The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1898, Page 42

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42

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Colored Lutheran Church at Meherrin, Va.

By request we in this number publish the
picture of our Colored Lutheran church at Me-
herrin, Va. A member of our Mission Board,
who recently visited the congregation, reports
the same to be in a very prosperous condition.
God has richly blessed the labor of our mis-
sionary amidst many difficulties and hardships.

From a letter received some time ago from
one of the colored sisters of the congregation
we adapt the following:

‘Let me tell you how we commenced mis-
sion work here. The Lutheran minister was
invited from Green Bay. He came, and as
God would have it, we were the hearers, and
the seed took root. It was early in spring,
and we had preaching in a private house.
When it got warm, we had preaching under a
cherry tree. Many thought
we were foolish. We would
Jearn our hymns and cate-
chism line by line just like
little children, and how some
people would laugh at us!
But we did not mind that at
all. It was not long before
others joined us. Soon we
moved the schoolhouse from
Green Bay up here to Me-
herrin. It was a log hut and
we whitewashed it ourselves,
and now we thought we were
something. How we did love
our minister for the words he
spoke. After a while this
minister had to leave us and
we were sorry at the thought
of never seeing him again.
But we were not left alone.
The Mission Board sent us
a student from Springfield.
That was the first we knew of Springfield.
Well, when his time was up, he had to return
to his studies; but we were instructed to go to
our chapel every Sunday and read the Word of
God. And so we did for a long time, and then
we had the passage of Scripture fulfilled: ‘I
will never leave thee nor forsake thee.’ ‘Io
our great surprise we reccived a letter telling
us that we should have another student from
Springfield. Now I can’t express our joy and
what a happy time we had for the next nine
Months. What a nice school we had! Such
good order! Hand and heart seemed to work
together. This teacher made an addition to
_ our log chapel, ceiled it inside, put on a little

“Woodroom, whitewashed it again, made a pul-
Pit out of some good box, and painted it. Oh,
how happy we were! Everybody’s eyes were
looking and beholding. Now our whole

was fora bell. We didn’t care if it
no bigger than a hat, so it wasabell. So
)good Lord gave us a bell without price,
such Some

id, this is the mother bell of all the bells.
you can see that the Lord has carried us

on from one year to another. And he always
blessed us more and more. He has also blessed
us with a new church, and I can say that the
building of our church set the neighborhood
to thinking and to work. Our church was now
the model church at Meherrin, and so they all
had to remodel their churches, both white and
colored. And besides the outward building,
if they wish to know anything about the Bible,
they will say, ‘Ask the Lutherans; they can
tell.’ Still many will not send their children
to our school. They say they haven’t got time
for them to learn the Bible. Now, if they don’t
learn, how shall they know it?
thing I wish to press on the minds of all; and
that is, take more interest in sending your chil-
dren to school. Let us not be so careless. Let

us all, men and women, not only the women,
but also the men, work together for church

Colored Lutheran Church at Meherrin, Va.

and school. I pray to God that all would help
to carry this army on. God has blessed us
so richly by this mission, should we not be
thankful to Him and show our thanks by
making good use of church and school? Oh,
that I had a thousand voices, I would praise
my God with every one.’’

So much we have taken from a letter written
to us by one of the colored sisters at Meherrin.
May God continue to prosper our mission work
among the colored people and may He move
us to labor with greater zeal in the field which
He has so richly blessed.

——2 ~~ oe + 2

Cruel Treatment of Chinese Children.

“Tf you lived in Peking you would be sur-
prised never to see a child funeral pass, but if
you go into the street very early in the morn-
ing you will find the explanation. You would
meet a very large vehicle drawn by two oxen,
having a sign across the front, stating its hor-
rible office, and piled to the brim with the
bodies of children. Sometimes there are a
hundred in the cart at once, thrown in as

There is one}

| into prison.

|garbage, nearly all of them naked, a few of
|them tied up in the old reed baskets, and
| fewer, never more than one or two, in cheap
| board coffins. ‘These carts go about the streets
each night, pick up these pitiable remains,
}some of them mutilated by dogs; they are
| thrown in like so much wood and taken to a
| pit outside the city wall, into which they are
| dumped, then covered with quick-lime. Does
jit make you sick to hear of such a thing?
| I have lived seven years in the city where that
is a daily occurrence.’’ — Mission Worker.

} + me we
|

God’s Care.

Just as Dr. Judson had finished translating
the New Testament into Burmese he was cast
His wife took the precious manu-
script and buried it in the
ground. But if left there it
would soon decay, while to
reveal its existence to its foes
would surely lead to its de-
struction. So it was arranged
that she should put it within
a roll of cotton, and bring it
to him in the form of a pillow,
so hard and poor that even the
keeper of the prison did not
covet it. After seven months
this pillow — so uninviting ex-
ternally, so precious to him
—was taken away, and then
his wife redeemed it by giving
a better one in exchange.
Some time after that he was
hurried off to another prison,
leaving everything behind
him, and his old pillow was
thrown into the prison yard
to be trodden under foot as
worthless cotton; but after a few hours one of
the native Christians discovered the roll, and
took it home as a relic of the prisoner, and
there long afterwards the manuscript was
found within the cotton, complete and unin-
jured. Surely the hand of the Lord was inter-
posed to save from destruction the fruit of
years of toil, so important for those who were
to read the Burmese Bible.—Zz.

——__+_—» -e~=am oe

The Best Treasure.

When the mother of the well known East
India Missionary, Ziegenbalg, called her chil-
dren to her death-bed she said: ‘Dear chil-
dren, I have gathered a very great treasure
for you.’’ When the eldest daughter asked
where this treasure lay, she answered: “In
the Bible; search it, my dear children, 904
you will find it, for I have bedewed every
page of it with my tears.”

The children never forgot those precious
words.