The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 75

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

15

and become a victim to the severe cold. But I have
yet to hear of a missionary who was overcome by
these dangers. The Lord never forsakes His mes-
sengers. Jiver they feel the truth of His divine
Word: “He shall give His angels charge over thee
to keep thee in all thy ways; they shall bear thee
up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against
a stone,” Ps. 91, 10.12. The assurance that the
missionary is serving God and his fellow-men makes
him happy. Some one has beautifully said, “The
Master’s work makes weary feet, but it leaves the
spirit glad.” We know this to be true, not only in
the experiences of faithful pastors, but also in those
of God-fearing laymen and lay-women, who are un-
tiring in their service, in their assistance, and in
their prayers for the welfare of God’s kingdom.
(T'o be concluded.)

Our Early Lutheran Indian Mission
in Michigan.
(Concluded.)

Traders and False Prophets.

In Bethany, too, the mission had its enemies,
who tried to induce the newly converted to fall away
and to keep the unconverted from going near the
church. And again it was the trader who secretly
slandered the missionary in order that he might
undermine his influence. Baierlein had already
complained of it. And as these godless and impious
traders and settlers grew in number, they also
gained still greater influence. Add to this the
enmity and evil influence of the native (Indian)
Methodist preachers, who from their station in Mid-
land County worked among their fellow-tribes-
men, — and that not always in an honorable way, —
and we have a combination of unfavorable condi-
tions that boded no good for our mission.

The Methodists, for instance, succeeded in win-
ning Salome, the widow of Pemassikeh, over to their
side, and that only a half-year after her baptism.
This woman, who formerly was such a quiet and
modest person, suddenly ‘became a fanatic and bitter
enemy of the truth. She tried in every manner to
hinder the work of our mission and made her evil
influence felt especially among the women of the
tribe. By the grace of God, Salome later repented
and ruefully confessed that she had committed a
great wrong. In the first instance it was an out-
ward circumstance, something that had nothing to
do with the principles of religion and faith, that

made her suspicious of her new friends. Her step-
son Naugishik had been chosen successor to Chief
Pemassikeh. Naugishik was no Christian, but he
was friendly to the Lutheran cause and aided it.
Through their adherents in the tribe the Methodists
now tried to take the chieftainship away from
Naugishik and give this honor to a man of their
choice. This was the first thing that induced Salome
to return. But that was not the only nor the main
reason for her return. She admitted later that dur-
ing the whole time while she was affiliated with the
Methodists she had been unable to find any peace of
mind; that the Methodists preached much about
the perfect life we must lead in order to be saved,
but little or nothing about the Perfect One, who
fulfilled the Law for us and by His holy living and
by His suffering and death wrought our salvation.
Another thing that induced her to return to her old
faith was that most of the new converts to Method-
ism within a short time fell back into their hea-
thenish ways, even though outwardly they still
retained some of its formalism. ‘

Our Government Provides a New Home
for the Indians.

As the hunting-grounds of the Indians gradually
were being taken up by settlers, our Government
realized that it had to make some sort of provision
for the remaining natives, and so it reserved a large
tract of land in Isabella County and gave that to the
Indians. No one should be compelled to move to
the reservation, but all that did would receive a free
grant on a piece of land, eighty acres to be given
each head of a family and forty acres to each adult
unmarried person of either sex. In addition, our
Government declared its intention of building block-
houses, erecting Indian schools, putting up black-
smith shops, running mills, and building roads.
This was a very tempting offer, and most of the
Indians at once accepted it. But the great majority
of the Indians of Bethany were not so anxious to
give up their homes and move to the reservation.
There were several reasons for this. One was a
natural love for the place that had always been
home to them; the other, and this one even more
important than the first, because Pastor Miessler
had told them that it did not seem possible that
they ever would be able to have a church and a
school again such as they now had. The congrega-
tion therefore decided to move to the reservation
only if the missionary would go with them. But
when in the course of time one after the other
changed his mind and left for the reservation, there