The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1905, Page 24

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Ss 24 The Lutheran Pioneer.

He is taught to love God’s Word: this makes good
church-goers. He is taught to honor and obey
parents and masters: this makes obedient children,
good servants, and faithful laborers. He is taught
- not to hate his fellow-man and perhaps injure or
eventually murder him. He is taught to be chaste:
this will make good fathers and mothers. He is
taught not to steal: this will make him trustworthy.
In short, you elevate him in heart and mind to the
life of a Christian, and good Christians never fail to
make good and valuable citizens. You make this
despised, berated, and abused race useful in all ayve-
* nues of life. Enlightened by the Word of God, they
become faithful, diligent, industrious, and thrifty ;
in fact, with God’s Word-well rooted in their hearts,
you will make, so to say, a new race of men and
women out of them, who may put to shame many
* an ungodly white man and woman in this life and
on the day of judgment.

What a great change for the better in the social
and economical conditions of the commonwealth of
the United States lies in prospect as a result of this
mission if it could be carried on to its fullest extent!
But if it is not for us to conquer all, let us go for-
ward step by step in the good work, according to
the means God provides. His blessings are sure to
follow. F. J. O.

The Frog Oath.

On the Island of Sumatra in the Dutch Indies
there live the numerous Battak tribes. They belong
to the Malay race. Those who are still heathen wor-
ship good and evil spirits that are believed to live on
the mountains, in caves, in the springs and creeks,
and protect or hurt man and his cattle and fields
according to the measure of his offering in their little
temples guarded by greedy priests. t :

: Heathen as they are, the Battak never commit
perjury; the nature of the oath they take prevents
them from doing so. A dispute is settled by an
oath. The Battaks do not swear by their gods, but
‘*by the frog.”” Some man of good repute goes to
the next swamp and catches a frog. He ties a hind
leg to a cord made of grass, and fastens this to a

whip. He then walks up to him who is to take an
oath and says to him, ‘‘As this frog is hanging now
and will perish miserably, thou shalt hang and all
_ thy descendants likewise, if thou art committing
= perjury.”? The man about to swear will then say,
“Like this frog dangling from thy whip and going
to die miserably, I shall hang, and all my descend-
-~ ants shall hang and perish, if 1am committing per-
jury.” Thus saying, solemnly he will touch the

wriggling frog. The other man will then throw the
frog upon the ground until it is dead, and then throw
it into the swamp. The Battaks firmly believe that
a perjurer will come to a bad end and his descend-
ants will die off miserably. They therefore are very
much afraid to break an oath.

The Christian Battaks—of whom there are
nearly sixty thousand, gathered by the Rhenish
Mission—do not swear at all, and are in no wise
afraid of the spirits their fathers worshiped; they
have become free from idolatrous superstition, and
trust in the true God. — Exchange.

Christ in the Scriptures.

Remove Christ from the Scriptures and they will
become an empty shell. Every word in the Scrip-
tures points at Him, since the Scriptures were re-

vealed to the holy men who wrote them for His sake.
- Luther.

Acknowledgments.

Received for colored missions from Mount Zion Church,
New Orleans, La., $25.00; from St. Paul’s Church, New
Orleans, La., 25.00; from Bethlehem Church, New Orleans,
La., 25.00; from St. Paul’s Church, Mansura, La., 10.00; from
St. Matthew’s Church, Meherrin, Va., 10.00: from mission
station in St. Louis, Mo., 3.25; from Holy Trinity Church,
Sp pee Ill.,-5.14; from Grace Church, Concord, N.C.,
10.00.

For Luther College from the following congregations in
New Orleans: St. Paul 70.60, Mount Zion 53.00, Bethlehem
43.05, and of Rev. J. Kossmann from R. Dixon and family
6.01; from St. Paul’s Church in Mansura, La., 33.00.

St. Louis, February 15, 1905.

A.C. Bureporr, Treas.

Evangelical Lutheran Colored Churches.
NEW ORLEANS, LA.
St. Paul’s Chapel, 1625 Annette St., near N. Claiborne St.; F. J. Lan-
kenau, Pastor.

aye Services: Sunday, 11.A. M. and 7.30 P. m.; Wednesday,

7.30 P. M. s
Mount Zion Church, Franklin and ThaliaSts. ; K. Kretzschmar, Pastor.
Divine Services: Sunday, 11 A. M. and 7.30 Pp. M.; Thursday,

7.30 P. M.
Bethlehem Chapel, Washington Ave. and Dryades St.; J. W. F. Koss-
mann, Pastor.
Divine Services: Sunday, 10 A. 31. and 7.30 Pp. m.; Thursday,
P.M.

SPRINGFIELD, ILL.

Holy Trinity Church; L. E. Thalley, Pastor.
Divine Services: Sunday, 10.30 A. om. and 8 P. M.

TERMS:
THE LUTHERAN PIONEER is published monthly, payable
in adyance at the following rates, postage included, to-wit:
5

Copy 2.
10 Copies 2.00
phy 5.00
(AU US aS cop DODHOuD Enc Hines - 9.00

Club rates only allowed if all copies are to be sent to one
address. —In St. Louis by mail or carrier, 35 cents.

All business communications to be addressed to Con-
cordia Publishing House, Jefferson Ave. and Miami St.,
St. Louis, Mo. :

All communications concerning the editorial. depart-
ment to be addressed to Prof. R. A. Biscnorr, Conover,
Catawba Co., N. C. :