The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1914, Page 83

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The Lutheran Pioneer. 83

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also self-evident to them that Jesus, the Son of
God, as the Messenger from heaven, must be able
to perform miracles. Of course, they often made
their own peculiar applications to the stories told
them. Having been told how Jesus had stilled
the wind and the waves on the Sea of Galilee,
and their attention being called to the fact that
Jesus still had sovereign power over nature, over
sun, moon, and stars, storm and rain, they came
to the missionary and asked him to pray the good
Tamo Jesus to grant them a few nights of bright

joined, “I can’t do that. My lunch would be too
small, and I can’t make it any larger.” “We don’t
expect you to do that,” said another boy, “simply
give us your luncheon, we'll divide it among us,
and then do as the disciples did: we'll think that
we have had enough!” Sharp little rationalist,
this little Papuan!

The missionaries found it a very difficult task
to explain the parables of the New Testament to
the Papuans. For the native of Papua sows no
seed, he never saw a sheep, never bakes bread, knows

moonlight for their great dancing festival, which
was soon to be celebrated.

One day one of the missionaries told his pupils
the story of Jesus’ feeding the five thousand with
five loaves and two fishes. Not long after, he went
out into the forest to cut a few poles, and took

. the boys with him. Having cut the poles, he sat

down to eat a small luncheon he had brought with
him. ‘The little black boys gathered around him,
and one of them said, “Tell us the beautiful story
again you told us a few days ago.” “What story?”
“Why, the one about Jesus’ feeding so many
people.” “Why do you want me to tell you that
story now?” “Oh,” said one of the little rascals,
“we thought you might do like Jesus did, and give
us your lunch.” Laughingly the missionary re-

nothing about leaven, money, and the like. Such
beautiful parables as that of the sower and the seed,
the lost sheep, and many others. were, therefore,
incomprehensible to him. When Missionary Kunze
related to them the story of the good and bad fishes,
his hearers laughed at him and said, “Kunze, the
angels are certainly very stupid and foolish. We
don’t throw away the rotten fish, for they are better

-to eat than the others.” °

Jesus’ work of redemption was very hard for
them to grasp, because almost all sense of ‘sin and
guilt was unknown to them. Their ideas of good and
evil were so misty that they no longer saw the
hideousness of sin. When a certain missionary
once compared sin with the filth which disfigures
the body, a hearer exclaimed, “Why, dirt is also