12 minute read
"The Forgotten House"
culties for the servants of God. If we do not sow the seed of the Gospel on the wide and open fields of the world, the devil surely will sow his tares. We dare not rest, for the devil never does.
New Dangers.
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It is true that in many parts of the heathen wol'ld not a few of those who belong to the bettereducated classes have grown tired of their idols and cast them away in the pride of their new-found knowledge. Dissatisfied with the old, they are seeking for something that will satisfy their wants. Such souls Satan is watching with the intention of bringing them even more into his possession than they have been; and while the Church is neglecting its opportunities, the Prince of Darkness is bringing additional evil spirits to possess the souls of such seekers, with sevenfold disaster as the result. While the Chmch is sending forth only one out of five thousand Christians to carry the Gospel to the heathen wol'ld, Satan's agents a1·c especially concentrating their activities upon the more advanced non-Christian countries, for example, India, China, and Japan, poisoning the minds of the young men especially with Western skepticism and unbelief before our missionaries have come to them with the message of the Gospel. Other regions, on a culturally lower level than China, India, and J npan, the slaves of Satan, have been flooded with the drink that only too often drowns 1·cason and dulls conscience.
Our Solemn Obligation.
We have the Gospel that can bring happiness to our fellow-men, and this blessed possession puts us under a solemn obligation to bring this Gospel to them. We have no right to exclude any one because he lives at such and such a place, because he does not feel his need, or because the trouble and expense it may mean for us to bring him the lifegiving message are too great. The fact that we have the remedy that can help any one is sufficient reason for us to bring him that remedy. We have the means by which our fellow-men may be brought into the right relationship with Christ, the only Savior of men. We know that there is salvation in none other than Christ. Therefore we must bring him this Gospel of salvation through Christ. We are to be concerned about the salvation of the man near us, and the man living far away from us must also be the object of our concern; for the needs of both are alike, and both can be saved only through the same Christ. We have that which the
world needs, and this makes us the world's debtors.
Only a very little thought on our part can convince us of this fact; it really should not have been necessary for Christ to have given the command ,vhich imposes this duty upon us. Christ no more than gave voice to what the heart of a true Christian bids him do when He told His disciples to preach the Gospel to every creature. The Christian believer answers the question, "Does my fellow-man need Christ?" by asking in return, "Do I need Him?" .And the believer's desire to bring others the glad tidings of salvation in Christ will be in proportion to bis own conviction that he needs the Savior. "I Have Compassion on the Multitude."
This love of Christ also constrains the followers of the Savior. Our own certainty of God's grace in Christ and love for our Redeemer must make us desirous to seek the happiness of others. To this must be added compassion for our poor fellow-men, who are much like the man that fell among thieves and by them was left half dead. The more we read of their distress, the louder their sad condition cries out to us, "Come over and help us!"
And besides this we have God's gracious assurance that our work shall not be in vain. We know that the Gospel of Christ is the power of God among whites and Negroes, among Chinese and Hindus. Were we to doubt this, we should cease to be Christians.
Let us look upon the world, not as a cemetery, but as a harvest-field; let the unconverted world be to us not dogs, but lost sheep whom we should seek and bring into Christ's fold. God give us love, courage, and zeal to do what we can to have our prayer answered, "Thy kingdom come !" F. J. L.
One of the most-visited sections in New Orleans is that part of the city which is known as the French Quarter. People from all parts of the world visit this section to view those things which remain from the· time when New Orleans was in its making. With eager eyes they look at the French Market, where more than a century ago merchants from ·far and near plied their trade; they cast curious looks upon the old auction block before which many a poor Negro slave was sold; they view the historic buildings with their hand-wrought balconies and their courtyards. Surrounded by these and other objects that attract their attention, the interested
In this section of our city there is also still standing a three-story structure of no mean size, which appears to have from eight to ten rooms on each floor. Standing upon the sidewalk in front of this structure and peering through the large arched entrance into the courtyard, the spectator soon finds himself dreaming of years that have long rolled by. In his dreams he sees Frenchmen and Frenchwomen seated under wide-leafed banana-trees in the court'yard, while slaves serve them refreshing drinks and
St. Paul's Colored Church, New Orleans.
appetizing food; h~ sees little Freijch children playing and laughing at the time w~en the sun casts long shadows. All that he sees is so wonderful and so interesting. Suddenly, however, the spectator is roused out of his pleasant dream by the , noise of the passing trolley car or a. honking auto in the narrow street, and he once more finds himself admiring aged walls and an unkept courtyard. Enter the large arched entrance into the courtyard to-day and you find that there is nothing left in this house, just like in other houses of this sec- · tion, that has been preserved from olden days for the seeker after curios. In the courtyard of this house and in the home itself all signs of luxury and wealth ha~e disappeared. Wealth and finery have given way to poverty and decay. The once beautiful courtyard, with the passing of the time, has been turned into a dirty, dusty, and di-eary waste, whe1·e poody clad children play; and the artistically decorated rooms o.f bygone days,. occupied by persons high up in the world, are now dreary and dark and occupied by a dozen or more families living from hand to mouth.
