The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1922, Page 59

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The Lutheran Pioneer. : 59

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day, June 18, when all the members of Conference,
together with the members of the various congrega-
tions of the city, met at a large hall to celebrate the
fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Synodical
Conference. The spirit of the occasion was mani-
fested in the sermons and singing. With all due
respect; to those who delivered sermons and ad-
dresses, — and they were excellent sermons and ad-
dresses, too, — the singing was easily the feature of
the day, and especially the singing of the children
in the morning service. Brother, you should have
heard those children sing! A chorus of three hun-

of the prison” (spiritual), and to save just such as
they are. So well did the children sing that one
of the brethren remarked that even if the singing
in heaven was no better, he would be perfectly satis-
fied. And if you, dear reader, haye been fortunate
enough to have heard a band of untrained Negroes
sing, and especially Negro children, you’ will appre-
ciate the force of that remark when it is applied
to a chorus of trained Negro singers.

On Sunday night, after the sermon and address,
the conference was brought to a close, and a fitting
close it was with the choir singing “With Us Abide.”

First Joint Conference of All Workers in Our Negro Missions.

dred and fifty of them sang from a balcony “Lead
Us, Savior, Lead Us.” The strains of that song
floated out through the open windows and penetrated

the walls of the Parish Prison, located just across .

the street from the place of meeting. From the
balcony, where the children sang, *one could look
down into the prison-court and see the unfortunates
at play. The song of those children found an an-
swering echo in the hearts of some of those men
behind the bars; for at the end of the song, a
quartet of prisoners gathered behind the iron-barred
windows and answered with blind Fanny Crosby’s
immortal paean “Saved by Grace.” God grant that
they be “saved by grace”; for the Savior, to and
of whom the children sang, came to “open the doors

After one of the brethren had spoken a few well-
chosen words of thanks to the good people of New
Orleans for the wonderful way in which they had
entertained the out-of-town guests, the entire con-
gregation joined in singing “God Be with You.”
On Monday morning the brethren struck their tents
and with a heart full of gratitude to-God and the
good people of New Orleans turned towards their
yarious fields of labor to build higher the walls of
Zion and to work diligently while it is yet day, for
“the night cometh when no man can work.”

All were glad to shake hands and chat with the
one who every month, as the chairman expressed it,
sends out a batch of love-letters to-the workers on
the field. We refer to the Treasurer-of the Mission