The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1892, Page 11

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Lhe Lutheran Pioneer. ji

(For the ‘‘Lutheran Pioneer.’’)

Letter From North Carolina.

Mr. Eprror :—Please allow me spacein your
most valuable paper, to express my gratitude
to the ‘‘Board of the Synodical Conference of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.”’

I am at a loss to find language to express
my feeling in the matter; I can but say, ‘It
is good to wait on the Lord.”’

For thirteen years or more the work has been
atastand-still, the way has been very dark and
gloomy ; but in due time God raised up a ser-
vant for this field.

To my knowledge nothing in the past has
been done that amounts to anything. ‘There-
fore, I am proud to say, there has been more
done for us and our work in the short while
we have been a part of your honorable body,
than in all the past, not financially only, but
you have done more to get us into the right
way and to make us ¢rue Lutherans. We ad-
mire the Christ-like spirit in your dealings with
our brethren. My short experience in the
work had been nothing but discouragements,
still I knew there was a better day coming for
our church, so I labored on the best I could,
trusting and hoping for a change. The dear
Lord made the change and it is for the best.

Honorable Board, you have sent a mission-
ary among us in the person of Rey. N. J. Bakke,
and he is the right man in the right place, if
we are able to judge. I am told of his Christ-

like action and he is much loved by the people
My
eyes have been opened and I believe we shall

he came to serve. Success will be ours.

be able, by God’s help, to open many more.

Time only will tell, how much good will come

out of the mission in North Carolina.

Since we have united with the Synodical
Conference’I am sure the steps taken will help
the church generally, both the white and the
colored Lutherans.

Please lend us your sympathy, prayers and
financial help, that we may be able to push for-
ward the work of our dear church in North

* Carolina.

I am sure the Lord will bless our labors if
we prove faithful. Our greatest need in this
fast growing city is a church-building, with
this our work will begin to grow.

We trust and hope the many friends through-
outthe Synodical Conference will help usfreely
in our mission cause.

W. P. Puirer,
511 East Second street, Charlotte, N. C.

——_> +o or oe

What the Deacon Said.

- \There are lots of people besides the chil-
dren of Israel that need a Moses to say to them,
Tt is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.’
L’ve allers thought that that was a grand thing
in David, when he’d done such a job, getting
together that pile of gold and silver for the
temple that he just turned to the Lord, and

said, ‘All these things come from Thee, and
of Thine own have we given Thee.’’ Most
men would have wanted a little credit for the
pains they’d taken themselves.

‘Well, in those years I was telling you
about, it was dreadful how I cheated the Lord
out of His due. Once in a long while I paid
a little to our church, but I didn’t give a cent
to anything else. Foreign-mission Sunday was
my rheumatiz day, reg’ lar, and I didn’t get to
church. Home-mission day was headache day
with me allers, and I stayed away from meetin’.
Bible-Society day I’d generally a tech of neu-
ralgy so’t I didn’t feel like goin’ out, and I
stayed home. ‘Tract-Society day I’d begin to
be afraid I was goin’ to be deaf, and oughn’t
to be out in the wind, so I stayed in-doors ;
and on the Sunday for helping the Publication
Society, like as not my corns were unusual
troublesome, and I didn’t feel able to get out.

‘Wife wanted to take a religious paper
once, but I wouldn’t hear to’t. Told her that
was nonsense. I didn’t believe any of the
apostles ever took religious papers. ‘The Bible
was enough for them, and it ought to be for
other folks.

“And yet, I never even thought I wasn’t
doin’ right. I’d come into it sort gradual,
and didn’t think much about giving, anyhow,
except as a sort of losing business.

‘Well, my little girl Nannie was about eight
years old then, and I was dreadful proud of
her, for she was a smart little thing. One
Sunday night we were sitting by the fire, and
Nannie’d been saying her catechism, and by
and by she got a kind of quiet and sober, and
all of a sudden she turned to me and says she,
‘Pa, will we have to pay rent in heaven?’

‘c¢What,’ says I, lookin’ down at her, kind
of astonished-like.

‘e*Will we have to pay rent in heaven?’
says she, again.

‘e¢Why, no,’ saysI. ‘What made you think
that?’

“Well, I couldn’t get out of her for a time
what she did mean. Nannie didn’t know much
about rent, anyway, for we'd never had to pay
any, livin’ in our own house. But at last I
found out that she’d heard some men talking
about me, and one of them said, ‘Well, he’s
bound to be awful poor in the next world, I
reckon. ‘There ain’t much of his riches laid
up in heaven.’ And as the only real poor folks
that Nannie’d ever known where some poor
folks down at the village that had been turned
out-of-doors because they couldn’t pay their
rent, that’s what put it into Nannie’s head that
maybe I’d have to pay rent in heaven.
‘tWell, wife went on and talked to Nan-
nie, and explained to her about the ‘many
mansions’ in our ‘Father’s house,’ you Know,
but I didn’t listen much. I was mad to think
Seth Brown dared to talk about me in that
way; tight before Nannie, too.

“T fixed up some pretty bitter things to say
to Seth the next time I met him, and I wasn’t
very sorry. to see himi next day in his cart. I

began at him right off. He Jistercd to cvery-
thing that I sputtered out, ard then ke ssid,
‘Well, deacon, if you think the bank of heay-
en’s got anything init for you, 1’m glad of it;
but I’ve never seen you making any deposits,’
and then he drove off.

“Well, I walked over to my blackberry-
patch, and sat down and tho ught, and the
more I thought the worse I felt. I was angry
at first, but I got cooler, and I thought of for-
eign mission Sunday and the rheumatiz, and
home mission Sunday and the headache, and
Bible-Society day and the neuralgy, and tract
day and the corns, till it just seemed to me I
couldn’t stand it any longer; and I knelt down
there in the blackberry-patch, and said, ‘O
Lord, I’ve been a stingy man if ever there was
one. Help me to give myself, and whatever
I've got back to Thee.’

And I believe He’s helped me ever since.
’Twas pretty hard work at first, getting to
giving. I did feel pretty sore over that first
dollar I slipped into the collection plate, but
I’ve learned better now; and I mean to keep
on giving ‘‘as unto the Lord”’ till I go to that
heaven where Nannie’s been these twenty
years.— Y. L.

+s +o< o> oe

Then You Have a Father.

The Rev. Dr. Jonas King once went to visit
the children in an orphan asylum. The chil-
dren were seated in a school-room and Dr. King
stood on a platform before them.

**So this is an asylum,’’ said he. ‘‘I suppose
that many of you children would tell me that
you have no father or mother, were I to ask
you?”’

‘Yes, sir; yes, sir,’’ said some little voices.

‘‘How many of you say you have no father?
Hold up your hands.”’

A forest of hands were put up.

‘So you say you have no father.”’

‘Yes, sir; yes, sir.’’

‘“tNow,’’ said Dr. King, ‘‘do you ever say
the Lord’s Prayer? Let me hear you.’’

The children began, ‘‘Our Father who art
in heaven—”’

“Stop children,’’ said Dr. King, ‘‘did you
begin right?”’

The children began again, ‘‘Our Father who
art in heaven —’’

“Stop again, children,’’ said Dr. King.

‘What did you say ? Our Father? I want
to tell you about him. He owns all the gold
in California; He owns all the world; He can
give you as much of anything as He sees is
best for you. Now,. children, never forget
that you have a Father. Go to Him for all
you want, asif you could see Him. Heis able
and willing to do all that is for your good.”’

————2 0-0

Tue Chinese worship ‘‘The God of Dust,”’
who only has one commandment, which is,
“Thou shalt not dust thy room more than
once a year.’’

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