The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1912, Page 26

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26

The Lutheran Pioneer.

An Easter Morning in Surinam.

In Surinam, Dutch Guiana, South America,
there is a leper village, named Bethesda, where
many poor exiles, afllicted with the dreadful disease
of leprosy, find a Christian home. It is a small
village of little houses, each accommodating two
patients in separate rooms. A missionary and his
wife devoted themselves to the poor sufferers. ‘The
missionary gives the following description of an
Easter morning with the lepers in Surinam : —

Early on Easter morning the lepers are assem-
bled in their chapel. Quietly they await the com-
ing of the missionary. Soon he enters with the
joyful Easter greeting, “The Lord is risen!” The
lepers rise, responding with the words, “He is risen
indeed !” and triumphantly the words sound forth:

Hail, all hail, victorious Lord and Savior!
Thou hast burst the bonds of death!
Grant us, as to Mary, that great favor

To embrace Thy feet in faith!

Thou hast in our stead the curse endured,
And for us cternal life procured.

Joyful, we with one accord

Hail Thee as our risen Lord.

The lepers now all pass out in silent procession
to the last resting-place of the dead. Silently they
move along, each one absorbed in his own thoughts.

On the edge of the forest rises a cross from
among the tall grass. They have now reached the
peaceful graveyard of the leper colony. No high
monuments of brass or stone adorn this resting-
place of the dead. In vain would you seek even the
simplest gravestone.

“T am the Resurrection and the Life! Who-
soever believeth in me shall live though he were
dead!” Thus sound the words of Jesus, spoken by
the missionary, the words of life and hope over the
lowly graves of the departed. And as the sun rises
on the opposite shore of the Surinam River, the
company of cripples, men, women and children, all
clad in:white, surround the graves of their former
companions and friends whose long path of suffer-
ing has ended here,

Not far from these Christian lepers a ng
number of heathen coolies listen to their Easter
hymn of rejoicing:

Jesus lives! Henceforth is death
But the gate of life immortal;

This shall calm. my trembling breath
When I pass its gloomy portal;
Faith shall cry, as fails each sense,
Lord, Thou art my confidence!

The hymn has died away. The Christian con-

gregation unites in prayer to the risen Savior.

Those among the lepers whose hands remain
reverently fold them. The others cross their erip-
pled members. ‘The missionary in his prayer com-
mends them all to the heart of the all-compas-
sionate Savior. He asks that an Easter blessing
may also come upon the heathen people who still
dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, far from
the Easter light and hope. When the Amen has
been said, the lepers extend to each other, over the
graves of the departed, their crippled hands, during
the singing of the hymn:

We who here together are assembled,
Joining hearts and hands in one,

Bind ourselves with love that’s undissembled
Christ to love and serve alone,

Oh, may our imperfect songs and praises

Be well-pleasing unto ‘Thee, Lord Jesus:
Say, “My peace I leave with you.”

Amen! Amen! Be it so!

Now they return home to their cottages, the
homeless exiles who by faith in the crucified and
risen Savior have found the way to their Father's
home on high and peace on earth. Across their
scarred and disfigured faces passes a beam of Easter
joy. They know that God’s messenger will some
day come to their couch of suffering and gently
bear them away from this valley of corruption into
the land of the redeemed from many nations, where
dwell the saints in light and where there shall be
“no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain; for the former things
are passed away.”

“I Know that My Redeemer Liveth.”’

’ Early on Easter Day, April 1, 1548, King Sigis-
mund the First of Poland, aged 81 years, entered
his beautiful chapel, together with several attend-
ants. ‘Thoughtfully he there looked at the marble
tomb which he had prepared during his lifetime.
He sighed deeply as he felt that the hour was near
in which he would have to exchange the throne for
the coffin, the royal mantle for the shroud.

At last he said, “Well, I know that my Re-
deemer liveth. He will raise me again from my
chamber of rest. With these my eyes .will I behold
my Savior who to-day is risen from the dead.”

Then he fell upon his knees, and while he was
praying, the hour came which he felt to be so near.
His soul passed into the presence of Him who is
the Resurrection and the Life.