The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1906, Page 95

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NOTES.

CLoseE or VotuME.— This number closes an-
other volume of the LurHEraAN PIONEER, and we
would remind our readers and friends of our. mis-
sion that the beginning of a new volume is the best

time of the year to secure new subscribers. The
Christmas season is a season of gifts. Why not

gladden the heart of the little Pronger with the
present of an enlarged subscription list? Our
friends will not forget that any profits arising from
our mission papers are devoted to our mission work,
and that circulating our mission papers is accord-
ingly a twofold benefit.

Tue Crostnc Yrar.— The closing year has
been called “a year of calamities.” Says a New
York paper: “The passing year has been so full
of horrors that ordinary people dread to look at the
morning papers.” And another secular paper re-
cently had an article under the striking heading,
“The Act of God,” in which the writer speaks of
the “monumental calamities of the passing year,
furnishing such a list as few, if any year, has
shown.” To the Christian the increasing calami-
ties are partly reminders of the fact that in the
midst of life we are in death, and partly signs of
the coming end of all things. They add force to
the Lord’s repeated admonition: “Watch therefore;
for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come;”
“Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not
when the time is;” “Watch ye therefore, and pray
always.”

ArricA At Home.—A Philadelphia paper,
speaking of “evils among the colored people” and
of the “responsibility of the churches for the reli-
gious nurture of the colored race,” says: “The
white people of the country, North and South, have
a heavy responsibility for their neglect of this race,
which, through no choice of its own, has been
brought to this country and committed to the
charge of our people. Never was so great a charge
more fatefully neglected. The churches of America
give millions upon millions for the support of mis-
sions in Africa, India, China, and Japan; but they
practically leave ten millions of home-born Africans
to fall back into barbarism. When we read of
generosity to foreign missions we rejoice; but when
we think of our forgotten Africa at home we say,
These things ought we to have done, and not to
leave the other undone.” :

* The Lutheran church, for more than a quarter

The Lutheran Pioneer. 95

of a century, has beén doing mission work among
the colored people, and her work in church and
school has not been in vain. It has been a blessing
to many of the colored race for time and eternity.
Still, as in all our mission fields, more could be
done, if the men and the means were forthcoming.
Especially at the present time, when by the blessing
of God our mission work among the colored people
is expanding and is in need of larger contributions
and more liberal support, our Lutheran Christians
should be roused to greater zeal for this important
mission in our own “Africa at home.”

—______>-.-_.

Napoleonville.

Surrounded by extensive sugar-cane plantations,
on the banks of Bayou Lafourche, in the southern
part of the State of Louisiana, lies the little city
of Napoleonville. Perhaps the pages of the Pronrer
never would have known even the name of this
little town if it had not been for what the Lord did
through the instrumentality of our good friend:
Mr. Joe Nelson, a member of Rev. Lankenauw’s col-
ored congregation at New Orleans and a native of
Napoleonville. Having returned to his native city
after some years’ residence in New Orleans where
he had become a Lutheran, Mr. Nelson succeeded
in getting his fellow-townsmen interested in the
work of the Lutheran church among the colored
people of the South. In June of this year the first
Lutheran service was held out there by Pastor Lan-
kenau with more than a hundred colored hearers in
attendance. Mr. Nelson continued his missionary

- activity, Pastor Lankenau went out to preach as

often as circumstances would permit, and it soon
developed that here was a field ready for the harvest
if only men and means could be found to occupy it.
The prospects for opening up mission schools not
only in Napoleonville, but in neighboring towns and
villages as well, seemed particularly bright. The
people of the former place promised active coopera-
tion if a man were sent to take charge of the work.
But there was the rub, —it seemed impossible to
find a man. Besides, there was opposition on the
part of such church denominations as were already
in the field. During the month of October a school
was opened under the auspices of a local colored
Baptist congregation in the very building in which
Pastor Lankenau held his services and which would
have been at our disposal had we been in a position
to claim it. Promises had been made, but could
not be kept. Mr. Nelson wrote to Pastor Lankenau