The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Page 166

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166

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

of the teachers to have several boys and girls either
sing or play a few numbers during the course of the
evening. That was interesting and gave me an idea
of the stock of spirituals, etc., the students have in
their repertory. That night I spoke on the words:
“If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My dis-
ciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free.” I pointed out that there
was a time when the churches that we have now,
- Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc., did
not exist as they exist now. When Jesus sojourned
visibly on earth, He told His disciples that nothing
but His Word should be preached and taught. At
great length I stressed this; also, that the first
Christians did this very thing. Then I spoke of the
beginning of the Papacy, then of Luther’s birth, of
his membership in the Catholic Church; told them
how he found the Bible, that he wrote against the
indulgence sale by Tetzel and others, and that his
entire life from that time on was nothing but doing
what the Savior commanded His followers to do —
to continue in His Word. I explained to them how
the name Lutheran came to be applied to those who
accepted the Bible-teachings of the great Reformer.
I again stressed the fact that then no Baptist,
Methodist and other Protestant sectarian churches
existed. I also told them about the work of the Lu-
theran Church, of the Seminary in St. Louis, of the
membership of our Synod, and of our work among
the colored people. I must have spoken about forty
minutes. Twice I stopped and told them I should
continue some other time, as it was getting late;
but in both instances a large number cried out, “Go
on! Go on!” Mr. Johann told me that while a
quartet was singing after my address, some people
around him stated, “I wish they’d stop singing and
let that man talk some more.” Again I make men-
tion of this to show how the address was received
by the assembly.
Side-Lights.
Now a few side-lights. _
In the meeting on Sunday afternoon I caught
from one of the “spirituals” these words: —
You can’t go to heaben on roller-skates,
“You can’t go to heaben on roller-skates,
For you'll glide right past the pearly gates.
You know the “hymn”: —
If you’se want to make the debil run,
Just shoot him in the back with the Gospel gun.
That hymn seems to be a favorite and to be of un-
usual spiritual value, in the estimation of smany of

The one of the quartets likes this rhyme, in fact,
the students as a whole: —
Ah took a little drink, and it went to me head;
O please take me home and put me to bed.
O Lawdy, Lawdy, Lawdy!
I did not hear this particular rhyme rendered, but
Mr. Johann says it is one of the favorite “spiritual”
hymns!
Does God Want Us in Mississippi ?

As I sat in the library that night, I looked out
upon the campus and the surrounding country.
Majestic pines everywhere on the distant hills met
the sky and formed the horizon. A short distance
from the school I could see the smoke of a sawmill.
That smoke, like a mist, hung over the entire
country round about. In the Southland, one notices
this always, but especially at evening time. Coming
from the chimneys of cabins as colored women bend
over the fireplace to cook their scanty evening meal,
this smoke seems first’ to hesitate, not knowing
which way to go, then it lazily rises heavenward.
From a distance came the cry of a child and from
another direction the sounds of a plantation melody
sung by some man as he did his evening chores.
And I wondered, yes, wondered, whether God would
use this effort of mine at the Piney Woods School as
a means of bringing to the precious souls at the in-
stitution and to hundreds and maybe thousands of
others living in cabins in the surrounding country
the glorious Gospel of a loving and compassionate
Savior. May God Himself use us as He sees fit
and grant us wisdom and understanding to do ac-
cording to His good pleasure!

a

Immanuel Lutheran College Chronicle.

First Letter.

The students and the faculty of our college at
Greensboro are mourning the death of Eddie For-
ney, a member of the middle class of the Seminary.
On Saturday afternoon, September 14, Eddie, with
@ group of four students and a friend from Greens-
boro, went for a swim to Friendly Lake, a natural
swimming-pool about five miles from the college.
Eddie was one of the last to leave the bath-house
and to enter the water. When he and two of the
boys had reached the middle of the pool, a distance
of about fifty yards, one of the latter shouted for
help. At once the three other boys, who by this
time had almost reached the opposite shore, turned
around, and one of them, seizing the boy who had

called for help, rushed him to safety. Not until