The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1920, Page 83

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

83

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bers of other churches who attended. One old man
remarked: “I have heard many a white man preach,
but this is the only white man who knows just what
to say to colored people.”

On Monday our school opened with a full enrol-
ment, larger than ever before. We are still in our
same old schoolhouse; however, the children re-
joiced to see it had been remodeled just a little bit.

We hope that some day, through the Christian
instruction imparted to these children daily, many
may be gained for our mission. J.J. ALSTON.

Alex. Harris.

The following paragraphs are taken from that
interesting book, Missionary Heroes of the Lutheran
Church: —

“he evolution of Alex. Harris furnishes an in-
teresting illustration of what has been and is still
being done at Muhlenberg Mission [on the West
Coast of Africa] towards helping those people up to
a higher plane of living. The case shows the wis-

dom of Day [Missionary David A. Day] in com-*

bining the church, the school, and the various kinds
of manual labor, in dealing with the difficult prob-
lem by which he was confronted. ‘This boy, along
with a number of others, came out of the woods,
naked as the day he was born and as ignorant as the
other creatures that live in the jungle. He was
suitably clothed and placed in a primary school,
where, in the course of time, he acquired the rudi-
ments of an education. In the Sunday-school he

“advanced from the position of scholar to that of

teacher of a class, and later on became the super-
intendent of the school and a deacon in the church.

“Fe married one of the mission girls, moved out
several miles from the missionary farm, preempted
a tract of land, built himself a cabin, and settled
down to the life of a pioneer farmer. Soon after
he was settled in his new home, Mr. Harris wrote to
the Secretary of the Mission Board requesting that
a supply of primary books be sent to him, as he pro-
posed to start a school for the neglected children in
his neighborhood. The letter was well written, the
spelling was correct, and the sentences were gram-
matically constructed. The writer expressed the be-
lief that he could teach the children at night after
his day’s work on the farm. At any rate he was
going to sce what could be done. The books were
promptly sent, and he paid for them, although they
were offered as donations from the Board.

“Several years later I received another letter
from Harris enclosing a bill of exchange on a Lon-
don bank for an amount sufficient to pay for a steam-
engine and other machinery. I was not a little sur-
prised and gratified to learn in the further reading
of the letter that Harris’s farm had produced a
good crop of coffee, rice, and sugar-cane, and that —
he needed a coffee- and rice-huller and a steam-
engine with which to run his machinery. A gen-
erous manufacturer, on hearing the story of the
young African farmer, said, ‘I believe in helping
these fellows that help themselves, and at once
ordered his foreman to pack and ship the entire
outfit to Mr. Harris at forty per cent. off.

“A few years later there came a letter from
Dr. Day in which he said: ‘Last Sunday we dedi-
cated a church over in Alex. Harris’s neighborhood,
which grew out of the school that he organized
several years ago. He shipped his coffee to Balti-
more and his molasses to Liverpool, and with the
proceeds built the church all himself. He sent to
England and bought corrugated iron for the roof
and the sides of the building so it could better with-
stand this trying climate. A large number of people
attended the dedicatory services, some of them com-
ing a distance of many miles. The little church was
soon filled to its utmost capacity; and as others con-
tinued to come, the men went out and gave their
seats to the women, until the church was entirely
filled with women, while the men gathered around
the doors and windows to listen to the services. On
a certain occasion when I preached in a native town,
a number of women came to the service. The petty .
chief or headman with his “king whip,” as it is
called, laid on vigorously right and left, and drove
them all away, saying, “This God-palaver is not for
women.” On this occasion the men voluntarily gave
up their seats to the women while they stood on the
outside. This will give you an idea of the change
wrought by Alex. Harris. The entire neighborhood
has been revolutionized.’ ”

The World’s Call for Christ.

China has an area of 4,278,352 square miles —
the largest of any country in the world, with the
sole exception of Russia. It has.a population of over
400,000,000 — the largest of any single country in
the world, fully one-quarter of that of the whole
globe. China lies almost entirely within the tem-