The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1920, Page 70

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70

The Lutheran Pioneer.

people say: The most we can contribute to the mis-
sionary fund is a penny a week, and what’s a penny
a week? But let me tell you something. When
I crossed the mountains on my way hither, I saw
a little brook and I said: Little brook, where are
you going?—Oh, I am going to join the river
Mersey. — River Mersey, where are you going? —
Oh, I’m going down to Liverpool. — And what are
you going to do at Liverpool? — Oh, I want to carry
ships -out of port, out into the open sea, away to
foreign lands; and as soon as they are reladen,
I intend to bring them back.

“Just so I would say: Pennies, where are you
going?— We are going to join the shillings and
swell the missionary fund. — Shillings, where are
you going? — We’re going to join the pounds and
swell the missionary fund. — Pounds, where are
you going?— We're going to the meeting of the
Missionary Society in London. — And what are you
going to do in London? — Why we're going to
secure missionaries and Bibles and carry them off

to the uttermost parts of the earth, that England’s -

God and England’s Bible may be known and loved
everywhere.”

The Story of a South American Indian
Chief.

The following story was told by an Indian chief
of South America. Read his story; for you will
find it most interesting and instructive. How sim-
ilar to those of Luther and others in the Roman
Church were his spiritual experiences! How plainly
his simple story brings out the truth of Toplady’s
old Hymn : — ;

Not the labors of my hands

Can fulfil Thy Law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,

All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

“When I was a young man, I had a very deep
sense of my own wickedness. My heart was bur-
dened, and there seemed absolutely no way of escape
for me. It seemed that I was already condemned
to die. I did everything I knew~to appease the
wrath of an angry God, but the more J did, the more
_ condemned I felt. I was unhappy indeed: I was
led to go to the city of Copocabana to worship at
the shrine of the image of the Virgin of Copocabana.
I was told that she had great power to heal and to
pardon sins. In-my zeal to stand justified before

God, I set to work making images like the ones in

‘go free.

the church at that place. I learned the song in
my language that all are taught to sing upon leaving
that place. ‘The first verse of the song is: —

“Good-bye, blessed mother,

Crying, you I leave;

Yes, crying, 1 am going,

But you I'll always remember.

“Besides this song I learned all the priests would
teach. I begged them to teach me the Latin prayers
that they repeated in mass. Then I went home,
thinking that now I would surely be happy. My
heart was light. I felt that I was no longer con-
demned. I called my countrymen and with them
built a church on my own property. We placed the
images we had made inside the church and, after —
consulting the local priest, set the day for the special
feast of our church. I felt that all had been done
that an angry God could demand of me. But that
same heavy burden returned as soon as my activities
ceased. What could I do? It seemed that all I had
done had availed me nothing. I felt that I was the
most miserable man that ever lived.

“T began looking for something else that would
give rest to my heart. I heard of a place near
Chucuito, called Plateria, where they were teaching
my own race. I was told that the teaching was
a great deal different than in our churches, and
that I would be contaminated should I go and listen.
But I decided_to go anyway:

“T listened at first as though I were listening to
something that I ought not to hear and that would
do me harm. But the teaching seemed to be just
what I had all the years so longed to hear, and
I became interested. I went again and again.
I took some of my relatives with me. We learned
that there was One who was willing to take our
load of sin and carry it for us, and that we might
We decided to ask for a teacher. We
asked, and were told that we would have to be
patient. Soon we asked again, and were told that
a teacher would surely be sent, but that we must
have patience a little longer. We next went in
a delegation and pressed our plea. A teacher was
given us. Now we have the Word of God in our
very midst. We love our teacher, and’ are very ©
happy that we now know the way of salvation.”

Dear readers, there are hundreds, aye, thousands,
who are longing to be free from the load of their
sins just as this chief longed, but they know not
how. They are groping along in the darkness, try-
ing to find the way. What are you doing to help
them ? F. J. L.