The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1904, Page 45

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The Lutheran Pioneer. 45

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Mission Chapel in Catawba County, N.C.

Catawba County, in North Carolina, has been
called the Banner County of Lutheranism. For
more than a hundred years Lutheran doctrine has
been preached, and Lutheran churches have been
organized in different parts of the county. Our Col-
ored Lutheran Mission also gained a foothold here
recently. Two years ago the first Colored Lutheran
mission chapel was built near Catawba, about eight
miles from Conover. Since the erection of the chapel
mission work among the
colored people has been
prospering under the
faithful services of Rev.
G. Schutes, our mission-
ary in Salisbury, N.C.

a

A Colored Benefactor.

In a social chat of
Christian friends your
correspondent recently
had occasion to listen to
the following tale.

“Tt wasin 1866. Thad
taken passage on one of
the steamers that ply be-
tween Memphis and New
Orleans loading cotton
and other freight. By
streak of hard luck I was
absolutely penniless and
for two days had eaten
not a morsel of food. The
mate, an ungodly and
hardhearted fellow, had
given strictest orders to
knock down anyone loi-
tering around the kitchen, and that his orders were
cruelly carried out I saw on the first day. An aged
man, about seventy, had dared to ask one of the
Crew for a bit of bread and in return the burly Irish-
man had rapped him over the head with a hickory,
felling him into unconsciousness. That was enough
to prevent any approach on my part. Yet, an empty
stomach speaks an eloquent language, and my fur-
tive glances at the messroom had been noticed.

‘(One evening, as the roustabouts were leisurely
sitting around on the cottonbales, a colored man,
employed as fireman on board, swiftly moved over
to where I was standing and rolling his eyes signifi-
cantly in the opposite direction as if watching the

Colored Lutheran Mission Chapel in Catawba, N. C.

mate, he said in a deep sotto voice, ‘Mister, I guess
you’se be hungry.’ With that he grabbed into the
bosom of his shirt wet with perspiration and draw-
ing out two huge slices of bread interlaid with beef-
steak, handed them to me. Before I could utter a
single word of acknowledgment my colored friend
had slipped into the firehole below. Since that
day,’’ concluded the speaker, ‘‘I have had a warm
spot for the colored man and am glad to give my
mite toward the support of the Mission.”’ L. B.

— =

The Boasting Infidel
Silenced.

An infidel said to a
large company at a water-
ing place: ‘‘I have done
with all the ministers;
I have not been inside a
church for the last ten
years.’’ Then he straight-
ened himself and looked
boastfully into his wine-
glass.

An elderly gentleman,
|| who, seated apart, had

’ silently ‘listened to the
conversation, stepped up
to the group, saying,
“Oh, sir, not in church

years? That is nothing
to boast of! There is a
man in my neighborhood
who is forty-six years old,
and he hasbeen in church
only once in his life, and
that was when he was
baptized.”?

All looked. surprised, and the boaster asked,
‘What is the reason, sir??? :

‘The reason is,’’ replied the stranger, tapping
his forehead significantly, ‘‘the poor man is not
right here.’’ é

‘The infidel was silenced, and’many in the com-
pany smiled.

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WE do not lose our departed loved ones that fell
asleep in Jesus, we simply send them on before us;
they do not die, they rise into a higher life; they do
not forsake us, they are not forever parted from us,
they have just gone before us into the glory-world.

. John Gerhard.

for ten years? only ten —