The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 104

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104 THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

soldier caught up with us, who said, ‘Oh, I want to
be a Christian, I want to follow Christ; but I am
very afraid of Nsom.? He had reason to be, and
we knew, to be a real Christian, he had to come
out openly. So, since we had moonlight and there
was not so much danger of snakes, we went behind
an empty hut with him, knelt down, and asked God
to give him courage and to protect him. God did;
at morning prayers he openly confessed adherence
to Christ.

“In saying good-by to the chief, I said to him:
‘Now, Nsom, you were very kind to me; I am in-
terested in you. Would you agree that I write your
name in this little book where I keep the names of
all “I especially pray for that they may become
people of God?) ‘Hmm-hm—ah-hm! Whenever
you come through here, sleep in my town again,
etc., he answered me, a long string. But I said:
‘I didn’t ask that. I asked if you would agree that
I should pray for you and my carriers with me and
my fellow-missionaries on the hill.’ Well, he hated
to say no and did not say yes; but I told him
I would. ~And I did; every evening we mentioned
his name to God...’

“One evening while I. was praying, I caught my-
self thinking: ‘Well, that old rascal won’t ever be-
come a Christian anyhow! But I knew if I prayed
that way I might as well quit wasting my time, and
I had to go clear around the bush asking God to
give me faith to pray for Nsom. God did, and
I kept on praying.

“Months. afterwards I was itinerating on some
other: trail, when’ after.a meeting a’ woman came
to me and said'with “shining” eyes, ‘I am a woman
of God now.’ “You are?.. Aren’t you one of Nsom’s
wives?’ - ‘Yes?-
I asked. ‘Nothing at all; he simply ignores the
fact that I go to meeting,’ she said. ‘He lets me
go, never forbids me.? I was thankful for that
much, but kept on praying; and several months
later I heard that Nsom was urging his women to
become Christians. And again many months later,
there came three young men, delegates from Nsom,
up on the hill and asked me to come down as Nsom
had confessed Christ. When finally I shook hands
with him, asking: “Nsom, are you really from the
_ depth of your heart a man of God?’ he drew him-
_ self up haughtily and asked me indignantly: ‘When

I was a man of Satan, did I ever pretend to like

_ God? Did I ever because of fear of men act a
_ Christian? And I had to confess, no. He had

“always been very outspoken in his hatred of God.
jut I thought I would know for sure if I should

‘one of the ‘whys.’

“And what did he do to you?

hear him pray. So I said: ‘Now, Nsom, when we
are people of God, we talk to Him; let us go into
your hut and talk to God.’ We shut the bark door
and knelt down. I prayed first and then he; his,
was not a prayer such as it is made in churches or
families. His was a stammering, pitiful humble
talk of a chief who had never bent his knee to any-
body, who had never asked, always commanded and
demanded, and who now humbled himself before
the Chief of the universe. I no longer doubted his
sincerity. With characteristic energy he also set to
work to change his life. His superfluous wives
were disposed of, girl wives sent home to their
parents. His town had been a terrible gambling
town. The day he was converted he stood up in
the street, saying, ‘Gambling is finished from this
day on.’ And it was. He would hold up through-
going schoolboys and make them teach him the
Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, etc. With
the same zeal with which he had followed Satan he
now followed God: As he first had been a fierce
heathen, so he now was a fierce Christian. ‘The
gentler virtues came slowly to him.

“One night, during war-time, as I was sleeping
on the front porch, I was awakened and looked
blinkingly into the faces of the torch-bearers, a group
of young men. from Nsoni’s town, telling me that
Nsom had died, died trusting in Christ. This is
Why was he not: allowed to lead
others right whom he had first led wrong and. who
are still going wrong? Why was his town left now
to his heathen brother? This is one of the things
I am going to find out when I get. there- where
those whys are answered. Yet-Christian- men,
women, and :children’. are in his-town now.”

Is not this instance of transforming grace as
it occurred in the modern mission-field scarcely less
wonderful than those recorded in Acts? Does not
this example of Chief Nsom’s conversion prove that
the Gospel is still the power of God unto salvation
and that its onward course has not been hemmed?

The power of the Gospel is conspicuous in every
mission-field. It never is, it never can be, preached
in vain. It must and does accomplish that whereto
it is sent. Sinners will be converted, saints will be
strengthened and edified, and the kingdom of Christ
will be enlarged. Even those who are not con-
verted will be affected: Stephen’s stoners are cut
to the heart; Felix trembles; Agrippa is moved;
and still others gnash their teeth in their impotent
rage; but all with whom the Gospel comes in con-
tact seem to bear some mark of this contact.

ene F. J. 1.

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