The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1906, Page 39

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The Lutheran Pioneer. 39

Items from New Orleans.

THE FIRST THREE MONTHS of the year are, as
a rule, very fruitful in evidences of spiritual ac-
tivity within our local congregations. The usual
statistical reports covering the first quarter of this
year are, therefore, highly encouraging. All Sun-
day and festival services have been well attended,
the averages in St. Paul’s Church, for instance,
being 39 adults and 70 children in the morning
services and 59 adults and 11 children at night.
Mount Zion and Bethlehem, somewhat smaller in
membership than St. Paul’s, average as high.

Our scnoors also are still holding their own,
although there has been, and is yet, much sickness
among all classes of children in town, while, on the
other hand, many of the older ones leave the city
at this time of the year to earn a few dollars on the
berry farms of the surrounding country districts.
— Only the other day we again had opportunity
to note the influence and power of our schools in
the districts in which they are situated. A promi-
nent member of a local colored sectarian church,
pointing to the school next to his church, said,
“We had to open up that building, otherwise the
Lutherans would have taken all our children away
from us.” But we get them in spite of their
schools, because they come to us of their own free
will.

On Pato Sunpay cight children were received
by confirmation in St. Paul’s Church. Pastor Lan-
kenau is also instructing three adults for admit-
tance into the congregation. In Mount Zion and
Bethlehem churches confirmation will take place
on the Sunday after Easter. Pastor Kossmann is
preparing four adults for that ceremony, while in
Mount Zion one adult has definitely announced
his intention of becoming a member, the number
of children in both the latter churches being an
uncertain quantity up to the very moment of the
public ceremony. As a rule, the majority of those
being instructed are personally willing to be con-
firmed, but various circumstances often keep. them
from doing as they wish.

Luruer CoLtrce is sadly in need of a library.
If the kind reader finds himself in a position to be
able to send us one or. more good books, or wishes
to offer financial help in this direction, he may be
assured that either, or both, will be cordially ap-
preciated by professors and students. i

THE CONTRIBUTIONS AND COLLECTIONS of our
churches, schools, and Sunday schools during the
past three months amount to $609.62. Besides,
Luther College lately turned over to the general
treasury tuition fees amounting to $35.00.

NOTES.

CoLoreD Misston Sciutoon in Sv. Louris. —
Our Lutheran city missionary in St. Louis, some
years ago, organized a mission school for colored
children, which has proved a blessing to many.
The Rev. McDavid had charge of the mission
station until he was transferred to Charlotte, N. C.
At present the station is served by a colored student
from Springfield, assisted by students from our
St. Louis Seminary. j

Ixp1an Missions. — The Rev. D. Larsen was
recently installed as the second missionary of the
Lutheran Missouri Synod, to take charge of the
mission among the Menominee Indian tribe in
Wisconsin. May God abundantly bless the labors
of His servant in church and school to the salva-
tion of many souls.

Too Busy. — About hundred years ago a teacher
in a school in New York City talked to his pupils
about the heathen. A little girl eight years old,
who heard him, made up her mind that she would
labor in the mission field in some heathen land, if
it was God’s will. Home duties kept her from ful-
filling her resolution until she was thirty years old.
She then went to the island Ceylon as a missionary.
She labored: there for forty-three years withont once
returning to America. When people asked her,
“Why do you not take a vacation?” she replied, “I
am too busy.” The name of this woman was Eliza
Agnew.

A Sap CoareLainr. — A missionary writes from
China: “I cannot forget what one dear woman
said to me when I was at Kwang-feng. She came
in every day and always listened so attentively. She
had such a sad face, and she told me how her son,
a young man of twenty-five, had died a few months
ago. He was a very dutiful son, and they were re-
building their house so that he might open up a

carpenter’s shop, when he was taken ill and died in ~

a few days. After she had told me, with tears in
her eyes, she held my hand and said, ‘Oh, if you
had only come sooner you could have prayed for
him, and he might have recovered; at least, he
would have heard of Jesus.”