The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1891, Page 15

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

Katy Ferguson and her Sunday-school. | tion and the comforts of life. Masters of vessels
on the ocean, merchants absorbed in business
It can do no harm, it may do some good, | remembered Katy, and furnished the necessary
to recall the name and work of poor Katy|means. Arthur Tappan, the merchant philan-
Ferguson, a colored woman, who died of cholera, thropist, had her likeness taken, and kept it
July 11, 1854. The account is taken from | suspended in his office.
Benson Lossing’s history of the woman, as pub-| As I said, at the beginning, the above is
lished some years ago. condensed from Benson Lossing, the historian,
Katy was born a slave, on board a ship, | It may be old to some, but it will be new to
during its passage from Norfolk, Va., to New|others. The argument is: If a poor, illiterate,
York. At that time, 1779, slavery was legal-| colored woman, born a slave, could do much
ized in New York. When. Katy was eight|for Christ, should it not encourage others in
years old she and her mother were sold into| better positions to imitate her example?
>, bondage. The mother soon died, leaving Katy
without a known relative in the world. Her

his pitiful cries and groaning. All at once
those standing at his bedside noticed that he
became quiet and appeared to be in a very
thoughtful mood. After spending a half hour
in quietness, he asked to see a minister of the
Gospel. His desire was granted and when the
pastor came, Romming began to cry out: ‘‘Oh,
my sins! They are so great that I can not
atone for them. Many thousand of God’s
creatures have I tortured to death, and now
I feel in my own body what a cruel, hard-
hearted man I have been! Oh, tell me, dear
pastor, tell me how I can atone for my sins!
Had I been a thief, or an incendiary, or a
slanderer, I could perhaps make good the in-

—_——s +o oe oe

new mistress took her frequently to the elder How God punished Sin. jury I had done. But how shall I ever be able
Mason’s church. At sixteen she became a . . to restore to life one of the many innocent
member. About this time a benevolent lady, Romming was the son of a farmer who lived | creatures I have murdered. Oh, to whom

with the assistance of the late Dr. Bethune’s| in Northern Germany. From early childhood
father, bought Katy’s freedom for the sum |he showed a very cruel spirit. It always gave
of $200. Being now free and earning wages, him the greatest pleasure to torture and torment
she refunded one-half the amount. innocent creatures. To catch young sparrows
At eighteen she married Mr. Ferguson, a and to torture them slowly to death, to pull
colored man, and she became mother of two|0f the wings of bugs and flies, to cut worms
children. Her husband and children died, and |i2 two, and to treat in like manner all barm-
thus again she was left alone in the world. less creatures that came within his reach, was
She now turned her attention to baking and | bis greatest delight. .
selling sweet cakes, in which she excelled, re-| He always kept his pockets full of stones so
ceiving the patronage of first-class citizens. | that whenever he came TE OCI sheep
Her place of business was near the City Hall|or ® horse ora dog, he might have the great
in New York. fun to make them limp or run or howl. I
Katy being a child of sorrow, was thus|imagine, too, that every creature in the neigh-
trained by the Master for an important work. borhood knew this cruel-hearted boy and would
She saw around her poor and neglected chil- avoid him wherever they could. If he could
dren. These gathered on Sunday to her humble | catch a cat, that creature would be very fort-
home on Warren street, and she taught them | unate if it escaped without having its ears or
the way of life, giving each one a sweet-cake |its feet or its tail cut off, Or without having
as a token of her love. This woman could not | boiling water poured over its body. And the
read. Her knowledge of the Bible was ob- little birds, that sing 80 sweetly every morning,
tained chiefly from Dr. Mason and the sainted | Were sure to find in him their worstjenemy,
Isabella Graham. He would rob their nests and kill their young.
When the younger Dr. John M. Mason was| He was told again and again by his teachers
ministering in his new church, on Murray | that nota single sparrow ever fell to the ground
street, his attention was called to the work of | without God’s notice, and yet he kept up a
this poor woman. The next Sunday he called | constant war against God’s creatures. He had
on Katy while her school was in session. ‘‘What|no pity in his heart for the sufferings of any
are you about here, Katy?” said the doctor, creature ; — he rather took a savage delight in
“Keeping school on Sunday??? Katy was|seeing ‘suffering. The more the little birds
alarmed at the question, taking it as a rebuke | struggled as he pulled out their feathers, the
from her pastor for violating the Sunday. But] more the dogs and cats screamed and yelled as
the doctor did not leave her long in trouble. | the cruel stones came fiying, the greater seemed
“This must not be, Katy. You must not be | his pleasure. As Romming became older, he
allowed to do all this work alone.” became less cruel—for he did not have as much
On the next Sunday Katy’s school was moved | time to torment God's creatures as when he oe
to the basement of the Murray Street church, | younger — but his cruel, unfeeling heart sti!
its work enlarged, and Mr. Lossing says it re- remained unchanged. : ‘
Mains to-day as the first Sunday school in| He had engaged in the service of a eer-
New York. ; brewer, and one day, as he was standing over
Many ministers and laymen traced their}a large tub or vat, filled with pehtoe pees,
early religious impressions to the simple, earnest his hat fell in. In trying to a it, i os
Ching of this colored woman, who was born|his balance an‘ fell in; wane Py ca a: og
* slave, who could not read, and who pursued | hold at the side with his hands, es mapeee
an bumbl i ied July 11, 1854,| to save all but his two legs from the boiling
®bout th, ; aan es oie Her last words|beer. He cried loudly and pitifully for help,
© age of seventy-five. 0 ted to the
ee, “Alls well” Tein propor to add tat and al ite orssrresiaeitan
tha er declining years, and while suffering with | house. Ais sibre could plainly hear
readed disease, Katy never lacked atten- | agony. =

shall I turn? To God I can not, for I have
been fighting Him in that I have tortured to
death the creatures He has made. They never
harmed me and yet I took delight in seeing
them suffer. I killed them and yet never de-
rived any good from their death. Oh, how
many of them might still be rejoicing in life
had I not been so cruel!”’

The minister left Romming a while longer in
his anguish and showed him how wicked it was
to make God’s creatures suffer unnecessarily.
While thus speaking with him, he noticed that
Romming’s two legs were turning black. A
doctor was called and both legs had to he taken
off in order to prevent death from gangrene.

Now his fear and anguish became still greater
and he felt as if God intended to make him
suffer for the evil he had done. Had it not
been for the minister, who spoke words of for-
giveness and comfort out of the Holy Book,
he might have become insane by his anguish
and remorse.

Romming became well again, but lived as a
cripple for 25 years, —he lived as an example
to others to show how God punishes sin. To
every boy he met, he said: ‘Be merciful to
God's creatures.’’—Selected.

s+ oo > oe

A Holy Fear.

A king of Hungary, who was sad and pensive,
was once rallied by his gay and courtier-like
brother, who asked the cause of his ‘‘gloom.’’
On replying that he felt himself a great sinner
and unready to appear before God, his brother
made a jest of it. The king made no reply;
but in the dead of night (according to the
custom in case of persons appointed to imme-
diate death), he sent an executioner to sound
a trumpet before his brother's door. On hear-
ing it, and seeing the messenger of death, he
sprang into the king’s presence, imploring to be
told wherein he had offended. ‘Alas! brother,
you have never offended me. But if the sight
of my executioner is so dreadful to you, shall
not I, who have greatly offended Christ, fear
to be brought before His judgment seat?”