The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1923, Page 26

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26

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Director of our Colored Missions wrote to me the
other day that he had told several of the workers:
“Tf you don’t let up on your work, we'll reduce
your salary!” And of another worker he says:
“When he heard of S.’s work in Alabama, he
volunteered to spend his next summer’s vacation
in the Black Belt and help him.” Is not this a fine
spirit that is filling our missionaries? But should
we permit them to be the only ones that are burning
with a zeal for the salvation of the freedmen? Is
not the command to bring the Gospel to every
creature spoken to us just as well as to them?

Let me relate to you a little incident that oc-
curred a few weeks ago. Perhaps your hearing of
it will prompt you to do a similar thing. A lady
of our church some weeks ago came to me and said:
“Pastor, how much will it cost to keep a native
mission-worker in India for a year?” I answered:
“About $75. But why do you ask?” Her answer
was: “I have been thinking for some time that
I should like to have somebody over there in India
teaching the poor heathen for me. God has blessed
me with health and my husband in his business,
and I should like to show my gratitude to God by
paying the salary of a native worker.” Now, wasn’t
that fine? Who will show his gratitude to God for
His favors in a similar way? There is so much
opportunity to do so in our Colored Missions.
Wake Israel from his sleep, O Lord,
And spread the conquest of Thy Word!

F.J.L.

A Question from the Black Belt:
Does It Pay?

It is a hot day, although only April. After the
long winter rains all nature is rejoicing in the warm
sunshine, having put on the spring dress of green
grass and leaves, decorated with an abundance of
flowers. The missionary, having just crossed the
Alabama River, stops his “Gospel Ford”-in front
of a one-room dwelling — “shanty,” you would say.
He enters the uninviting house. It is hot outside,
but inside the heat is stifling. On a filthy mattress,
trying to ward off the flies that persist in pestering
his face and hands, lies an old Negro. A short time
before he had suffered a paralytic stroke. His
daughter, forsaken by her husband, takes care of
her suffering father as best she can. The missionary
steps close to the bed, and, after a few remarks,
" proceeds to’ tell him a Gospel-verse. In simple
“yncle” is told of his sinful and lost con-

wo:

~ Chureh.

dition and then pointed to the blood of Jesus
Christ, which can cleanse him from all his sins.

Back from the road, in a little clearing, live
two members of Mount Carmel Colored Lutheran
Both “Uncle? Edmund and “Aunt”
Fanny are good old souls. Their home is a miser-
able one-room hut, rotten with age. To keep the
cold out in winter, newspapers and pages out of
mail order catalogs have been pasted over the cracks
between the boards which serve as outside and inside
wall. The chimney is a tumble-down affair. And
the roof is a sieve, drenching the people living under
it, so that they often stand up all night before the
fire to dry their clothes as fast as they get wet. But
“Uncle” Edmund and “Aunt” Fanny are all smiles

Rev. E. A. Westcott.

when the missionary drives up in his car. Gladly
they drop their work, eagerly they listen to a Gospel-
story ora psalm. With many anod and exclamation
they register their thankfulness and joy. “That’s
right, feed your sheep!” “Aunt” Fanny says to the
missionary as he is taking leave of the old couple:

Again we step into a cabin. Quietly the room
fills with Negroes, young and old. ‘The two mis-
sionaries are crowded almost into the fireplace.
Before them is a sewing-machine, serving ‘as pulpit
and altar. Attentively all listen to the sermons.
And then 21 adults are confirmed as members of
the Lutheran Church, having confessed their faith
in Jesus, their Savior, while 11 children are bap-
tized into the name of the Triune God. Think of
it — 82 people who a few months ago knew nothing
about being saved by faith in Jesus’ blood and