and attentive hearer of the Word of God and
a regular participator in the Lord’s Supper.
She was one of those who with the Psalmist
of old could truly say: ‘My soul longeth, yea
even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. One
day in thy courts is better than a thousand.”
When unable on account of sickness, to walk
to the house of God she entreated the sisters

“that came to see her to help her thither that

she might once more in fellowship with them
offer up to the Lord her prayers and praises
and participate with them in the holy Sacra-
ment. But owing to the nature of her disease
her wishes: could not be carried out.—The de-
ceased was an unassuming member of the king-
dom of Christ, ‘‘adorned with that meek and
quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of
great price,”” content to learn from the divine
Word and to manifest in her daily walk her
Jove to and her faith in the blessed Redeemer,
“‘Her beauty this, her glorious dress: Jesus,
his blood and righteousness.”’

But though of a quiet and retiring dis-
position she was well versed in the Word and
doctrines of Holy Scripture and could, if need
be, give answer to every one that asked a rea-

“son for the hope that was in her. Her suffer-
ings were at times painful, but not a word of
complaint or murmuring escaped her lips; like
a true and tried disciple of Christ she patiently
bore the cross, silently praising him in her trib-
ulation, and looking for the blessed hour of
deliverance.

After four months sickness that hour came.
On the 29th of April she died in Christ, in
whom she had trusted while living. - Her fu-
neral took place on the day following from the
residence of her daughter, Mrs. Lightfoot. The
Missionary delivered the funeral discourse based
on Psalm 90, 12., to a Jarge assembly who had
come to pay the last respects to the deceased
who was loved by all that knew her. Her re-

‘mains were then deposited in the Gerod Ceme-
tary there to await the resurrection of the just.
uae “Her trials and her gricfs are past.
A Dlessed end is her’s at last, ~
-  Ghrist’s yoke she bore and did His will.
Bt ate _ And though she died she liveth still.’”
a _ New Orleans, Ia., May 18th, 1885. -
= git ; MissionaRy.

money to the poor widow. So we went to this

man—the widow and I—and the man said he

would be happy to help the widow. And he

drew out a bill for twenty pounds, and the

widow signed it, and I signed it, too. Then

he put the signed paper in his desk, and took

out the money and gave it to the widow. But

the widow, counting it said: ‘Sir, there are

only 15 pounds here.’ ‘It is all right,’ said the

man; ‘that is the interest I charge.’ And as
we had no redress, we came away. But the
widow prospered; and she brought the twenty
pounds to me, and I took it myself to the office
of the man who lent it, and I said to him, ‘Sir,
there are the twenty pounds from the widow.’
And he said, ‘Here is the paper you signed,
and if you know any other poor widow, I will
be happy to help her in the same way.’ I said
to him: ‘You help the widow! Sir, you have
robbed this widow, and if you repent not you
will be damned!’ And, my friends, I kept my
eye upon that man; and before six months
were over God smote him and he died. Hear
the solemn warning of James speaking by the
Holy Ghost: ‘Go to now, you rich men, weep
and howl for your miseries shall come upon
you. Your riches are corrupted, and your gar-
ments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is
cankered: and the rust of them shall be a wit-
ness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it
were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together
for the last days.’”’

Our Colored Mission in New Orleans.

From a correspondence of Zhe Workman we
clip the following report of our Mission in New
Orleans:

The Colored Mission is under the pastoral
care of Rev. Bakke, who likewise preaches for
the Scandinavian seamen who come to this port.
The Colored Mission consists of two congrega-
tions. A Parochial School is connected with
each congregation. The one congregation al-
ready numbers forty-two communicants, with
one hundred children in the day school. The
other, called the Chapel, has twenty-six com-
municants, with eighty in the school. We at-
tended services at both the congregations and
were pleased with the orderly deportment of
the worshippers. We also visited one of the
schools and were really surprised at the good
order, the eagerness to learn, and the credit-
able recitations of hard lessons.

From all that we can learn, we are convinced
that this beginning, though small as yet, is the
commencement of a great work among the de-
spised and neglected of this race. The public
schools for these colored children are said to be
very poor. ‘The teachers are incompetent and
the pay insufficient.

These two Lutheran Parochial Schools are
doing solid work. They are turning out ex-
cellent scholars. The pupils are not only in-
structed in the ordinary secular branches but
they are taught Luther's catechism, Bible his-
tory, and our evangelical hymns, which they
sing beautifully. ‘The missionary informed us
that all over the neighborhood of his two schools
he can hear the colored children singing these
precious hymns and melodies. These two little
schools are already making an impression and
are becoming known. The teachers are com-
pelled to turn away applicants every week for
wantof room. The congregations are growing
out of the schools. And we are glad to learn
that these colored people, after having been
instructed in the catechism, become truthful,
honest, pure and consistent Christians. We
are glad also to learn that the same Synod ex-
pects to send another missionary and another
teacher or two to New Orleans by autumn.
They also have a colored mission at Little
Rock, Arkansas, which is carried on in the
same Way. ~

<—_e

No Grace Without Means.

Some fanatical people have much to say of
God, of forgiveness of sins, of divine grace and
of the death of Christ. But of the means where-
by a man may have Christ and whereby grace
comes to a man, so that a man obtains grace
and so that grace and sin are brought together,
they know nothing; and they tell us that all
this is done by the Spirit only, and that the
external oral word, baptism and sacrament,
can accomplish nothing. And yet they talk
of grace as though it was a great treasure. It
is like telling a man of some great treasure and
speaking very highly of it, but at the same
time hiding the key and destroying the bridges
whereby the treasure is reached.—Juther.

——— —- oe

Fill the Sack.

2 ~ o<a e+

Tell the People their Sins.

A young man in ‘professional life, who de-
voted his evening hours to work in the lowest
part of London, used daily to rescue from sleep
two or three of the early morning hours for
prayer and study of' the Scriptures. He com-
mended the practice to others, and enforced
his recommendation by the saying of Newton,
“Tf the sack be filled at once with wheat, there
will be no room for chaff.’”’ ‘‘I fill my sack as
early and as full as I can at the footstool of
the Lord, or the devil would get in a bushel
of chaff before breakfast.”’ :

Dr. William Anderson, for more than 50
years pastor of a church in Glasgow, had a
somewhat pointed way of ‘‘putting things.”

He was once expounding the 15th Psalm,
and had come “to the word usury, “‘He that
putteth not out his money to usury.’’ He said:
‘There was once in this church a poor widow,
and she wanted twenty pounds to begin a small
shop. Having no friends she came to me, her
minister. And I happened to know a man—
not of this church—who could advance the