# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1905_S74
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

74 Proceedings of the 26th General or

"So in our mission to the heathen we have learned, over these past
three years, that the Lord wounds but also heals again. To his faithful
guidance and to the intercession and gifts of his Christians we commend
this branch of our synodical work anew!" (Report of the Committee for
Heathen Missions.)

"In keeping with the charge given me, I set about conveying to you
the heartfelt greetings of your missionaries in East India, and wishing
you God's blessing upon your convention.

"But as I consider what word I should speak to you in greeting, it
seems to me that before any wishing and any pleading for blessing, a
strong word of thanks ought first to be spoken publicly. A look back
over the past years shows me with overwhelming clarity how much we
in particular have to thank our faithful God and Savior for, and may I
be permitted to give this thanks unreserved expression, for once, in the
great congregation of believers as it is represented in your convention.
What we have to be thankful for is shown above all by one fact that
stands out with particular vividness in my memory. When the dreadful
plague broke out at our station of Krishnagiri, when one member of the
native congregation after another was seized by it, when our dear
brother Näther, too, sank onto his sickbed never to rise again, and the
enemies of the Gospel were already clapping their hands over us,
thinking that now it was all over for the Christians, that now the
mission there would surely perish entirely — then our merciful God
graciously heard the crying of his unworthy children, and when his hour
had come, he so wondrously halted the plague that even all Satan's
attempts to terrify the survivors with fever and other illnesses came to
nothing, and all danger of infection suddenly vanished again. For such
wondrous help let us give thanks to the Lord in this convention too, and
in doing so gladly acknowledge, with gratitude, the Lord of the Church's
confession to the work of even our weak hands.

"But to you, dear fathers and brethren, and to you, beloved
congregations who called these delegates, be it hereby assured that in
this wondrous deliverance, as in all the good that we daily receive from
our Lord and Savior, we see an answer to your prayers as well, and
therefore have the comforting confidence that holy hands of prayer are
being lifted up everywhere in daily intercession for us too. For this
service of brotherly love and fellowship of faith, a heartfelt thanks is
hereby expressed to you all, and as this prayer