The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1902, Page 47

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The Lutheran Pioneer. |

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A Christmas Service in Africa. |denly the talking and laughter ceased, and

what a German missionary has to say about a British government who attended the serv-

of their own accord they united in singing a
Many of our readers will be interested in} hymn of praise. A school inspector of the |

An Indian Woman’s Christmas Gift.

Mr. Jacob A. Riis writes of an aged Indian

| woman who came to the United Charities Build-

Christmas service which he conducted in West ice was pleasantly surprised and delighted | ing in New York City, on Christmas Eve, and
Africa where there are no pines or ever-jat this act. After the service most of the | toiled up the stairs under her burden of years

greens. Insubstance
he writes: We cele-
brated the Christ-
mas service at Aburi
with a coffee tree.
The shining dark
green foliage was
very pretty in the
light of the tapers.
More. beautifully
still shone the dark
eyes of the 80 black
girls who, in holiday
attire, had taken
their places on either
side of the long table
that was laden with
gifts. At the head
of the table were
several white per-
sons, Germans and
others. The German
character of the fes-
tival became evi-
dent, as soon as the
children joined in
singing in a most ac-
ceptable and hearty
manner one of our
familiar Christmas
songs. This was fol-
lowed by acatechiza-
tion ontheChristmas
story. The children
answered the ques-
tions readily, reflect-
ing credit upon their
teacher. It is indeed
no small task to in-
struct and train ne-
gro children who
haye been running
wild and have been
accustomed to un-
limited freedom, to
tame their spirits,
train their minds and
lead them toa knowl-
edge of the truth as
it is in Jesus.
Oneof the smallest : {THE CHRISTMAS MESSENGER.
of the children gave ; : :
a very happy and appropriate answer to the | black children pressed forward to shake hands
question: ‘‘Why do we light so many candles | with him.
to-day?” ‘‘Hang aba!’? she said, that is, Could the readers have been present on
“The light is come.’? ‘The gifts were plain and | this occasion after having seen these chil-
modest —a dress, a piece of pright-colored) dren in their neighboring heathen villages
cloth, an orange of native growth, and a bis-/ and homes, they would have received a very
cuit. In addition to this the larger girls each vivid impression of the fact that the light of
received a little book, and the smaller girls | the Gospel is breaking upon the night of the
adoll. Their joy was boundless. But sud-| Dark Continent. :

and a large bundle
done up nicely in
blue cheese-cloth.
She left it at the
Charity | Organiza-
tion Society’s office,
where her friends
were, and when they
opened it there they
found a lot of little
garments, awkwardly
but lovingly made,
by her old hands, of
remnants of blanket
stuffs and such, for
“those that were
poorer than she.’’
That was the mes-
‘sage she had left,
and it told the story
of how she came pa-
tiently to bear her
hard lot. It is need-
less to add that she
showed a much more
charitable heart than
most rich people do
who have a super-
abundance of this
world’s goods. In-
deed, the poor often
teach us the pro-
foundest lessons in
true charity. It was
* of a poor widow that
the Saviour said:
‘Verily, I say unto
you, that this poor
widow hath cast more
in, thanall they which
have cast into the
treasury. Forallthey
did cast in of their
abundance; but she
of her want did cast
in all that she had,
even all her living.”’
—_> cao
Indian Benevolence.

Here is an example
worthy of our reflec-
tion, Anold Indian who was sick asked the mis-.
sionary to read to him from God’s Word, and
then handed him three dollars, saying: “Last
year I had 35 acres of corn and I gave Jesus
ten dollars. ‘This year dry —no rain and little
corn. I will give three dollars, and my wife
will give three dollars.”” The missionary adds,
‘J doubt if he had realized three dollars from
his whole field; the ears were just nubbins.””