Perhaps it is for this reason that so few visitors are attracted to this house. Often it has been noticed that, while admirers will examine many othei- structures and have much to say about them, this house is passed by without so much as a glance. It holds out no attractions to the visitors and stands as a forgotten house in the French Quarter.
Though this house stands forgotten, it nevertheless holds out something very fascinating to me, and so it will to you after you have heard my story.
A fifteen-minute walk from the "forgotten house," at a schoolchild's pace that is late for school, there is our St. Paul's Church and School and, adjoining these, our Luther Preparatory School. As all our Lutheran churches and schools, so also St. Paul's has, and always has had, a very good reputation, so that during the past fifty years many people have sought and found rest for their soul in our church, and many a child has learned in our school the one thing needful, that highest and best wisdom, which our teachers have imparted to them from the Word of God.
One beautiful autumn day when the schoolchildren were again coming from all directions to our school for their day's lessons, a little stranger was among them. This stranger was a shy little girl of six, a little girl that lived - yes, you guessed it - in the "forgotten house." Friendless and forlorn, a little stranger among strangers, she wandered about in the schoolyard until one of the teachers noticed her and made friends with her. Oh, how happy she was that she had found a friend l Now she did not feel nearly so forsaken and lost as before the teacher spoke to her. She soon found numerous other 'friends. Before the week was over, she had a hundred little friends, with whom she played and romped about and skipped and was gay, so that she would rather have remained with them at the end of the day than return to the dirty yard and dreary rooms of the "forgotten house!'
Almost as quickly as little Eliza had learned to know her teachers and her playmates, she also had learned to know her Savior. Whep. she entered the Lutheran school, she was sitting in spiritual dark-
ness and in the shadow of death. She did not know that she needed a Savior; she had not even so much as heard the Savior's name. How could she? No one had ever told her about Him. But what she did not know she quickly learned. In school she eagerly listened to the Bible History stories. At first, it is true, those stories were nothing more to her than beautiful tales like those which her grandmother had often told her. In a few days, however, she began to love "that kind and good man," as she called Jesus, and at last her inward eye was opened by God's grace, and she began to see that "that kind and good man" is Jesus, who saved also her from the devil, from hell, and from sin. Better and better she learned this truth, and the better she learned it, the more she loved Jesus. Little Eliza had become wise now, really wise. She had received a treasure in the Lutheran school to which she clung with all her heart. If she would have realized the treasure she had gained and had known the words . of the poet as we do, she would have cheerily sung: ''Wisdom's highest, noblest treasure, Jesus, lies concealed in Thee."
About three years later little Eliza one day came to the missionary and requested that he go to see her sick grandmother. "Granny is not so sick," she said in her childlike way, ''but she is sick all the time.
She told me to ask you to. come to her some time."
That same afternoon found the missionary at the "forgotten house." Through the large arched entrance he stepped and came into the barren courtyard, back of the massive old house, where two poorly clad and hungry children, with thin legs and haggard faces, were playing in the dust. Seeing the missionary, they abruptly quit playing and ran up to him, and with begging look and voice they said, ''Mister, do you want us to show you where the people live in this house for whom you are looking?
And will you give us a penny, please, for a little cookie?'' The missionary knew where the people lived and needed not to be shown, but his heart melted at the sight of these children, so that he was exceedingly glad that he had a nickel with him. To this day he often. thinks of it how happy he was that he had given that nickel when he saw those two youngsters run with a shoat of joy to get the desired cookies. How much greater joy the pennies and nickels given for our missions by the youngsters' throughout the country and the larger contribut~ons offered for this purpose by the older suppprters of our missions will bring to them when they will see the fruit of their love, when they will see how many starving souls it was possible to feed .with the Bread of Life because of their offerings.
As soon as the two children had hastened away, the missionary walked the whole length of the "forgotten house" to the extreme left of it and mounted a spiral stairway. Round and round he walked on the creaking old staircase, and-higher and higher he came until, somewhat dizzy, he stood in a long, dim hall, at the farther end of which was the door leading into the room of little Eliza's granny. Reaching the door, he found it open. Granny's bed, he knew, stood behind the open door, hidden from view by the door which opened to the inside and by the darkness of the little room which Granny and little Eliza called their home. ·
He was just ready to knock when from the bedside he heard words which fell from a little child's . .
• An Old House in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
lips. Slowly, yet distinctly the words came to his ears: "Then - came - she - and - worshiped Him, - saying, - 'Lord, - help - me.' - But He - answered - and said, - 'It is not - meet - to take - the children's bread - and tQ cast it - to the dogs.' - And she said, - 'Truth, Lord; yet the dogs - eat of the crumbs - which fall from their masters' table.' "
Here was a pause, but soon the little girl was heard saying, "See, Granny, this mother went to Jesus for help." ''Yes, yes," came the assuring words, spoken in a raspy voice by granny, ''Read on, child, read on! I want to see whether Jesus helped her."
And again little Eliza's voice was heard : "Then Jesus - answered - and said - unto her, '0 woman, - great is thy faith. - Be it unto thee - even a~ thou wilt.' " "0 Granny," the child now joyfully exclaimed, "Jesus helped her all right. He always helps those
