The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1920, Page 23

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‘ The Lutheran Pioneer. 23

a savage people, unable to make hiinself under-
stood, not understanding a single sound of their
language, but whose suspicious, hostile looks and
gestures speak only a too well-understood language
— yes, it is hard for one to realize that. The first
two years which I spent among the Battas, at first
all alone and afterward with my wile, were so hard
that it makes me shudder even now when I think
of them. Often it seemed as if we were not only
encompassed by hostile men, but also by hostile
powers of darkness; for often an inexplicable fear
would come over us, so that we had to get up at
night and go on our knees to pray or read the
Word of God in order to find relief.

“After we had lived in this place for two years,
we moved several hours’ journey inland, among
a tribe somewhat civilized, who received us more
kindly. There we built a small house with three
rooms, a living-room, a bedroom, and a small re-
ception-room, and life for us became a little more
easy and cheerful.

“When I had been in this new place for some
months, a man came to mé from the district where
we had been, and whom T had known there. I was
sitting on the bench in front of our house, and he
sat down beside me, and for a while talked of va-
rious subjects. Tinally he said:

‘Now, tuan [teacher], I have yet one request.’

“And what is that?’

“*T would like*to have a look at your watch-
men close at hand.’ :

“What watchmen do you mean? I’ have none.’

“<T mean the watchmen whom you station
around your house at night to protect you.’

*““*But I have no watchmen,’ I repeated; ‘1 have
only a little herdshoy and a little cook, and they
would make poor watchmen.’
~ “Then the man looked at ine incredulously, as
if he wished to say, ‘Oh, do not*try to make me
believe otherwise, for I know better.’

“Then he asked, ‘May I look through your house
to see if they are hidden there?”

“Yes, certainly, I said, laughingly; ‘look
through’ it; you won’t find anybody.’ So he went
in and searched in every corner, even through the
beds, but came to me very much disappointed.

“Then I began a little probing myself, and re-
quested him to tell. me the circumstances about

those watchmen of whom he had spoken, and this
is what he told me: —

«“ When you first came to aeiaane we were very
angry at you. We did not want you to live among

us; we did not trust you, and believed you had
some design against us. Therefore we banded to-
gether and resolved to kill you and your wife. Ac-
cordingly, we went to your house night after night ;
but when we came near, there always stood, close
around the house, a double row of: watchmen with
glittering weapons, and we did not venture to attack
them to get into your house.. But we were loath to
abandon our plan, and so we went to a professional

assassin [there still was among the savage Battas’

at that time a special guild of assassins, who killed
for hire any one whom it was desired to get out of
the way], and asked him if he would undertake to
kill you and your wife. He laughed at us for being
such cowards, and said, ‘I fear no God and no devil.
[ will get through those watchmen easily.’ So we
all met in the evening; and the assassin, swinging
his weapon about his head, courageously took the
lead. As we neared your house, we remained be-
hind, and let him go on alone. But in a short time
he came running. back hastily, saying, ‘No, I dare
not risk to go through alone;. two rows of big,
strong men are there, very close together, shoulder
to shoulder, and their weapons shine like fire.’ Then
we gave up killing you. But now tell me, tuan, who
are those watchmen? Tlave you never seen them?”

“No, I never saw them.’

“<Nor your wife ?

“No, my wife did not see them.’

“But we all saw them; how is that?’

“Then I went in and brought a Bible from our
house, and holding it open before him, said: ‘See
here: this book is the Word of our great God, in
which He promises to guard and defend us, and we
firmly believe that. Ward, therefore we need not see
the watchmen; but you do not believe, and. there-
fore the great God has to show you the watchmen,
in order that you may learn to believe.”
Selected.

—EEe

The Wonderful Love of God.

Many years ago, in a town in the south of
France, a dreadful plague broke out which no one
knew how to drive away. So the awful disease went
on unhindered, carrying off hundreds of people to
the grave. At length a brave young physician
offered to give up his life to save the town. He
first examined the body of a person who had died

of the dreadful pestilence (during which he caught ~
the deedly disease), then wrote down what he he- |

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