The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 76

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76

was nothing Pastor Miessler could do but to follow,
and as he was not allowed to live on the reservation,
he bought a piece of land with a small house just
beyond the line and in 1859 moved his effects to the
new place. From here he tried to serve the mem-
bers of his congregation as well as possible. At first
the meetings were held in the homes of the mem-
bers. Later a chapel was erected ten miles from the
parsonage. Miessler also accepted a position as In-
dian teacher of one of the newly founded Govern-
ment schools. He served in this school two years,
teaching the children English and Indian. The
distance. between home and school, four miles, was
covered daily on horseback.

The land and buildings which our Synod had
acquired at Bethany were at first leased out and
later sold. Only the cemetery plot was kept. The
care of this sacred piece of ground was entrusted to
Holy Cross of Saginaw. The proceeds of the sale of
Bethany were transferred to the treasury of Foreign
Missions and- were used when Synod began its
mission-work in India.

The migration to the Indian reservation in
Isabella County proved to be the death-blow to
Bethany Mission. The members of the church were
scattered. It was impossible for the missionary to
keep in touch with the individual as much as was
really necessary. And the members themselves, most
of them as yet weak in the faith, rarely came to see
their pastor. They did not care to be admonished
and warned. The indifference of these poor people
was most distressing and discouraging. A visitation’
by Pastors Selle and Beyer proved fruitless because
so few of the members attended the meeting,
although all had been encouraged to attend it. The
visitors earnestly admonished those who came and
told them that God would take their pastor away
from them if they refused to show themselves more
thankful to God and His servant than they had done
thus far. The missionary was told: if the people
of the congregation did not mend their indifferent
and sinful ways, he should accept a call to a white

_ Congregation, to a congregation located as near as
possible to the reservation, so that he might be en-
abled to serve the faithful remainder and in general
_ watch over the mission. When, therefore, in 1869
_ the congregation in Saginaw called Pastor Miessler
a8 teacher, he accepted the call, though he reluc-
_ tantly left the place where he had labored so dili-
_ gently and faithfully and under such adverse
set conditions for eighteen years.

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

A Sad End to a Promising Beginning.

This is the sad conclusion of a hopeful begin-
ning. Can it be that all the prayers sent to the
throne of God in behalf of this mission remained
unheard, unanswered, that the sacrifices made, all
the time and energy and money spent in and for
this mission, were useless? It is humiliating to us
that God did not vouchsafe greater results to us.
But let us not forget that we have been called to
preach the Gospel, — that’s our business. As for the
results, — that’s God’s business. He takes care of
that end and “doeth as He will.” We should be
thankful that, regardless of results, God gave us the
opportunity to proclaim His saving Word to this
benighted race. Neither dare we measure the fruits
of this mission—nor of any mission, for that
matter — by mere figures. The Savior informs us
that even one soul is more valuable than all the
riches of this world. Our Indian Mission in Mich-
igan served its divinely appointed purpose, namely,
that of shedding the light of the Gospel in the dark-
ness of heathendom and creating a Bethany where
many a Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and many a Martha
served her Lord in true love and devotion. Bethany
Cemetery, with its prominent cross and its graves of
Indian Christians lying there, serves as the founda-
tion for our hope that at least some souls have been
laid in the arms of the Savior.

The buildings that once stood at Bethany and
Mount Pleasant have disappeared. The cemetery
alone remains, a mute witness to the fact that once
upon a time Christ had here built His kingdom.
A Lutheran Indian who had remained faithful to
the Lord and His Church for many, many years
died but a few years ago as a member of our Mount
Pleasant congregation. The descendants of those
Lutheran Indians of Bethany have their preachers
and churches, but they are not Lutheran. No more
do these people speak the language of their fathers,
but the language of the country and are therefore
considered civilized. But the racial characteristics
of their forefathers still flow in their veins. They
are still, as a race, fickle, pleasure-loving, unimpres-
sionable, and ungrateful to God. We can only pray
that God, according to His loving-kindness, would
be merciful to the remnants of this people and bring
them to the knowledge of His Son Jesus Christ, in
whose name alone there is salvation.

E. A. M., in Michigan Lutheran;
tr. by O. Richert.
SS OE ——

THE only way to keep some things is to give
them away.