The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1924, Sheet 19

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PubiisiteD BY THE EVANGELICAL Lurieran Synoprcan Conrerence or Norra AMERICA.
REV. F. J. LANKENAU, EpDITOR.
Published monthly by Concordia Publishing Ilouse, St. Louis, Mo. Subscription price, 50 cts. per annum, payable strictly In advance,
Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 5, 1918.
ST. LOUIS, MO., MARCH, 1924. No. 3.

Vol. XLVI.

OUR MONTHLY MISSIONARY MOTTO.
‘“‘How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?’ Rom. 10, 14.

a

King’s Landing; $2.50; $4.00, etc.

A large plantation, called King’s Landing, lies
along the saffron-hued Alabama River, eighteen
miles southwest of Selma. In answer to a pitiful
cry from the people on this plantation we headed
our Gospel Ford toward this community on Jan-
uary 17%. It was with the prayer that the Savior,
without whom all our work is in vain, would open
the ears and hearts of these poor people to the sav-
ing message of the Gospel and bring them and their
children to true faith in His Word. . We asked Him
to be with us and open a door for us among the
poor and despised people on this plantation, as He
has done at so many other places here in Alabama
during the past seven years.

Driving in our faithful old Ford along winding
roads and through dense forests, we met people
afoot, on horse- and mule-back, in wagons and
buggies; we saw little children, barefooted and in
rags, frolicking around the cabins in the sunshine,
and we could not but feel sorry for them, knowing,
as we did, that they are living in this world without
God, without Christ. Rude and bare homes they
have, and in their present condition they have no
hope of reaching that home eternal in heaven for
which we Christians are bound and for which we
are longing. ©

Such were our thoughts before we reached the
house where our first meeting was to be held. The
head of the home, father of eleven children, and
four others were present at the service. Though

many had been notified of our intentions to conduct
a service, they failed to come. Pleading with us for
a church, the father of this large family said: “We
need the church here badly; we’re ignorant and
five hundred years behind the times.”

That man is right. What a pitiful outlook for
the people at King’s Landing! Hundreds of old,
gray-haired “uncles” and “aunties,” born before the
days of the Civil War, with their children and
grandchildren, live in cabins which dot this and the
surrounding plantations; their labor is so poorly -
paid that abject poverty is their lot. And what:
about their lot in the world to come? Unless some
one tells these poor sinners the story of the won-
drous love of a crucified Savior, their precious souls
cannot be saved; they* must be lost.

Last summer a revival, which drew people from
far and near, was conducted at King’s Landing.
The preacher, keenly disappointed at the size of the
collections and the failure of “sinners” to respond
to his threats, carried out a heathenish idea.
A deacon of the church was ordered to take his-
post in the belfry of the building. This was on the
last night of the “big meetin’.” At a certain sign
from the preacher he was to toll the bell.

Everything was in readiness. The big congre-
gation had assembled. ‘The service started. The
preacher pleaded, but the “sinners,” as on previous
nights, did not respond. The preacher threatened,
but to no avail. The “sinners” turned a deaf ear

and a blind eye to his word-pictures of hell-fire and
And now the plot. Kneeling before

damnation.