The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 11

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

nH

11

The appreciation in which Pastor Heckel is held
by the Board of Foreign Missions is evidenced in
a measure by the following night-letter which was
sent on the occasion of his death: “Please convey
the heartfelt sympathy of the Board of Foreign Mis-
sions to the family of Pastor Paul F. Heckel in their
present bereavement. Pastor Heckel was a highly
gifted man; a consecrated, faithful, eminently suc-
cessful Christian missionary; a light among men;
much beloved by colleagues and Christians and non-
Christians in India. His heart rested in the Word
of God and in his Lord. May God comfort us all!”

Freperick Branp.

Latest News from Our Chinese Missions.

The General Conference Publication Committee
of our Chinese Missions furnishes us with the fol-
lowing news item: —

Three adults and three children were baptized
in September. Concerning an adult which he bap-
tized Rev. E. C. Zimmermann of Shasi station
writes: “She was a young woman whom the mis-
sionary refused to baptize last spring because she
had become the second wife of a certain man. We
told her that only after she had obtained a legal
divorce could she be baptized. She got the divorce
during the summer, and we promptly baptized her.”

The eleven schools connected with the Hankow
station have a total of 829 pupils. Ichang station
has 108 pupils enrolled, Kweifu, 44; Shasi, 145;
Shihnan, 320; Wanhsien, 60. The tuition-fees re-
ceived at one school in Hankow totaled $506 and
at another $185.

The seminary at Hankow has an enrolment of
forty-three, of whom twenty-one are in the seminary
proper and twenty-two in the preparatory school.
Nine of the students in the seminary are new.

Rev. Thode at Ichang is conducting classes for
men and women at both chapels. These classes,
which are held twice a week, are attended by more
than. forty persons. At Hankow Rev. W. H.
McLaughlin is preparing a class for confirmation
and another for Baptism; each class numbers ten
pupils. Rev. H. 0. Theiss is preparing a class of
thirty-five for confirmation. Rev. E. N. Seitz of
Wanhsien has also started a catechumen class.

The work of our missionaries is bearing fruit at
all stations. The attendances at the services are in-
creasing. Since the erection of the new chapel the
attendance at Wanhsien has been as high as eighty-

three. Grace Chapel in Hankow had to be enlarged
to accommodate the people.

The home of one of the substations in Hankow
has become so dilapidated that new quarters had to
be secured for the safety of the pupils and of the
congregation. F.J.L.

An Interesting Funeral Service.

“Will Jesus reject the foulest penitent sinner?”
This was the key-note of the sermon delivered at the
burial of Mrs. P. Burkhalter, an old Negress. The
service was held in a little Baptist church in the
country, about ten miles north of Carbondale. Some
eighty colored folks and a few white people were
present.

Never will I forget that hot afternoon of
June 24. Arriving at the church prior to the ser-
vice, I had occasion to watch the people coming
from far and near. Some walked, others came in
their squeaky wagons, and still others in cars. What
a sight to see that little church standing at the
intersection of two dusty country roads, away from
the beaten paths of civilization, and the people
lazily making their way to the house of worship!
And what a sight one saw from the front of the
church during the service! Can you picture those
more than eighty black faces, for the most part
intently focused upon the white Lutheran preacher,
strangely silent, not shouting a customary senti-
mental “Amen” and “Hallelujah”? And will you
notice with me that all the male mourners have
their hats on during the service? Will you linger
with me and see how that old Negro patriarch
Mr. Burkhalter, a man whom our dear sainted Pas-
tor F. Lochner of Springfield some fifty years ago
picked out of the streets of that city, brought to
Christ, and made as sound a Lutheran of as you
will find anywhere in these parts, caressingly pats
the cold face of his dear wife a silent farewell with
but a few suppressed sobs to show his deep inner
grief ?

The service consisted of two prayers, two hymns,
“Rock of Ages” and “Just as I Am,” sung by a trio,
composed of Misses Lucht and Huseman and the
writer of these lines, and a sermon of sin and grace.

The cemetery where our dear friend was laid to
rest was still farther away from the beaten paths.
The ritual there made a deep impression on those
colored bystanders. And they will never, I think,
forget the noble confession of Mr. Burkhalter, who,
while the coffin was slowly lowered, confessed that