The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1911, Page 46

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46

"he Lutheran Pioneer.

From that time Burke was a changed man. He
gladly conversed with those who did mission work
' among the prisoners. The sheriff thought he was
playing a part. He had no confidence in his pro-
fessed conversion, and had him closely watched after
his release from prison, when Burke was trying for
some months to find work. His looking for work
was in yain, as no one would take him, knowing his
past history.

One day the sheriff had Burke to come to his
office in the old court house, where he greeted him
very kindly. He told him: “I have had you
shadowed ever since you left jail. I suspected your
religion was a fraud. But I am convinced that you
are sincere, as you've lived an honest Christian life,
and I have sent for you to offer you a deputyship
under me. You may begin at once.’

From that day Burke, enjoying the confidence
of all, was employed in the sheriff’s office until his
death, which occurred in 1905. One who knew him
well writes: ‘Valentine Burke lived an active, con-
sistent Christian life in his position until God called
him home. One of his favorite texts was: “This is
a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin-
ners, of whom I am chief.”

Heathen Despair.

In a recently published account of his expe-
riences, an African traveler, who spent several years
among the natives of Central Africa, relates the
following instance of heathen despair: —

One day, whilst strolling through a native vil-
lage, my attention was attracted by the pitiful
moaning of a woman. I found her lying on a heap
of refuse— banana peelings, sweepings, fishbones,
and rubbish, all seething in the hot sun. The poor
creature appeared to be in great distress. Her
body was smeared with blood and filth, and the
flesh was literally torn from either side of her face,
leaving her temples bare and raw.

In her agony she had clawed and torn her flesh
with her finger nails. Her despair was indeed piti-
ful to behold, and I sought to soothe her, but all
in vain.

‘ Turning to a native who was standing by, I
inquired in the native language, “What ails this
woman? What manner of malady is this? Quickly

tell me words to explain this!” .

The ee Shrugged. his shoulders, and with
a scornful toss of his head he replied, “That

woman’s baby died a few days ago. See! She
bleeds herself with grief. That is all!”

Grief! That is all! Oh, the misery and pity
of it all! The touching sadness of the scene would
have moved a heart of stone. As a mother, this
woman had cherished and loved her child; as a
heathen savage, ignorant of faith and forlorn, she
mourned her infant’s death, sorrowing as one that
has no hope.

It was the despair of heathenism, found not
only in the darkness of Central Africa! We have
an Africa in our own land. Wherever the Gospel
light does not shine people live without Christ, with-
out God, without hope in this world. For the
Christless and godless there is nothing but dark-
ness and despair here and hereafter.

Those who by God’s grace enjoy the blessings
and consolations of Christ’s Gospel of hope and
salvation should earnestly strive to spread the com-
forting light of the Gospel in the dark places of
our own and other Jands.

~-——_——# ee -—- -

The Lord’s Kingdom.

Our dear Lord rules in the kingdom of God as
the director of a hospital does among the sick, the
poor, and the infirm inmates; for to this kingdom
none but sinners and miserable men belong whose
sins are forgiven. — Luther.

ene

Lutheran Church in Chicago.

When the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in
Chicago, now 82 years old, the Rev. Dr. H. Wunder,
tcok charge, September 21, 1851, of the Lutheran
St. Paul’s Church, which he is still serving, his con-
gtegation was the first and only Lutheran church
in Chicago.

God has abundantly blessed his and his breth-
ren’s faithful work in His vineyard and has granted
His aged servant the grace to see in his old age the
wondrous fruit of their labors for the spread of
Christ’s kingdom.

The latest statistics, compiled by order of the
City Directory Publishing Co., by the aged Vaudois
missionary, show that the Lutheran Church in Chi-
cago has grown, within sixty years, from one small
congregation to the number of 202 congregations
and missions.

God’s Word and Luther’s doctrine is. preached
in sixteen different languages in Chicago, and in a