The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1907, Page 71

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

71

NOTES.

Tur Greatest DiscouracEMENT. — One of the
missionaries in India, being asked what were the
greatest difficulties and discouragements in his mis-
sion work, made this answer: “I have never known
discouragement, except when I heard the Ckurch
at home was losing interest in the work.” Not the
hard labor, not the isolated life, not the sacrifices
he had to make discouraged the faithful missionary
so much as the lack of interest in the work on the
part of home supporters. When missionaries hear
again and again of an empty treasury, when mem-
bers of the Church spend large sums for luxuries
and give only pennies and nickels to spread the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, how the ardor of zeal chills
in the hearts of the missionaries! With souls per-
ishing on every hand, who know not Jesus, the
Savior of the lost, how the missionary becomes dazed
at the thought that Christian members of the
Church can be so indifferent to the welfare of souls
for whom Christ shed His precious blood. A re-
vival of true active interest for the work of spread-
ing the Gospel would bear untold comfort, strength,
and hope to the hard-working laborers in the mis-
sion field.

A CuerrruL’ Giver.—A servant girl once
called on her minister, and placed a sovereign
(about $4.84) in his hand for mission work. “But
surely ycu can’t afford it ?? exclaimed the clergy-
man. “Oh, yes, I can,” she replied. “But you will
have to go without the things you need,” he said.
“Oh, no, I shan’t.” “Do take it back to-night, and
if after thinking over it during the night you still
wish to give it, you can send it,” said the pastor,
and departed. Well, the next morning the clergy-
man received a note containing two sovereigns; and
a friend who was with him said, “Will you take it?”
to which he replied, “Oh, yes, I shall —I must,
for if I send it back she will send four next time!”
—The Lord loveth a cheerful giver.”

A Nosiz Exampre. — At a missionary meeting
an effort was made to raise funds enough to send
another laborer to a certain foreign mission field.
A teacher in a home mission school was seen by
her hostess to slip a gold ring from her finger and
put it on the collection plate. Asked by the lady ~
whose guest she was why she did it, she replied:
“Because I had no money, and because I knew what
it would mean if this effort to send this missionary
failed.” Not long before, she had been told that

she would have to give up her own school because
there were no funds to support it. But, though
somewhat discouraged, she would not give it up.
She held on with Christian heroism, and she con-
tributed the ring to help another to do what was
so dear to her own heart. Hers was a noble ex-
ample of free-will sacrifice prompted by love for
the cause of her Lord. And her example had a
stimulating effect upon a number of others, who,
touched by her example, at once contributed at least
five dollars apiece to that object, so that the needed
sum was soon given. What is needed in all Chris-
tians is the spirit of free-will sacrifice in behalf of
the cause which they profess to love.

DarkNEss IN RomisH Counrriss.— At a re-
cent gathering of missionaries a mission worker
from Italy lamented the ignorance and superstition
prevailing in Roman Catholic countries. He stated
that out of 33,000,000 in Italy 13,000,000 were *
illiterate, and out of every 100 in Spain 68 could
neither read nor write.

A Lesson From aN Oxp Inpran. — Says an ex-
change: Some white men might learn a lesson
from an old Indian,on the Kakima reservation.
He is a Christian. A lady had bought several cords
of wood of him. When the wood was measured he
found that it lacked just a few pieces of full
measure. The lady said, “Oh, that is all right.”
A few days afterward, however, he came with
enough wood to fully make it up. The lady said,
“Why, I told you that was all right.” But the
Indian replied, “Me want no short cords of wood
io meet me in heaven.”

A Word in Season.

Kilstein, a pious German minister, once heard
a laboring man use the most awful curses and im- -
precations in a fit of passion, without reproving
him for it. This so troubled him that he could
scarcely sleep the following night. In the morning
he rose early, soon saw the man coming along, and
addressed him as follows:

“My friend, it is you I am waiting to see.”

“You are mistaken,” replied the man; “vou
have never seen me before.” :

“Yes, I saw you yesterday,” said IWilstein,
“whilst returning from your work, and heard you
praying.”