The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 141

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

141

casionally a neighbor who was a member of the
Southern Presbyterian Church.

Turned adrift at the age of ten, she was long ex-
posed to the fiercest temptations, before which the
great majority of those about her succumbed. But
hers was a pure heart, and she would sooner die
than do wrong. Day by day her soul was vexed with
the filthy conversation and life of the wicked. On
one occasion, life seemed to lose all charm for her,
so that she purchased and swallowed poison, longing
to die. For three days her life hung in the balance;
but she came to, resolved to conquer in the strife.
Seeking employment and availing herself at odd
moments of what books she found, the years passed
on until, at fifteen, she was employed in the home
of a lawyer at Placetas, where she was permitted to
study stenography and typewriting.

When she had become a really expert typist,
four years ago, she decided to come to Havana,
thinking easily to secure a situation. She sought
me out and told me her story. This and her evident
superiority of intelligence and character greatly in-
terested Mrs. Greene and myself. I endeavored to
aid her in securing employment, but her color made
it impossible. We did, however, secure other good
friends for her, and Mrs. Greene began to give: her
lessons in English. She soon found employment as
a servant with an American family and has been in
great demand ever since.

Attending our services, she soon asked to fulfil
her long-cherished desire of confessing Christ and
became a most helpful member of our church and
our young people’s society. In September of last
year we began to make a special effort to increase
the attendance at our Sunday-school. All were in-
terested, but none more than Mercedes and another

colored woman, Seferina, a washerwoman of sixty .

years, wholly illiterate, but full of faith and zeal for
the Master and her people. Seferina began to visit
in her neighborhood and brought in a procession,
Sunday after Sunday, of over twenty children; but
she was stimulated to this by Mercedes, who em-
ployed her “half-day off” during the week and her
Sunday afternoon in seeking out children whom she
might bring to Sunday-school. So it was that with-
cout fail Mercedes went from house to house every
Sunday afternoon, gathering up the children from
homes she had visited during the week and, in the
face of insults and ridicule, leading them to the
house of God. She thus brought regularly more
than forty children. Seven months have passed,
and no sign appears of weariness or diminished in-
terest. On the contrary, she has succeeded in her

visits to the various homes in inculcating habits of
decency and economy, and everywhere she has
sought to speak of Christ and His salvation. Some
of her children have begun a savings account. To
some she gives classes for an hour during the week.
For some who are poor she solicits clothing and
even spends of her scanty earnings in exceptional
cases to supply needed medicine and food. And all
the time she works as an ordinary servant with a
Scotch family, who esteem her as pure gold.

To us Mercedes is a wonder of grace. Her ex-
ample brings the blush of shame to many cheeks, as
she comes into our school Sunday after Sunday fol-
lowed by her procession of forty to fifty children, all
observing the most perfect order. At the close of
the school they sing a hymn for us, and then Mer-
cedes sees them all safely to their various homes.

J. M. GREENE.

Christ’s Kingdom is Growing.

Frank Milton Bristol in his book The Life of
Chaplain McCabe states that he often did things
that thrilled his Church and gives the following
incident in illustration : —

The chaplain was on a railway-train one day,
and as he read the newspaper, his eye fell upon the
report of the freethinkers’ convention, in which
Ingersoll had said in an address: “The churches are
dying out all over the land; they are struck with
death.” At the first station on the line when the
opportunity offered the chaplain left the train and
sent this telegram : —

‘Dear Robert: All hail the power of Jesus’
name. We are building more than one Methodist
church for every day in the year, and propose to
make it two a day. C. C. McCasr.”

This incident fairly electrified the Church and
inspired the Rev. Alfred J. Hough to write the
song : —

The infidels, 2 motley band,
In council met and said:
“The churches die all through the land,
The last will soon be dead,” ;
When suddenly a message came,
It filled them with dismay:
“All hail the power of Jesus’ name,
We're building two a day.”

This song immediately spread like fire over the
land, and the chaplain sang it from ocean to ocean.
The above incident suggests an argument that is
unanswerable. Few people realize the extent to
which new houses of worship’ ate building through-