The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1924, Page 15

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

15

tree. Tuesday morning, at six o’clock, he had divine
service with Communion, and Christmas night a
very elaborate program was rendered at Grace by
the children. The members also remembered the
Rev. Holsten; he received many tokens of esteem.
On January 6 Mr. Niles Baxter was united in
matrimony to Miss Pearl Blyler. J. McD.

Tue Rocks. — It was a dreary, gloomy day
when our little flock of faithful Lutherans gathered
at their little chapel in the woods, called The Rocks.
They had come to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. The
local pastor, the Rev. Foard, conducted the liturgical
part of the service and introduced the speaker, Rev.
Hans Naether, who is presently assisting at Im-
manuel Lutheran College. He preached on 1 Cor.
9, 6—12, exalting God’s bountiful goodness toward
us and exhorting us not to sow sparingly. While the
bountiful dinner was being prepared, the members
pledged themselves to- show their loyalty to Im-
manuel College. After a few days five bags of po-
tatoes, beans, and turnips were received, express
prepaid. May the Lord bless our brethren at The
Rocks, and may their good example inspire others
to do likewise! H. NarTHer.

The Month of February and Lutheran
Missions.

Gustavus Adolphus, the hero king of Sweden,
had already entertained the thought of planting a
Swedish colony in America for missionary purposes,
namely, to carry on mission-work among the In-
dians. -This plan was carried out when Peter
Minuit, a German in the employ of Sweden, led
an expedition to Delaware. This party left Sweden
in December, 1637, and landed in Delaware in
February, 1638. Other expeditions followed in sub-
sequent years. It was one of the first Swedish Lu-
theran pastors and missionaries, John Campanius,
who translated Luther’s Small Catechism into the
language of the Delaware Indians. This was the
first book translated into an Indian language,
though it was not published till some time after
Eliot had sent out his Indian Bible.

This same John Campanius arrived in America
on February 15, 1643; and three years later, in
1646, the centennial year of Luther’s death, he ded-
icated the first Lutheran church in America at
Christina, the present city of Wilmington.

* It was also in this month of February — to be
‘exact, on February 23, 1719 — that Bartholomew

Ziegenbalg, the Lutheran missionary of Tranquebar
and the first of all Protestant missionaries in India,
died at the age of only thirty-six years. He had
labored scarcely thirteen years, yet the work he
accomplished in that short time was most remark-
able. Ziegenbalg laid down the lines on which his
successors throughout the length and breadth of
India have continued to work to this day. While
there have been developments during the two cen-
turies that have passed into missionary history since
Ziegenbalg died, there has been no abandonment of
the methods adopted by Ziegenbalg, except in one
point. He was truly “The Morning Star of Modern
Indian Missions.”

That other great shining light of Lutheran mis-

Bartholomew Ziegenbalg.

sions in India, Christian Frederick Schwartz, like-
wise entered into his eternal rest in this month,
namely, on February 13, 1798, after having labored
in that foreign land for forty-eight years. This
missionary-statesman left a deep impression upon
the land of his adoption and enjoyed the highest
regard of all with whom he came into contact. His
last words were: “Into Thy hands I commend my
spirit; Thou hast redeemed me, O God of truth.”
Prince and peasant, soldier and civilian, Christian,
Hindu, and Mohammedan, alike mourned the friend
whom they had lost. Never probably has the death
of a missionary been regretted in India by men of
so many different races, classes, and stations in life,
and certainly no other missionary has ever been
honored in his death to such an extent by the ruling
powers. Over his grave an Indian prince erected