The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 7

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. 7

eventually be saved, regardless of mission activity.
Now, it is for just such people that I want to tell
the following experience, citing for their conviction
the fact that our efforts, no matter how humble and
weak and inexpensive, often accomplish the unex-
pected. And my hope is that many may be in-
spired to greater missionary activity, whether that
activity take the form of personal approach, the
sacrifice of money, or the giving away of tracts,
Bibles, and periodicals.

John Weems is a Negro. He served in the
World War, having seen service in France with the
soldiers of our nation. In one of the battles he
was gassed. The poisonous vapor affected his lungs,
so that now he is an inmate of Ward C, the ward
of the hopeless cases, at the United States Veterans’
Hospital, 91, Tuskegee, Ala. When I found him
in his room four weeks ago, he was too sick to raise
his head from the pillow. He did not want to
talk religion. Regardless of his protest I left a
tract, Am I Converted? published by our American
Iutheran Publicity Bureau, New York. The fol-
lowing Friday I found him sound asleep. But
I left him the tract The Forgiveness of Sins. And
the third week he was again asleep, so I left him
the third tract, entitled Hell, and a copy of the
Colored Lutheran.

Upon finding John Weems asleep for the second
time my thoughts naturally were: “This fellow
certainly knows when to sleep, or else he is a good

_ pretender!” But I made my rounds of the “hope-
less ward” and then came back to John’s room to
find him — awake, reading the tract I had left on
his bed! And this is what I heard from his lips,
the lips of a man staring death in the face: “These
little papers are good pastime. But I don’t believe
that there is any God or devil or hell or heaven.
We have all that stuff on earth. Life is what we
make it.” To which I replied, “The wages of sin
is death.” ‘After a few more words, apparently
spoken to the wind, as far as John was concerned,
I left him muttering something about “these
preachers bothering a fellow all the time!”

For two weeks I did not sce the subject of this
article. Upon the occasion of my next visit, after
my service in Ward B, at which upwards of seventy-
five tubercular soldiers were present, many of whom
were lying on their beds, I visited Ward C. In
due time the room of John Weems was reached.

And I intended to pass on without saying a word. .

But a glance into the room “to see if he was asleep
again” would not hurt. Instead of a sleeping John

like me.”

- reading-matter.

Weems I found a smiling-faced John Weems,
although covered to the neck with heavy woolen
blankets. And this is what I heard from the same
lips that had before denied the existence of God,
devil, heaven, and hell: “I want to talk to you.
Those little papers set me to thinking.” I could
hardly believe my own ears. This was the same
fellow who had complained about the miserable and
damnable preachers who always bother somebody
and do not mind their own business, etc. And this
man, to summarize his remarks, told me of a life
of shame, rape, murder, drunkenness. He claimed
to be everything that is vile. And then, after serv-
ing a prison sentence, he enlisted under an assumed
name to serve his country, not as a patriot, but as
an adventurer. The tale may sound fictitious, but
we dare not question a man’s word since we are
to place the best construction on everything. And
what now? “Ts there forgiveness for such a rat¢gl
as I'am? If God can forgive so great a crimpAl
as I have been, then I will believe in Him.” N
less to say, I pointed out such cases as the gf
sinner, Luke 7, the malefactor on the ne
others, whom God had so graciously accepted j
Christ. And then once more I was astonishe
the statement, “I want a Bible, so I can read
about this God who accepts such mean =

GRDTA ie

Personally, I am convinced that this m a
a brand plucked from the fires of hell. And I
and pray that the gracious God will grant m th
grace to instruct this man Jqhn Weems furth|
the Christian fundamentals, to baptize and co
him, all to the glory of our Savior, who comm
us to preach the Gospel to all creatures.

I ask, Does not an example of this svior
the value of advertising Christ, the Savior
sin, death, and hell? And does it matter about the
method, whether that advertising takes the form
of a sermon, a tract, or a sign-board? How small
a space a dozen tracts take up in a person’s pocket

- or purse! Yet how much good they can do! Hence

I am appealing to every Lutheran everywhere to
use tracts, distribute them, pass them on! God
will richly bless the effort.

And herewith goes another appeal: Miss S. M.
Peterson, the librarian of the U.S. V. B. Hos-
pital, 91, Tuskegee, Ala., who herself is a Negress,
requests Lutheran literature, books, periodicals, for
this hospital, since the “boys” are asking for such
And will we let the request of
John Weems for a Bible go unanswered?_

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