# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1899_S78
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

[p. 78] Proceedings of the 24th General, or

both the Subcommittee and the General Commission have been occupied with
the question of whether it would not be advantageous, in more than one
respect, to see to strengthening the mission staff serving our Synod in
India, and the General Commission, at a meeting held within the last few
days, has resolved that the Subcommittee be instructed to take the steps
necessary so that our mission staff in India be enlarged and strengthened by
adding, if possible, two more workers drawn from our Synod.

"With regard to a request from the Rev. Pastor Th. Nickel, that the
Commission take under its oversight and care the work he has begun among
the Indians on a reservation in Wisconsin, the Commission is unanimously of
the opinion that, under the circumstances, Pastor Nickel's work should not
be regarded as a heathen mission falling under its care, but should rather
be assigned to the Commission responsible for Home Missions and supported
by the Synod accordingly; and this recommendation is hereby submitted to the
Reverend Synod for adoption.

"As for the plan, repeatedly raised from several quarters since the last
Delegate Synod, to make a beginning of a mission in Japan, the Commission,
after the fullest possible consideration, believes it must still decline it
for the present." (Report of the Commission for Missions to the Heathen.)

Greeting from East India, and a Return Greeting from the Midst of Our Synod

"To the Reverend Delegate Synod of the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of
Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, assembled in St. Louis.
Reverend Sirs!
Beloved Fathers and Brethren!

The conference of your missionaries to the heathen in the distant Tamil
country takes the liberty of sending you, through this letter, their
respectful greeting and their heartfelt wishes of blessing for your
gathering.

Your deliberations will also concern our mission work. The Reverend
Commission for Missions to the Heathen will report to you on it. Permit us
to say only this much here: your missionaries are still at the stage of
sowing the divine Word. In sermons, conversations, and tracts they seek to
bring it chiefly to adults; in their schools they seek to bring it home to
the children. That your missionaries have not yet been able to celebrate a
harvest festival grieves none more than themselves. But may this not
surprise you, beloved fathers and brethren, for the difficulties and
obstacles, the "strongholds" of Satan, are very many. Yet your missionaries
are certain, from God's Word, that just as there is no harvest without
sowing, so too no sowing remains without a harvest. Whatever may become of
our mission field, be it according to the saying: "This