The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 62

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62

THE LUTHERAN. PIONEER »

life. Infection meant death; there was no cure.
But nothing could turn her from her purpose.

“‘T know all this,’ she said, ‘but those people are
dying and know nothing of Christ, the Savior of the
world. I know and love Him, and I must go and
tell them of Him.’

“She went and after a while came back and told
how she had been enabled to lead one and another
to the feet of the Savior ere they passed into the
unseen world. She returned to her post. A few
months passed by, and then came the news that she
was ill. She was brought back and carried up to
the hospital at Mengo, where Dr. Cook, having ex-
amined her, pronounced the fatal verdict — ‘sleep-
ing sickness.’

“She lived for some months in the hospital
under the doctor’s care, and during the whole of
that time, as long as she could move about, she was
as a ministering angel to the sick ones in the
women’s ward. She would go from bed to bed, read-
ing with this one and praying with that one, sooth-
ing all in their pain as far as she was able, and ever
seeking with loving words and tender pleading to
lead them to the feet of the Savior. And all the
while she was a dying woman.

“Where in the whole history of the Christian
Church is there to be found a nobler instance of self-
sacrificing love? ‘Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ ”

How can Christians, after reading of such an in-
stance of what the Gospel of Jesus can do, still say,
“I don’t believe in Foreign Missions”? To en-
courage us to send the Gospel to those who sit in
darkness that they may come to the knowledge of
the truth, the dear Savior not only tells us to teach
all nations the saving truths of His Gospel, but He
further gives us such beautiful and heart-stirring
examples of the power of the Gospel in and through
those who have accepted it. If you, dear reader,
should again find yourself growing weary in the
blessed task of supporting the missions of your
Church, think of Rakeri and her self-sacrificing ser-
vice, and may the thought of her stir your heart and
energize your hands to renewed support of the glo-
rious task of helping to bring poor lost sinners to
the feet of the Savior! F. J. L.

“Tg, when in your endeavor to achieve a high
purpose, you meet with misunderstanding and ap-
parent defeat, let your solace be found in the
memory of Him whose mission on earth culminated
in Calvary.”

As an African Boy Sees the Value
: of Missions.

This is the story of a Kaffir boy as:found in the
columns of Mission Dayspring. After coming in
contact with Christianity for:four years, he gives
this testimony of its great blessings for soul and
body. .The unvarnished tale of this young Kafifir,
reared in heathenism as he had been and then seeing
the fruits of the Gospel of Jesus, ought to remove
the prejudice against Foreign Missions from the
minds of those who are open to conviction. Read
this simple tale and learn its lesson: —

“When I was a boy in Africa, my father sent me
to keep sheep. In Africa men don’t work at all;
women work; but men dress their hair and fight
and talk; boys keep cattle, not in little fields, but
in wide-open places, where a lion or a leopard may
come to catch them. The boys watch and, if a lion
comes, make a great noise, a great, great noise, and
frighten him away. One day some boys tell me and
my brother they had been to Natal and seen many
wonderful things — big ships, and houses, and look-
ing-glasses, and white animals like men and women;
and they make strange noises nobody could under-
stand. This makes us think we must go and see
those white animals and those wonderful things, and
we ask our father to please let us go to Natal for
three months. That’s three or four years ago now,
and we never go back yet; but we want to go and
tell our father and mother that here man works and
woman stays at home. That is proper, because man
is strong, and woman is weaker and got babies to
mind. But Kaffir woman very strong, must put
baby on her back and work just the same, make
crops grow and grind corn, and dig and build house;
and when she get old and weak and no use, Kaffir
man say, “This one no use now; must push her
over,’ and then they take her to steep place on top
of hill and push her down, because she is no use and
can’t do anything. Now, I know that’s very wicked,
and I want to go back and tell my people, and they
sha’n’t push my old grandmother over, I hope. She
loves me and my brother, and we want to go soon to
save her from being pushed over and tell her about
Jesus, who saved her as He saved us and all men.”

Is this not a beautiful and touching testimony of
the blessed influence of the Gospel? Would you not
feel as this boy did if your own dear grandmother
came into consideration? If your grandmother or
some other member of your family were in danger,
would you not want somebody to bring the Gospel-