The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 181

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

181

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and what not served as pews. There was nothing
of outward splendor or ostentation, but with rey-
erent attention those few people listened to the age-
old, but ever new Christmas Gospel, and heartily,
though not always with finished musicianship, did
they join in the singing of the few old favorites
among the Christmas songs that could be attempted.
By the way, the housemother at this place was
totally blind and so weak that she was constantly
confined to a couch. But the couch of that blind,
weak mother was the center of the whole house-
hold; from there the whole family took direction
and comfort, and, really, this couch with its precious
burden kept the whole large family (there were
eight children, the youngest about two years old
at that time) together. A little girl of eleven years
was doing all the cooking and baking and house-
work for that family.

After the Christmas service, as deeply solemn
and as uplifting as any in a large city church could
be, the group remained together for a little while,
some refreshments were also served, and then the
missionary and two other families went to their
homes. But now the missionary opened his box
from home. Before the service he did not want
to open that box, as he wished to keep his mind
altogether on the sermon he was to preach that
evening. Now that was over, and so, in the quiet
seclusion of his own little home, in the hush of
a late hour, he opened that box, packed by a far-off
loving mother and filled with surprises, thoughtful
presents, some books from father, remembrances

from brothers and sisters, and from mother warm -

mittens and home-knit socks, mufflers, and a rich
assortment of Christmas cookies. And there was
a small artificial tree with several candles. The

tree was set up, the presents were arranged, and

a certain photograph given a place of prominence,
and then the missionary celebrated his own first
Christmas away from home, with quiet meditation,
with prayer, with thankfulness that he was being
permitted to serve people with the blessed Gospel
of the Christ-child, and with fervent supplication
for strength to carry on this great work.

Midnight came, but he was really too deeply
stirred to find sleep. It was a beautiful, clear moon-
light night and cold. Half a mile from his cottage
there was a lake, with a gleaming, smooth surface
of ice. He got out his skates, pulled over his old
college sweater, hied himself out to that lake, and
spent a glorious hour all by himself in the moon-
light on that lake.

The next morning, which happened to be Sun-
day, found him out very early, while the moon was
still shining, behind a team of ponies, setting out
for B., one of his stations eighteen miles into the
woods, where Christmas services were to be held
before a congregation of about thirty-five people,
fine, well-indoctrinated Lutheran people, who had
come from Nebraska. They had built a church,
high on a prominent hill, but everything else was
most primitive.

After a fine Christmas dinner came a trip of
about twenty miles across the country, for many
miles over a trackless prairie, with no house in sight
and no fences to guide, just a trail in the grass to
follow, and at M. there was a service in a public
schoolhouse, with two families as listeners; then
a trip of about ten miles to the town where he lived.

Early the next morning a trip by train, twenty-
four miles, to W., where there was a congregation
of five voting members and where services were held
in a rented Swedish Lutheran church. But here
there was an organ, and the singing was pretty
good.. Then followed a trip of about fifteen miles
behind a worn-out livery horse to Br., where a con-
gregation had been organized just a few weeks
before with a dozen newly arrived families, people
from Southern Russia. It was a very solemn ser-
vice, the people being visibly moved by the message,
tears trickling down the bearded cheeks of strong
pioneers. About fifty people were crowded into
two rooms of a log house. A second-hand sewing-
machine served as altar, and rough boards placed
over logs of wood were the pews; there was no
organ, and no suave ushers and no fine clothes
could be seen, but there was something about that
service that the missionary has never forgotten.
The singing was not very good, for the people had
their own ideas about the way the melody ought to
go and were determined to follow the devious and
intricate windings of their imagination, while the
missionary put his hymn-book in front of him and
stuck manfully (and often alone) to the printed
notes. ‘The children presented their simple little
songs and did very well.

The next few days took the missionary about
a hundred miles east, by train, where Christmas
services were held at several little stations, in
private houses, one of which was a sod house, and in
a rented little church.

That kind of work is still going on, dear reader,
and our contributions to Synod’s treasuries help
make it possible. ”