The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1896, Page 30

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30

The Lutheran Pioneer. ‘

Rules for Daily Life.

Begin the day with God;
Kneel down to Him in prayer;
Lift up thy heart to His abode,
And seek His love to share.

Open the Book of God,
And read a portion there,

That it may hallow all thy thoughts
And sweeten all thy care.

Go through the day with God,
Whate’er thy work may be;

Where’er thou art—at home, abroad —
He still is near to thee.

Converse in mind with God;
Thy spirit heavenward raise;
Acknowledge every good bestowed,
And offer grateful praisc.

Conclude the day with God;
Thy sins to Him confess;
Trust in the Lord’s atoning blood
And plead His righteousness.

Lie down at night with God,
Who gives His servants sleep;

And when thou tread’st the vale of death
He will thee guard and keep.

f Selected.
f ——= —- <P 0 ee

Mission among the Colored People.

The mission of our Lutheran church among
the colored people is of the greatest impor-
tance, and the good being done by our mis-
sionaries in church and school can not be
over-estimated. The pure Gospel-seed is
sown which according to God’s promise will
bear fruit.
God has given to the Lutheran church His
pure word and sacrament for the salvation of
souls, and others can not do for her the work
which He has commanded her todo. Some
look upon mission work among the colored
people as quite useless and unnecessary. Two
of the most prominent Protestant Episcopal
ministers openly declared ‘‘that the colored
people had no hereafter, and therefore were
not responsible.’’ Others laboring among the
colored people of the South are but. blind
leaders of the blind. Many of the colored
preachers of the sects in the South are not
instructed of God and therefore can not teach
others the only way of eternal salvation.
“Mr. Booker T. Washington, Principal of Tus-
kegee University, ‘‘a colored man more greatly
honored than any other of his race,’’ when
speaking of the condition and fitness of his
colored brethren, says: ‘‘After coming into
direct contact with the colored ministers for
eight years in the heart of the South, I have
‘Ro hesitancy in asserting that three-fourths
" of the Baptist ministers and two-thirds of the
Methodists are unfit, either mentally or mor-
“ally, or both, to preach the Gospel to any
© or to attempt to lead any one. The Bap-
ists claim ten thousand churches and seven
thousand ordained ministers; but it is per-
afe to say that each church contains
erage of four persons licensed to preach,
same is true of the Methodists. One

Baptist Church near Tuskegee has a total
membership of two hundred, and eighteen of
them are preachers ; but the character of many
of these preachers can be judged by one, of
whom it is said that, while he was at work in
a cotton field in the middle of July, he sud-
denly stopped, looked upward, and said, ‘O
Lord, de work is so hard, de cotton is so
grassy, and de sun am so hot, I bleave dis
darkey am called to preach.’ With few ex-
ceptions, the preaching of the colored minis-

try is emotional in the highest degree, and’

the minister considers himself successful in
proportion as he is able to set the people in
all parts of the congregation to groaning,
uttering wild screams and jumping, finally
going into a trance. One of the principal
ends sought by most of these ministers is
their salary, and to this everything else is
made subservient. Most of the church service
seems to resolve itself into an effort to get
money. Not one in twenty has any business
standing in the communities where they re-
side, and those who know them best mistrust
them most in matters of finance and general
morality. With such spiritual leaders, the
mere fact that so large a proportion of the
seven million colored people in the South are
church members is misleading, and is no evi-
dence that a large proportion of these church
members are not just as ignorant of true
Christianity, as taught by Christ, as any
people in Africa or Japan, and just as much
in need of missionary effort as those in foreign
lands.’’

The Baptist Leader sustains Mr. Washing-
ton in his opinion, as far as their seven thou-
sand colored preachers are concerned, with
upwards of a million church members, thus:
“The greatest object of over two thirds of the
Baptist ministers of Alabama is to get their
salaries. They care no more for the moral
and intellectual standing of the people than
they care for the snap of their fingers. In
some parts of the country we find preachers
who do not take a paper of any sort, nor read
the Bible. In fact, they can not read, and
yet they are attempting to teach the people.”’

Such statements need no comment. What
a work our Lutheran church has before her in
the South! Her mission among the colored
people is of vast importance, and too much
sympathy and aid can not be given to our
hard working missionaries. May the Lord
fully sustain them in their important work
and make them a blessing to many souls of
the African race!

——s Po oe

Sad News From North Carolina.

Dear PIONEER: —

On the 20th of July, Grace Church, Con-
cord, N. C., was the scene of great grief.
Mrs. Bakke, wife of our faithful missionary,
had passed to her rest in heaven on the Sun-
day morning preceding. She had been ill
only a few days with malarial fever, and was

brought near death’s door by an attack upon
her heart on Thursday, July 16th, but recov-
ered from that, to prepare for the last struggle.
Failure of heart, says the physician, ended her
life. After a brief service at the newly com-
pleted parsonage on Monday morning, mem-
bers of Grace Church bore her remains to the
adjoining church, which was filled to over-
flowing. The funeral oration was preached
from the words of the third petition, ‘‘Thy
will be done.’? Prominent citizens of Con-
cord acted as pall-bearers from the church to
the depot, whence the grief-stricken husband
and daughter took the remains to St. Louis
for interment in the Lutheran cemetery, where
rest Mrs. Bakke’s father, Prof. Guenther, and
mother, and also a sister, lately departed.
Mrs. Bakke was born, baptized, and con-
firmed at Saginaw, Mich., and has for many
years faithfully labored with her husband,
both in New Orleans and in North Carolina.
As we view the matter, her early departure is
a great loss, not only to Pastor Bakke, but
also to the Colored mission, inasmuch as the
eflicient work of the pastor was, in 2 measure,
rendered possible by his unselfish and devoted
wife. Mrs. Bakke was highly esteemed by all
classes of people in the community where her
husband is at present laboring, and the ex-
pressions of sympathy which the latter re-
ceived upon his sad bereavement were both
numerous and cordial. God, who in mercy
overrules also our afllictions for our eternal
welfare, may strengthen and comfort our mis-
sionary, and cause us to pray all the more for
him and for his work. W. Hz. T. Dav.

———® ~¢-am> ¢ - —_

How a Life was saved.

In persecuting times a Christian was run-
ning for his life. He came toa lime kiln, into
which he entered to conceal himself from the
soldiers that sought his life. He no sooner
entered than several spiders began to weave
their web over the mouth of the kiln. Then
a strong wind arose, and the dust in clouds
came and covered the spider’s web. When
the soldiers came up and searched they could
not find the fugitive. One of the soldiers said
to the captain:

‘*Perhaps he is in there.’’

“You fool,’’ replied the captain, ‘“‘how
could he be? That spider’s web covered with
dust has been undisturbed for an age. If he
has gone in there, he must have broken through
the web.”

And so they passed on, and the man was
saved. The kiln, the spiders, the wind, the
dust were ‘‘God’s hosts.’? Put your trust
in God. ;

—_—_—+ + ot oe

Ir you can not pray over a thing and can
not ask God to bless you in it, don’t do that
thing. A secret that you would keep from
God is a secret that you should keep from
your own heart. :