The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1907, Page 14

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

14 The Lutheran Pioneer.

Immanuel Lutheran College.

December 20 Prof. Bakke moved into the new
house built this fall by the Synodical Conference
on the college grounds. Prof. Bakke is now withia
a three minutes’ walk of our present location, and
is thus enabled to supervise his work better than
heretofore, when he lived one and a half mile from
the college. As soon as everything can be arranged
the house will be dedicated.

Immanuel Lutheran College had its Christ-
mas celebration on the night of December 25. It
consisted in the singing of Christmas hymns, two
selections being sung by the college choir, a cate-
chisation on the Christmas story, and an address by
Prof. Bakke. While the tree was being lighted the
students and the children were remembered with
small gifts. There is a marked contrast between
our Christmas celebration and that of the people
round about us. Not knowing any better, they
deem it no Christmas if they cannot roam about
on the streets until midnight and shoot firecrackers,
guns, and pistols, ring bells or bang something that
will produce a noise, or delight in frolic of various
kinds. ‘These are the things that are necessary to
produce the joy of their Christmas. Their joy is
marred by their going to church to hear of the
Child “that, though He was rich, yet for our sakes
became poor, that we through His poverty might
become rich.” As though they feared “that the
dearest Jesus, holy Child, might make Him a bed
soft undefiled within their hearts,” they cannot
wait for the close of the service, but hasten out
again to the din of the firecrackers. — Despite the
cold weather at Christmas, we had a large audience
in the country schoolhouse near by, where we had
our celebration. Our present accommodations do
not afford enough room at all, much Jess for such
occasions.

Immanuel Lutheran College still occupies the
building that it did when it was first transferred
from Concord to: Greensboro, N. C., a year ago
September 12, 1906, a house in Jonesboro, on East
Market St. Extension, formerly a residence. Al-
though the house is the largest one in the neigh-
borhood, it is rather inadequate for the purpose it
is now serving. It has two stories, each divided
into four rooms, and a basement partitioned for
a kitchen and a dining room. ‘The rooms on the
first floor are used for study and recitation rooms.
The largest one is 1515 feet. We have now over
seventy scholars distributed in five classes. As there

are only four professors, we must throw two classes
into one during every period of the day as best we
can. In doing this, two classes actually take up
every square foot in the largest room except the
space below the stove and the horizontal stovepipe
two feet from the floor. When all scholars of the
two classes are present, there is no space for the
little table of the professor, no space for the chair
of the professor, no space inside the room for the
professor to stand, but he is content if he can stand
in the door. In order that we may have these con-
veniences, one chair is placed next to the other,
forming a solid line extending from side to side
of the room, leaving no passage into nor out of the
schoolroom. Of what advantage, then, is the map
on the wall to the Geography class, the map which
is partly blurred for nearly every scholar, the light
falling upon it from the one window in the class-
room, which is partly hidden by the porch roof?
Or of what advantage is the blackboard for the
Arithmetic class—the blackboard considered so
useful by the teacher — since one out of every line
must raise his chair to clear a passage for the one
in the rear of the classroom called upon to appear
at the board?

In this way the work at Immanuel Lutheran Col-
lege is hampered. We are in need of room, room
in the classrooms, room in the bedrooms, room in °
the dining room (some of the scholars are eating
in the kitchen), room in the Model Graded School,
which since October last has been continued in a
room of the girls’ dormitory and is now attended
by between thirty and forty children, huddled to-
gether in a small room.

These are the inconveniences under which your
work is carried on, dear reader, at Immanuel Lu-
theran College. But it is a glorious work. Though
the work is at present hampered by our location,
it is visibly prospered by God. His blessings we
see day after day. ‘Therefore, beloved brethren,
“be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that
your Jabor is not in vain in the Lord,” 1 Cor. 15, 58.

Contented.

A noble old Christian, who had suffered great
losses, wrote in his diary: “I sometimes understand
why my life has been spared so long. It is to prove
that my life can be just as happy without my for-
tune as when I possessed it.” 1 Cor. 7, 29—31.