The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1928, Page 18

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18 THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.
eee LEE

Dear Reader. -

I’m here, your LuTmeraN PIONEER,
On heavenly service bent;

I hope that you will welcome me
And honor my intent.

My purpose is a noble one,
It’s written on my face;

Each month anew I’d gladden you
With triumphs of God’s grace.

I’d tell you of your missions’ needs
At home, in foreign lands;

For I believe each child of God
Should know of these demands,

Should icant to know in order that
His duty he may do

And exercise a privilege
That e’er brings joys so true:

The duty and the privilege
To labor, pray, and give
That Jesus may be known to all,
That souls now lost may live.

Your mission periodical,
As such myself I lend;
Let me enjoy your confidence
And I will bless you, friend.
Stewardson, Il. C. T. Srrrz.
eee

Wonders of Transforming Grace.

The Pitcairn Islanders.
(Concluded.)

In 1825 the British war-ship Resolute, with
Captain F. W. Beechy commanding, visited the
island and remained there for three weeks. Captain
Beechy’s account of the island and its inhabitants
agrees with the report of Captains Staines and
Pipon. ‘The population now numbered sixty-six
persons. Adams embraced the opportunity offered
him by the presence of a chaplain on board the
Resolute and formally married the blind and bed-
ridden old woman who had been his faithful com-

_panion for thirty-five years. At this time he was
sixty-five years of age, and Beechy speaks of him
as “a bald, corpulent man, dressed in sailor’s shirt,
trousers, and a low-crowned hat.” Of the other
adult persons of the island he says that they were
fine, handsome people, tall, well-proportioned, and
very strong. He reports of the women that they
were of more than average height, of lighter com-
plexion than the men, and very neatly and taste-
fully dressed. Captain Beechy and his officers were
most hospitably treated by the islanders. He also

_ remarked that the people were all thoroughly in-

formed in Bible history and stressed the fact that
they were “guileless and unsophisticated beyond
conception.”

John Adams died March 29, 1829, sincerely
mourned by those who owed so much to him; for
he had been a father to them. One dreads to think
what might have been the future of the islanders
had God not in a strange manner provided them
with a successor to Father Adams.

The year prior to the death of Adams a launch
with two men on board came to the island. Two
men were on the boat which had come all the way
from Callao, Peru, 3,500 miles away. One of the
two men died a few days after from sheer exhaus-
tion. The other was a man of thirty years, who
said that his name was George Hunn Nobbs and
that he had come to pass the rest of his days on
the island. Adams soon noticed that the new
arrival was a man of good character and fine eduea-
tion, and being pleased with him, he employed him
as teacher. Nobbs had also acquired a considerable
knowledge of medicine and surgery, which increased
his value for the islanders. Not long after his com-
ing Nobbs married the granddaughter of Fletcher
Christian, and the timber from his boat was used
to build a house for the young people. When upon
his death-bed, Adams appointed Nobbs to be his

successor as pastor.

Eor many years the previous history of Nobbs
was shrouded in mystery. But in later life Nobbs
confided to a British admiral the fact that he was
the illegitimate descendant of a noble English
family; that he had been a midshipman in the
English navy as a youth and later had taken service

with the South American patriots when they were ,

fighting for freedom. After many adventures he
returned to England and from there sailed to
Africa. At this time he must in some way have
heard of Pitcairn Island and its strange inhabitants,
and he formed the resolution to sail there and spend
the rest of his life with the Pitcairners. But it
was several years before he was finally able to carry
out his resolution, arriving on the island Octo-
ber 28, 1828.

A severe drought on the island in 1830 brought
home the fact that the small island was wanting
in the resources needed to sustain the increasing
population. The suggestion made by the British
government that they move to Tahiti met with
favor on the part of the Pitcairners, and so a goy-
ernment vessel took them there in February, 1831.
There they settled on a large tract of fertile land
kindly given them by Queen Pomare. But the

vy.