# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1927_S186 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. 185 sons and daughters of consolation, whom the Lord has blessed with worldly goods and who could well afford to sell part of their lands or stocks or bonds, and to establish and finance this institute for mis- sionary lay workers, which we need so sorely in our Lord’s Gospel cause. In it our nurses and deaconesses who go into foreign mission-fields could be housed and instructed in the language, religion, and habits of the people in their heathen fields and also learn about the pre- vailing dangerous Oriental diseases and how to guard against them. As far as we know, this is not done, at least not as thoroughly as it ought to be. The same holds good of our young missionaries and their brides. Again, there is Africa, bleeding, tragic Africa, calling to us for generations, “Come over and help us!” Whenever we enter that great field, we shall need not only preachers of the Gospel, but also trained men and women who live at the mission- stations and who by word and example will teach the heathen how to lead a Christian home-life and inculeate upon them the virtue of thrift and other virtues. experiences of other denominations have proved long ago that the founding of such mission- stations or colonies is the only feasible means of carrying on the Lord’s work successfully in heathen lands. Hence they have long ago established in their midst institutes for the training of missionary lay workers. We can do the same thing. There is our fine, solid, but vacant Concordia Seminary at St. Louis, so well adapted for our sorely needed missionary institute for lay workers. If thirty or forty of our sons and daughters of consolation would each lay $5,000 at the feet of our Foreign Mission Board, the necessary $200,000 would be on hand to equip and finance the institute for years to come, and no burden would. be placed on our heavily indebted other mission treasuries with their heartrending accusations on account of the wide-spread lethargy obtaining in our midst for the Lord’s Gospel cause. O ye Lutheran sons and daughters of consola- tion, will you not listen to this appeal, coming to you in the name of Him who is your only Con- solation in life and death? Will you not open your hearts and hands and give Christ’s battling Church the needed sums for this institute? What is $5,000 to you, and what is the Lord Jesus to you? You can take none of your worldly possessions out of this world. ‘The only one to be with you in the hour of death — God grant it! — will be your Lord Jesus, your Savior. Will you not for His sake help us to acquire this sorely needed missionary insti- tute for lay workers? God grant it! But to all doubting and fearing hearts who will want to raise all kinds of objections we confidently say: It can be done if, with the great Carey of India, we attempt great-things for God because we can expect great things from God. F. W. H., in the Lutheran Deaconess. “In Perils of Robbers.’’ Often people talk of the “good times” the mis- sionaries have in foreign countries. Many seem to be under the impression that our foreign workers are lying on beds of roses. Not a few think that at every step our foreign missionaries are waited on by native servants. The following account, written by Miss Stayner, a worker of the China Inland Mission, should be sufficient to show that, as was the case with the Apostle Paul, so likewise to-day the messenger of the Gospel in non-Christian countries is often in peril of his life: — “We started on Monday morning for a journey across the river, and on Tuesday and Wednesday we visited several villages, where we were received very well by the people, and nothing but quiet was experienced till Thursday night. On that evening, about six o’clock, we reached Du-Kang, a small, lonely village, hidden away in the hills, inhabited by only seven or eight families, all of the name of Chi. We were to stop that night at the house of a Christian family living about five minutes distant. We were accompanied from the previous village by our private servant, a Bible woman, a preacher, and two Christian men, who were all to stay at the same house. We were received well, and quite a number gathered for the service, which was held at about eight o’clock; and soon after we retired to rest in a room in a loft, our Bible woman and the woman of the house sleeping in an adjoin- ing room, an open doorway leading from one to the other, the men of the party sleeping down-stairs. “About midnight we were aroused by great shouting and lights in the next room. A moment later our room was filled with a crowd of men, perhaps about a dozen, carrying flaming torches, who at once started pulling our clothes off the bed and emptying our provision basket. I attempted to speak to them, asking what they meant by this, but could not make myself heard; and when I tried to hold on to our bed quilt, one man struck me on the hand with his bamboo stick and held on a minute or so, but at last I got free.