The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1922, Page 60

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60

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Board, Mr. E. Schuetiner, who was an honored
guest at the conference. The venerable Director of
Missions, Rey. C. F. Drewes, could not be present
because of a painful accident which he had suffered
in an automobile wreck a few days before the con-
vening of the conference. May God in His mercy
grant the beloved Director a speedy and a complete
recovery !

This first general meeting of all the workers in
the Negro Missions resulted in the permanent or-
ganization of a joint conference, which is to convene
triennially. The next meeting is to be held, God
willing, some time during the year 1925, at Con-
cord, N.C. May all who were present at this the
first meeting be spared to attend the second and
many more to follow!

. Do the Negro Missions pay? ‘Turn to Is. 55, 11
and Rom. 1, 16, look .back forty-five years at the
small beginning, and see how to-day Lutheranism
has spread among the Negroes of eleven States and
the District of Columbia, and then look at this
conference at New Orleans, and you have the
answer. And the next forty-five years —? Who
among those present at the first meeting will attend
the sixteenth? Yes, who? May the seed that is
“being sown in the name of the Lord bring forth
fruit a hundredfold during the next twoscore and
five years as it has in the past! And it will, dear
friend, if you continue as you have. R.O.L. 1.

A Pentecost at Holy Ark, Ala.

You have, no doubt, heard people say that down
South men and women are not so much in a hurry
as they are in the North; that all take their time
and plenty of it; and that it is seldom that a day’s
work is done in less than two days, ete. This, how-
ever, is not true, as you may easily see from the
following facts.

Mr. E. B. Cozart is a student of Immanuel Col-.

lege. He finished his studies some time in May,
and left Greensboro on Thursday, June 1, arriving
at Selma, his future field of labor, on Friday night.
The young brother was permitted to rest on Satur-
day, but early on Sunday morning Superintendent
Schmidt took him to Holy Ark, a station that was
opened a few months ago. Holy Ark was to witness
a great ingathering that day, and the young worker
was to see that which was to gladden his heart and
“increase his zeal.
In the morning hours Pastor Schmidt conducted

the Sunday-school. The very large attendance was
a happy surprise to the young missionary. Among
the Sunday-school pupils were also not a few aged
men and women. ‘Two teachers ably assisted in
teaching the large number of pupils. The Pente-
cost story was the subject of the lesson, and the
interest shown by all was probably due to the fact
that what transpired at Jerusalem on the first day
of Pentecost as a result of the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit and the preaching of the Gospel by
Peter and the other apostles was to be reenacted
among them in a measure that day.

In the afternoon another service was held.
A great service it was; a service that made a last-
ing impression upon the new laborer. In this ser-
vice there was baptizing, confirmation, Communion,
and preaching. After a careful course of instruc-
tion in the teachings of God’s Word, a goodly
number of people were ready to be received into
the membership of our Lutheran Church. No less
than twenty persons were that day confirmed, while
twelve were baptized. He who bestowed miraculous
blessing at the first Pentecost in Jerusalem is giving
in His way new Pentecosts to His Church to-day.
Wherever the Gospel of the first Pentecost is
preached, there souls will also be gathered into the
Church of Christ. In this most inspiring service
Superintendent Schmidt was assisted by Pastor
Berger, who also preached one of the sermons.

At night another service was held, and again
there was a good attendance of attentive and in-
terested hearers. After the sermon the Jubilee Col-
lection barrels‘ were opened. The people of Holy
Ark had gathered the neat sum of $30.07. Con-
sidering the poverty of these people and the short
time in which this collection had been made, this
sum represents many sacrifices on the part of the
donors. I am sure the incident of the poor widow
who gave her mite was acted over in Holy Ark in
more than one instance.

When I heard of these successful services on
Pentecost at Holy Ark, there arose before me the
picture of a ‘umble-down shack standing at the
corner of the woods. And then I saw people
coming towards that shack from every direction,
through the woods and across the clearings and
fields; some in dilapidated buggies, some in ox-
carts, and most. of them on foot; many of them
hatless, more of them shoeless, but all dressed in
the best they possessed ‘in the way of clothing;
mothers carrying their suckling babes, fathers car-
rying the one- and two-year olds, the older children