# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1931_S192 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) THE LUTHERAN PIONEER 191 look, and there she stood—-smiling. That smile will never be erased from my memory. She had given all and had done it willingly. Back to the canning-factory she went that night, an old woman, past eighty years of age, bent with age and alone. Now you understand what I mean by a mission- ary by proxy. When the crowns are placed on the heads of the saints, some stars from India will shine in her crown. Yes, I must prove to be a very good missionary investment, for she so loved that she gave her all. Miss E. B. GAnpNEr, in the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald. A Painful Comparison. The rector of an Eastern parish analyzed the pledges of his people in terms of luxury expendi- tures. The result could not have been pleasant, but must have been thought-provoking. There are 431 automobiles in the 408 families of the parish. Forty families pledge less per year than the cost of one tire. Seven families are happy to contribute per week no more than the cost of one soda. Forty-six families prize their religion in terms of less than half a pound of candy per week. Twenty-two families are content with a weekly gift of the cost of two and a half gallons of gas. How far will the car go on that? Fifty-one families count it a joy to subscribe per week a sum equal to what many men spend for smoking in one day. Why go further? O yes. One hundred and forty-five more families have pledged nothing. What is wrong here? Simply the same thing that is wrong in a good many churches. There is a lack of the proper evaluation of the Church. The amount of money spent for these various objects indicates that whatever they may profess, these per- sons value these or other things higher than the Church. Many times this results from mere thought- lessness. People did not think the subject of the Church through. In other cases it is exactly the index to their conclusions about the value of various things in their lives. They consider that they should belong to the Church, but there is no sense that the most important thing in their life is the proper telation to God, the spiritual upbuilding, which the Church brings to them. Nothing is more seriously needed in the Church than an education, teaching the people what the Church is and means to them, | to our country, to the world. So long as people put other organizations and interests side by side with the Church and make them of equal or superior value and importance, we are going to have just this condition that is indicated in this church in the quotation above. We believe therefore that one of the important functions of our office is the education of the members as to the value and importance of the Church. — Lutheran Companion. BOOK TABLE. Lutheran Annual, 1932. — Amerikanischcr Kalender fuer d>ntsche Lutheraner auf das vahr 1932, Editor: Rev. EB. Eckhardt. Concordia Publishing Howe, Sv, Louis, Mo. 164 pages each. Price, 15 cts. each. Two old friends that should be greeted with delight. One of these annuals should be in every home of the Mis- souri Synod. The literary matter is instructive and edi- fying; there are twenty-five pages of it. The article giving the statistics of the Missouri Synod and of the Synodical Conference should prove interesting reading to every one. ‘The roster of all the pastors, professors, and teachers in the Synodical Conference and the lists of institutions of learning, publishing houses, religious periodicals, institutions of charity, home-finding socie- ties, etc., should prove of great value upon many occasions. Missouri Synod Synodical Reports, 1931. No. 5. Oregon and Washington District. 56 pages. Price, 33 cts. Doctrinal papers: “The Missionary Activi- ties as Recorded in the Acts, Models for Present-day Mission-work.” Die Bedeutung der Augsburgischen Konfession fuer die Gegenwart. — No. 6. Sued-Wis- consin-Distrikt. 93 pages. Price, 18 cts. Doctrinal papers: Warum lalten wir trotz aller Fortschritte und Veraenderungen fest an dem alten Evangelium? “True Happiness.” — No.7. California and Nevada District. 56 pages. Price, 21 cts. Doctrinal paper: “Some Lessons of the Ante-Nicene Age.” — No. 8. Texas-Distrikt. 74 pages. Price, 17 cts. Doctrinal paper: Der achte Artikel der Konkordienformel: “Von der Person Ohristi.’ Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo. Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly. October, 1931. Editor: Prof. W. G. Polack. Associate edi- tors: Dr. Th. Gracbner and Prof. R. W. Heintze. Subscription per year, $2.00, including membership fees for a year. Order from Theo. W. Eckhart, 3558 S. Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, Mo. A very valuable number. Contents: Personal Remi- niscences of Walther and Wyneken; Unique Relics in the Museum of the Institute; Herculean Labors for the Ex- tension of Lutheranism in Minnesota; Documents Re- garding Church Affiliation and Organic Union in the Lu- theran Church of America; History of the Stockbridge Indians and Our Mission among Them. My Church and Others. By John Theodore Mueller. Rudolph Volkening, Holland Building, St. Louis, Mo. 88 pages; limp cloth binding. Price, 75 cts. We are not surprised that this publication is seeing its second edition so soon. We know of no book better adapted for the instruction of adults in the fundamentals of the Christian religion. In its first part the principal doctrines are treated in thirty chapters. Each chapter has two subdivisions: “What We Believe” and “What We Reject” concerning each doctrine treated. In the second part the author gives a brief, but adequate descriptian of the principal denominations and religious bodies of our country, arranged in alphabetical order. The print and type are clear; the binding is very neat and strong.