# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 04 11_S131
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

131

Whoever wishes to come to clarity and certainty of faith concerning the principles of the doctrine of Church, Ministry, power of the keys, church order and the like, let him read this book, which has the merit of having sought out again and brought to light the treasures of wisdom and knowledge which lie buried for so many in the dusty writings of our divinely learned Fathers. In conclusion we remark that the book has been printed very beautifully and well by the German publishing house, which is favorably known. Misprints are found only very few.

(Communicated.)

A Visit to Shebahyonk, Mich., among the Red Brethren.

If you, dear readers of the Lutheraner, catch sight of the above heading, it will please you to learn something sure and certain about your dear brethren among the Indians; I will therefore, as well as I can, report to you this time, in accordance with the truth, about those who dwell at Shebahyonk.

It was on Friday morning, the 4th of November of this year, after the usual conference of preachers at Frankenmuth had been concluded, that four of its members, Pastor Clöter, the missionaries Mießler and Röder, and the undersigned, together with the interpreter Gruet, accompanied the returning missionary Pastor Auch to Shebahyonk, in order to prepare the execution of a plan long since formed by our last Synodical convention, concerning the merging of the two mission stations Shebahyonk and Bethany into a single station. The beautiful Frankenmuth bells had already invited the congregation to the usual morning worship when we all began our long, toilsome ride upon little Indian ponies. We wished today, with God's help, still to reach Sibiwaiing, and therefore let our steeds run at top speed along the forest paths. Farm after farm, also the two little towns Tuscola and Vassy, situated picturesquely on the Cass River, vanished from before our eyes, and noon saw us assembled, 18 miles from Frankenmuth, in the log barn of an English farmer. Here we provided our frugal ponies with some straw and Indian corn and, having refreshed ourselves at the hospitable table of our host, trotted soon along the narrow forest path, completing the way to Sibiwaiing, where we arrived only in the evening after 8 o'clock, shivering from the darkness and cold of the night. Strengthened by a fresh night's rest in the house of the dear Mr. Auch senior, we reached our goal at Shebahyonk the next day in the forenoon and thanked the Lord that He had so graciously preserved us on our long journey.

Since Pastor Auch had so arranged his affairs that full Sunday services with the necessary official acts were to be provided in the German congregation at Sibiwaiing, the two Sunday sermons for the Indians were so divided that Missionary Mießler should preach in the morning, Missionary Röder in the afternoon.

Scarcely had it become known that we had arrived, when from all sides the Indian brethren hastened up with wife and child and sought us out in a body. It was evidently not curiosity by which they were driven, but the great longing to see and greet those who were so intimately bound to them through Christ. The whole Indian congregation consists only of two family stocks, whose chief is called Meganigischick. The latter has 5 brothers, of whom the majority are married; his old father also is still living. — After we had conversed an hour with the visitors through the interpreter, they departed toward evening and rejoiced in the promise that tomorrow there should be preaching among them.

When they were gone, we had to express to one another our joyful astonishment that the Word of God has borne such glorious fruits among this little people. At first glance one sees here that they are wholly transformed by it. A humble, reverent and yet withal childlike open and cheerful manner is now peculiar to them, and the joy over the enjoyment of the blessings of Christianity shines from the eyes of all. Not a word of begging came over their lips. Great cleanliness and honesty showed themselves in their outward appearance, so that we gladly tarried among them. Their frankness and familiarity showed itself also in this, that they joined with merry heart in every honorable jest with laughter. —

On the following Sunday the little bell on the church called to divine service. Festal joy rested on all faces that the Lord's Day should today be kept with a full sermon. Already an hour before the service a dear, faithful Indian brother, Kegek by name, had presented himself to perform the sexton's duties, e.g. the heating, etc., as he had also done the cleaning of the house of God the day before. This man furnishes the clearest proof that the Indian also, through the power of Christianity, gladly lets himself be accustomed to a fixed and certain order of life.

At the beginning of the service there rang out from clear throats the Indian hymns, of the same content as our German church hymns, but of course forced into meters and melodies which are not suited to the Indian language. Yet we may thank the Lord that it has become possible for our missionaries, in the first time of need, by translation to make the great content of our hymns known to the Indians, so that they can join in our choirs. It is left to the future to awaken poets among the Indian people themselves, who then in popular songs and tunes suited to them may praise the great deeds of God. — At the preaching of the Word of God, however imperfect it always was through the medium of an interpreter, the Indians appeared especially attentive and drank in, as it were, its fullness, as a child with eagerness and delight sucks in its mother's milk. This was the more explicable since the dear congregation, for want of an interpreter, had long been limited to the smallest measure of divine services (singing of hymns, confession of the Chief Parts with explanation by Dr. Luther, reading of the Word of God and recitation of some set prayers), and therefore was now not a little rejoiced to receive, through the help of the Bethany interpreter Gruet, a regular sermon and ample exposition of the Scripture. It must also be praised of Mr. Gruet that he follows up both the sermon and any other conversation with the Indians most diligently, and carries out the interpretation faithfully, sentence by sentence, to the best of his conscience.

After the Sunday had thus been kept by twofold preaching in public assembly, toward evening we were drawn to a return visit in the Indian log houses. The old huts have, namely, all given way to modest little log houses, which, neatly and cleanly furnished, offer even the guest a place where he gladly tarries, since a truly cozy fireplace was to be found in them. What pleased us most, after closer inquiry, was that the Indians had built these houses themselves and provided them with the necessary conveniences. A partition separated the little rooms from the chambers, and when one looked through the door into the chamber, one saw bedsteads on which clean woolen and cotton blankets were spread out. The stores of their harvest from field and garden were kept in orderly fashion on the board floor. The Lord had granted these dear brethren, for the easing of the finishing of their houses, the good fortune that a raft of 6000 feet of boards floated to their shore, which must have been thrown overboard from some ship when it was in danger perhaps in a storm. The Indians had fetched these boards ashore the year before and, after all efforts to discover the lawful owner had remained fruitless, divided them among themselves in order to make their houses comfortable with them. – By the house visits we pleased the Indians greatly; indeed the Kegek mentioned before said he and his family had not been able to sleep the whole of the previous night for joy that he would soon see us at his house. We parted from all with the expectation of seeing them gathered again in council early next morning. —

To come now to this council, the meeting in question was opened the following morning by Missionary P. Auch. He explained to the red brethren with what joyful thanks the assembled pastors with them