The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1904, Page 79

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

79

NOTES AND ITEMS.

Tue Synopical CoNFERENCE AND Our CoLorEp
Mission. — At the recent meeting of the Ey. Luth.
Synodical Conference much time was devoted to our
Mission among the colored people, a very lengthy
and encouraging Report being presented by our Mis-
sion Board. From this Report Conference learned
that God has richly blessed the work of our mis-
sionaries in church and school, but that more la-
borers are needed for the great harvest field. To
supply this need, preparatory schools ought to be
opened in which gifted and pious colored students
may be trained for mission work among the people
of their own race. Such a school has already been
opened in New Orleans, La., and in Concord, N. C.
But if efficient work is to be done, buildings and
new equipments must be provided. The Board had
already granted a new building for New Orleans,
and Conference voted $15,000 for Immanuel College
in North Carolina. We hope all our congregations
will soon take up collections for this purpose:

Concorp, N. C.—The 11th Sunday after Trinity
was a day of rejoicing for our colored Lutheran con-
gregation at Concord. On that day the Harvest
Home festival was celebrated, the Revs. Th. Buch,
P. Bischoff, and S. Doswell preaching appropriate
sermons. The church was handsomely decorated,
and all the services were beautified by anthems sung
by the choir under the direction of Prof. H. Persson.
The attendance was very large, many friends from
neighboring stations having come to join in the
celebration.

Sanissury, N. C.—On the 17th Sunday after
Trinity the Rev. H. W. Lash, one of this year’s grad-
uates of our Lutheran Seminary at Springfield, Ill.,
was ordained and installed in the colored Lutheran
congregation at Salisbury as successor to the Rev.
G. Schutes, who has faithfully served that and other
mission stations in North Carolina for about seven
years. May God bless also the work of the new
laborer to the salvation of many souls.

Her Knew tue Brste. — New York papers re-
cently reported the following: Walter Foster, a col-
ored boy six years old, was a witness in a case in
the Second Criminal Court of Jersey City. Justice
Manning hesitated to administer the oath.

“Do you know what this is?”’ asked the Court,
holding up the Bible.

‘Tt is the Bible,’’ answered the boy, ‘‘the sacred
book of God. Itis God’s Word.- When we swear

on it we admit His power to punish us for telling
an untruth.”’

Justice Manning looked at the little boy with
surprise.

“Tt is the best definition I ever heard from child
or man,”’ he said; and the boy was allowed to tell
his story under oath.

Tuer Lorp’s Box.—The Missionary Link reports
the following suggestive story from Ceylon, from
which Christians may learn a lesson in giving for
mission work: ‘‘Each morning, when a Christian
woman measures out rice for the family, she takes
one handful and puts it into a box marked, ‘The
Lord’s Box.’ From time to time, the church treas-
urer visits all the Christian homes to collect the rice
from these boxes, sells it, and sends the money
to the native missionary society.””— Have you a
‘‘Lord’s Box”’ in your home?

Sue Lovep Jesus.—In a Presbyterian mission in
China a woman recently baptized and received into.
the church was asked by the missionary previous to
her baptism if she really loved Jesus. She replied:
‘*For three years I have come here every Sunday;
if it rained, I came; if the sun shone hot, I came.
When I could get a boat to row the three miles I
came in that. When I was not able to do this I
walked. “Had it not been that I love Jesus, do you
think I would have come?”’

A Worker or WonpDERS IN JAPAN. —The famous
traveler, Isabella Bird Bishop, relates how a New
Testament, printed in Japanese, was given to the
keeper of a prison at Otsu, a place in the interior of
Japan, then beyond the reach of missionary instruc-
tion. The officer of the prison gave it to a scholarly
convict imprisoned for manslaughter. Time passed
and nothing was heard from this precious gift. But
one day a fire broke out in the Otsu prison. ‘‘Now
is your opportunity,’’ would be the natural thought
to each of the hundred prisoners. But when all were
looking to see them attempt an escape, every one
of the prisoners helped to put out the flames, and
voluntarily remained to serve the rest of his sen-
tence. Such honorable conduct mystified the hea-
then authorities, and led to a careful investigation.
This investigation developed the fact that the con-
vict who had received the New Testament had
become so impressed with the trust of Christianity
that he had embraced the life-giving truth, and then
had devoted himself to teaching his fellow prisoners.
The man was given a pardon, but preferred to re-
main in Otsu that he might teach more of the “‘new
way’’ to the prisoners: