The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1898, Page 35

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

35:

ES ———————e—————e ee

Samuel Crowther.

One morning, early in the year 1821, the
simple people of the town of Oshogtn, in the
Yoruba country, Africa, were beginning their
day. The mothers were preparing the morn-
ing meal, and some of the men had already
started out to work. Suddenly, without any
warning, the fence which protected the town
was surrounded with fierce, slave-trading Mo-
hammedans, who broke through the gates
and rushed in. The men of Oshogun had no
time to seize their weapons, and they were

Then followed a very happy time. Adjai
took to his books, and made great progress.
His heart expanded under the kindness of his
new teachers, and, best of all, he learned to love |
their Saviour. And on December 11th, 1825,
the little slave-boy was baptized and took the |
name of Samuel Crowther. As years went by
he became in turn a schoolmaster, acatechist, a
clergyman, and then Africa’s first black bishop. |

And he met his mother again. Twenty-five
years after they had been so cruelly parted, |
| Samuel Crowther was preaching the Gospel |
|in his own Yoruba country, when he was told |

quickly overpowered and either killed or
made captive.
flee with their children, but they were pur-
sued and captured, and the town was set
fire to.

In one of the huts a mother was giving
breakfast to her three children and a little
niece, when the father, who had gone out
to work, suddenly rushed in with the ter-
rible tidings. A few minutes later he was
killed while trying to protect his family
from the savage slavers. The agonized
mother, with her boy Adjai, then twelve
years old, and the three other little ones,
fled toward the bush. But they were
caught, and soon after they and many
others were bound and led away as slaves
from the burning and desolate remains of
their once happy home.

A fearful march of twenty miles fol-
lowed. The slaves were lashed together
with forked sticks round their necks, and
thus they came to Isehun. And there the
bitterest trial of all awaited little Adjai
and his mother and sisters. For they were
sold to different masters and torn asunder,
with no hope of ever meeting again.

Little Adjai was sold from one master to
another, and the terrible fear came into his
mind that he might fall into the hands of
white men. Several times he tried to com-
mit suicide, but God was watching over the
unhappy little slave-boy, and saved him
from himself. Then he was brought down
to Lagos and sold to a Portuguese, who treated
him with great cruelty. Finally, he and nearly
two hundred other slaves were hurriedly thrust
into the hold of a slave-ship, to be taken they
knew not where. Their sufferings were hor-
tible. Huddled together with dead and dy-
ing, enduring seasickness, hunger, thirst, and
blows, no wonder they longed for death.

But help was at hand. Two English men-
of-war saw the slave-ship, gave chase, boarded
her decks, and liberated the slaves. How ter-
Tified little Adjai was at the sight of the can-
non-balls on the man-of-war’s deck! He
thought they were the heads of other slaves,
and he mistook the flitches of bacon for their
bodies! But the kindly Englishmen soon set
his fears at rest, and soon after he and his
fellow-slaves were brought to the colony of
freed slaves at Sierra Leone, and placed un-
der the care of missionaries.

a woman wanted to see him. It was his|

SAMUEL CROWTHER.

saw me she trembled. We grasped one an-
other, looking at each other with silence and
great astonishment; big tears rolled down
her cheeks. She called me by the familiar
names which I well remembered. Thus un-
sought for—after all search for me had failed
—God has brought us together again and
turned our sorrow into joy.’’ He had the in-
tense happiness of seeing this beloved mother
baptized a few years later, the first-fruits of
Abeokuta to Christ.

Bishop Crowther came many times to Eng-
Jand, and used to make his headquarters in a
little room at the top of the Church Mission-
ary House in Salisbury Square. It was won-
derful all the work he got through and all the
friends he made. But no man was ever less
spoiled by the praises of men. His one
thought was for Africa and his work there.
The last time he came to England was in

1888, and even then, as an old man of nearly
eighty years, he was traveling up and down
England pleading for Africa, never sparing
himself, always cheerful and ready.

The end of the eventful life came on the
last day of the year 1891, and the simple,
faithful, lovable Bishop was laid to rest by the
side of his mother and his wife in the cemetery
at Lagos.

qs - oe

Honest Otto.

One beautiful summer morning, two boys
were strolling along the beach at a summer

The terrified women tried to| mother. He wrote in his diary: ‘‘When she |resort in Sweden. Suddenly one stooped and

picked up a beautiful diamond pin. ‘Oh,
Carl, see what I’ve found!’’ he exclaimed.

‘Why, Otto, those are diamonds. Won't:
you berich; you can get ever so much
money for that.’’ ‘‘What do you mean?’”

said Otto. ‘‘This isn’t mine. It must be-
long to one of the great ladies at the hotel.

I shall try to find the owner.’’ ‘‘Nonsense!

you’ll not get even a ‘thank you’ for your
pains.”” ‘An approving conscience will
be sufficient reward,’’ said Otto. He went
to the hotel, told the proprietor his story,

and placed the pin inhis hand. ‘‘Good!’’

cried the hotel keeper. ‘‘The lady who
lost the pin is here now. Stay until I take

it to her.’? He soon returned and con-

ducted the boy to a richly furnished par-
lor. <A stately lady, waiting to receive
him, said, ‘‘Thank you, my little man, for
returning the pin which I prize highly.

I am told your father is dead and you are
trying to support your mother. She has
reason to be proud of her boy. You shall
be rewarded, for the Queen of Sweden is
never ungrateful.”? Overcome at finding
himself in the presence of the Queen, the
boy could only bow himself out of the-
room.

The Queen returned to Stockholm. A
week later summons came for Otto and his
mother to go to that city. On their arrival
a pretty cottage was given them for their
home. The next day they were summoned
to the palace, and presented to the king,
who, learning Otto had ambition to become
a musician, placed him under a competent
teacher. ‘en years afterwards, this boy was
known as Sir Otto, the music teacher of the
royal family.

Oe om

Keep the Charge.

David Livingstone, when a lad, received
advice from his dying Sunday school teacher
which he never forgot. ‘‘Now, lad,’’ were
the faithful words, ‘tbe constant; make reli-
gion the every-day business of your life, and
not a thing of fits and starts; for if you are
not constant, temptation will get the better
of you.”