The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1904, Page 63

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

63

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NOTES AND ITEMS.

Concorp, N. C.—Grace congregation recently
added several members to its roll: two adults with
family of seven children, one adult and four young
people by confirmation, two of the latter from our
day school. The pastor, Rev. J. Ph. Schmidt, is
instructing another class of 9 catechumens.

In the death of Paul Miller, one of our faithful
members, the congregation suffered a great loss.

H. L. P.

New Lasorers.— Among this year’s graduates
of our Lutheran Seminary at Springfield, Ill., are
two of our colored students, who will enter our
North Carolina mission field. May God richly bless
their labor among the people of their race.

Gop Lovep tae Wortp.—In his recent report
our Lutheran city missionary at Milwaukee, Wis.,
writes: Some weeks ago a colored man, who is very
anxious about his salvation, asked me, ‘‘Pastor, is
it true that we colored people cannot get to heaven?”
I replied, ‘‘No, that is not true; for we read John
8, 16: ‘God so loved the world that He gave His
only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ To
this world of sinners not only the white people be-
long, but also the colored people.’? This colored
man’s desire to hear and learn God’s Word is great,
and still greater is his joy over the comfort contairied
in that Word.

How He Lost His Courcu.— An English mis-
sionary, who had spent much time among the Eski-
mos, tells an amusing story of how he built a church
and how he lost it. When his flock reached sufii-
cient size he had a church built. It was eighteen
feet long by twelve feet wide, and was made of seal-
skins stretched over light framework, the whole
banked with snow. It had been in existence but
a short time when the dogs discovered that it was
edible. They scratched the snow away, and, be-
tween two Sundays, ate the church, at least its
covering, up. ?

A Lirtir Missionary.—A blind man in Madras,
India, used to repeat some of the first chapters of
St. John’s Gospel. When he was asked how he

-had been able to learn them, he said that a little

boy who had been taught in a mission school had
read these chapters aloud to him so many times

- that he had learned them by heart. The little boy

had finally left the village, but not one word of those
precious chapters had the man forgotten.

Inp1an Misstons.—In the year 1899 the Lu-
theran Wisconsin Synod began mission work among
the Indians in Arizona. The work has been richly
blessed in church and schools. 72 Indians have
been baptized. At present there are four laborers
in that important mission field.

A Larce Partso.— Probably the largest parish
in the Protestant world is that of the Lutheran pastor
of Irkutsk in East Siberia. During the past year
this pastor looked after the scattered members of
his flock in thirty-six villages, some of which are
1000 kilometers distant from each other. In his
visits he traveled upward of 20,000 kilometers. A
kilometer is some less than two-thirds of a mile.

PracticaL.—A Scotch missionary in addressing
an audience at Edinburgh declared that if the ladies
of that city would give him the cost of only that por-
tion of their silk dresses which swept the streets, as
they walked, he would, with that, promise to sup-
port all his mission schools in India.

Mave Goop Use or His Ipons.— An exchange
says: ‘‘A missionary in Travancore, India, saw, one
morning, a native coming to his house with a heavy
burden. On reaching it, he laid on the ground a
sack. Unfastening it, he emptied it of its contents
—a number of idols. ‘What have you brought
these here for?’ asked the missionary; ‘I don’t
want them.’ ‘You have taught us that we do not
want them, sir,’ said the native; ‘but we think
they might be put to some good use. Could they
not be melted down and formed into a bell to call
us to church?’ The hint was taken; they were
sent to a bell founder and made into a bell, which
now summons the native converts to praise and
prayer.”’

+2

Among the Indians.

Bishop Whipple loved the Indians under his
care. In return, they respected him loyally. He
has left many narratives concerning them, one of
which is here given, as taken from Lights and
Shadows: 3

Rey. Lord Charles Harvey paid me-a visit to
learn about our Indian missions. He went with me
to White Earth, where I consecrated the church of
St. Columba and confirmed a large class. The In-
dian women had prepared a forest feast for us, and,
unknown to me, a pantomime for my friend. We

were sitting on the greensward in front of a log house

when the chief, Wahbonaquot, said to me:

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