The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 82

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82 THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

A Harvest of Children.

The report of a recent baptizing-of ninety chil-
dren in. Mount Zion of New Orleans has elicited
a request for details as to conditions, methods, etc.
Hence the following detailed account for the benefit
of those who may be interested.

Last September the enrolment of Mount Zion
Day-school climbed to the high-water mark of 317-
children in seven grades, with four teachers. The
children seemed good mission-material, and we hated
to turn them away, so we took them in. A careful
inventory then revealed the fact that over a hundred
of these children had never been baptized. The
teachers then took names and addresses of these
prospects for Holy Baptism and made calls at the
homes of the children for the purpose of gaining
them. In each case the teacher would ascertain first
whether the child had been baptized or “christened
with water.” This last phrase had to be used in
order to combat the unchristian practise, partic-
ularly among Negroes of Baptist tradition, of chris-
tening-their children without water, in other words,
“blessing” them.

These children, we explain, are learning in our
day-school and Sunday-school to trust in Jesus as
their Savior and need to be baptized with water, so
that they may be saved, according to the Savior’s
promise: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved,” Mark 16,16. If the parents express willing-
ness for such baptism, a card or slip is then filled in,
recording the child’s birthday, the names of the par-
ents and of the witnesses, the teacher offering to
serve in the last-named capacity when necessary
(which is often the case). In this way ninety candi-
dates for Holy Baptism were written up last No-
vember. Naturally, for various reasons, many of
such candidates do not make their appearance at the
hour appointed for their baptism.

The first annual date set for baptism was Thanks-
giving, at 7.30 rp. m. Last Thanksgiving we were
blessed with the presence of Director Drewes, who
witnessed the baptizing of the first fifty-three of the
ninety candidates. The others failed to appear that
evening. ‘Then followed several months of Sundays
characterized by inclement weather. On Sunday

morning, December 1, seven more were baptized,
December 29 two more, and on February 9 seven
more. Then, as we were nearing Easter, we set Palm
Sunday morning as the next baptism day. On Palm
Sunday we baptized twelve and on the following
_ Wednesday and Thursday eleven more, making
_ a total of ninety.

Of course, some of the ninety we wrote up in
November never were baptized; others came, how-
ever, to fill their place. Some removed and have not
been heard of since. We have indeed a large number
of transients to contend with in our school. In fact,
Mount Zion is in the heart of town and is having
the loss of all its members eventually, either to other
congregations in the city or to other cities. This
excess of transients largely accounts for the fact
that we have so many child baptisms each year.
Thus we baptized twenty-five in the school-year
1925—6, twenty-three in 1926—7, seventy-seven in
1927—8, 105 in 1928—9, and ninety (so far) for
1929—30; a total of over 300 in five years.

Now, the question that naturally presents itself
in this connection is: What is the benefit of all this
baptizing if the children are not held for confirma-
tion and for adult membership, — or are they held?
This is a question that deserves a reply.

First of all,-it occasionally happens that among
so many children one dies during, the course of the
year. It is a great thing if this child has been both
directed to Jesus and baptized before death. Next,
the baptizing of children in the lower grades in-
creases the number of good prospects for confirma-
tion, so much so that our confirmation classes have
in the past five years grown from a maximum of
eight to a class of fifteen last June, and probably
there will be twenty this year (our confirmation
takes place in June). Furthermore, instead of
having only three or four confirmed children in the
upper grades (sixth and seventh), we this year have
fifteen in the upper grades, who will be confirmed,
with a number to be added directly, so that in Sep-
tember practically all children in the upper room -
(about thirty-five) will be confirmed. ‘This gives
our school an entirely different aspect and holds out
good prospects for a strong congregation in the:
future. It may also be added that now we have
about 200 baptized Lutherans actually in school.

Finally it ought not to be overlooked that many
transients come back to us for confirmation later,
after having gone astray for a while. Occasionally,
too, the pastor is called to the bedside of such a bap-
tized soul. Also, several of these baptized children
may become a nucleus for mission-work in new
localities.

It goes without saying that in carrying out this
baptizing program it is necessary that the teachers
be real missionaries. They not only teach Christ in
the schoolroom and canvass prospects, instructing
them in the Word of God as they do so, but also
arrange the children at baptism, acting as witnesses