# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1941_S175
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Reports on General Missions 173

The war has increased the cost of living nearly everywhere.
‘The same amount of money as provided last year for missions
+ will not be enough to do the same amount of work this year.
-- The cost of travel, particularly to the war zones and in the war
zones, has increased up to 30 per cent. and more, and we are told
‘that in our country the cost of travel, the taxes on gasoline and
oil, on railroad and bus tickets will soon be increased.

When the War is Over, What Then? — One day the war will
be over —the last of the shrieking bombs will have fallen; the
last ship will have been sunk; the last communique will have
been issued. Peace will once more reign supreme also in war-

‘tern areas. It seems almost too good to be true and believable. .

“"It still seems so far away that many of us are reluctant to think

‘of the time when the war is over and to think of postwar problems.

’ True, the war will possibly come to an end by the coming
of the Lord, when He suddenly will bid a halt to the terrible
“‘gonflict and the evil forces, when He will hail all before His
tribunal and demand an accounting, when He in His eternal right-
eousness will come to judge the quick and the dead and tell the
world that the time of repentance has come to an end. His un-
‘speakable love, however, might again grant another reprieve, as
it were, another hour of grace, and again permit this sinful world
+o continue in order that some might still come to repentance.

When the war is over and the world still continues, what then?
When the war is over, what will the Lord have us do? To be
-unmindful of the solemn obligations that rest upon us while the
struggle still is on or to be indifferent or lukewarm in the tasks
‘before us would indeed be the deepest ingratitude toward Him
‘who so signally blessed us. We must even now carry on the
-work of the Lord with greater zeal and fervor and leave nothing
undone to minister to the endless throngs groping in darkness
and going down in despair.

But is it sufficient to carry on the work already undertaken,
sufficient to do the best we can but pay little or no attention. to
the future, to the time when the terrible conflict has ended? Dare
-we Christians be satisfied to hold the fort and stand by and await
developments, look only to the present and not also to the future,
-when the war is over? We must gird our loins, plan carefully,
systematically, and make ready for the future and be prepared to
‘grasp the opportunities.

Reviewing our mission activities, I cannot but refer to the
faithful work done, and to the consecrated efforts put forth, by
‘the members of our various mission departments. Also note the
many missionaries as amid many hardships they carry on. “Neither
snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers