# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1923_S93 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Lutheran Pioneer. 93 ee sionaries need our prayers in their difficult and oftentimes discouraging work. Let us, therefore, work for the Lord’s cause with heart and hand. How about the new pledges? We are not alarmed. We are sure they will be forthcoming in the same liberal manner as in the past. “There is now one more member in the mis- sionary’s family that is looking to us —a Max, Jr. Congratulations to the happy parents! May God bless both parents and Max, Jr.! “Our missionary has sent us a number of wood carvings and another highly interesting letter. These carvings are to be sent to the societies of the district for exhibition. The letter will be sent to all societies as soon as it can*be copied. Lest we forget — we wish to call attention to the article in the October Messenger by our missionary.” Christmas Seals and Missions. As in former years the Walther League is again selling the Wheat Ridge Sanitarium Christmas seals to raise funds for the fight against the white 6554 | ZX MERRY CHRISTH. ] D X Ah ba PON Dyn R A MIT. FRIDGE - COLORADOY SS plague which annually carries away 250,000 young people in our country. The fund realized through the seals enables many a Lutheran to fight the dread disease among friends and fellow-Lutherans at the excellent sanitarium maintained by the Wal- ther League in Colorado. The $26;000 raised last Christmas made it possible to give free treatment or reduced rates to that amount during the past year. ‘This year the League hopes to realize $40,000. The most of us use seals on our Christmas mail and packages. Let us patronize our young people and use our own seals. Surely our own Lu- theran sufferers are closest to us and should be taken care of first. So do your Christmas shopping early. As you prepare to commemorate the coming of God’s great gift in Bethlehem, help give some unfortunate fellow-Lutheran that temporal gift which is most appreciated — health. Buy at. least one book for twenty-five cents. Remember that in buying these Christmas seals, you are supporting a most important mission enter- prise. By making it possible for poor tubercular patients to procure free treatment at our Wheat Ridge Sanitarium, you are also making it possible for them to be under constant Christian influence and care. What Makes the Missionary? First, a deep and abiding conviction that this is a lost and sinful world, and that it is the business of the ministry to hasten its redemption. Secondly, a deep and abiding conviction that the only means of redeeming the world is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation. Thirdly, a deep and abiding love for the souls of men, such as will drive him to become all things to all men in order that he may by all means save some. If this will not set a missionary on fire and make him a “live wire,” nothing else will. To this may be added three qualifications or characteristics on the human side that cannot well be left out of account. The first is initiative — a disposition to do and to dare things in order to reach a fixed goal. ‘The second is resourceful- ness — the gift of devising ways and means where- by to reach that goal. The third is inspirational “pep” — that warmth of spirit and of action which will spread like a contagion, warm the hearts of others, and marshal them into line for action. Under such leadership missions are bound to pros- per, and no cheap, sensational methods need be resorted to to insure their prosperity. — Lutheran. First Influences towards Christianity. What first influences heathen men and women to pay attention to Christianity, thus giving them the first impetus to leave the religion of their fathers and to accept the teachings of Christ? On the island of Formosa the Christian workers sent out inquiries to about four hundred church- members who were not the children of Christian parents. ‘The answers received gave most interest- ing results. Of those asked, 37 per cent. answered that they had been urged to attend Christian ser- vices by friends; 22 per cent. had embraced Chris- tianity because they had found it a help in sickness and distress; 20 per cent. had by chance heard a