The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1913, Page 15

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

Mission schools are conducted at San Carlos, Fort
Apache, Cibecue, and Globe. The Wisconsin Synod
carries on its Indian Mission at an annual expense
of about $10,000.

A Lourueran Cuurcu 1x Rome. —The project
for the building of a Lutheran church in the city
of Rome by the Lutherans of Germany, and par-
ticularly of those of Saxony, has progressed to
such an extent that the building is assured. The
cities with which Luther’s name has been specially
associated, in addition to the money gifts of their
people, have pledged memorials for the decoration
and furnishing of the church. Wittenberg has given
three magnificent bells; Magdeburg, a monumental
and a beautiful pulpit; Eisleben, where Luther was
born and baptized, a magnificent baptismal font;
Mansfeld, where he passed most of his childhood
days, a silver baptismal basin; Erfurt, where he
attended the university, lived as a monk, and was
ordained, an altar; while other towns will add to
the gifts. The work of gathering funds to build
a great Lutheran church in the stronghold of Roman
Catholicism has been energetic and enthusiastic. It
is this enthusiasm and the magnificence of the pro-
posed structure that make it a church apart from
the other foreign churches in Rome, and that is
said to be causing not a little smothered resentment
on the part of the Roman Catholics.

Conversion oF A Grear ZuLu Ciier.—'The
Izwi La Kiti, a Gulu paper of Natal, Africa, at-
taches great importance to the recent conversion to
Christianity of Chief Ngqamuzana of the Abatembu
tribe, after a Jong and serious illness. It says:
“The importance of the fact cannot be overesti-
mated, especially if it is borne in mind that this
chief is one of the biggest in the country, having
- close upon 7,000 huts under him.”

Comparative GrowrH oF THE LUTHERAN AND
Catuoric Cuurcies in. Amertca.— During the
last twenty years the Romish Church has made a
gain of 99 per cent.; in other words, it has at the
present time 6,183,680 more members than it had
twenty years ago. This remarkable growth is sur-
passed by only one other church in America, the
Intheran Church. While the growth of the Catholic
Church is largely to be attributed to immigration,
this cannot be accepted as the main cause of the
wonderful growth of the Lutheran Church, since
the influx from Lutheran countries has dropped

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greatly during this period. The Lutheran undoubt-
edly is correct when it attributes the remarkable
growth of our Church to the parochial school.
Those Lutheran synods which have most persistently
fostered the church-school have had the greatest
growth. 'The Synodical Conference of the Lutheran
Church has made a gain of no less than 214 per
cent. during the past twenty years, 115 per cent.
more than the Roman Catholic Church during the
same period. Surely, these facts teach a most im-
portant lesson!

oo

The Influence of the Bible.

A missionary met an elderly man (a savage) who
looked very downcast, and he asked him, “My friend,
what is the trouble? Who is dead?” “Oh, no one
is dead,” replied the man. “Well, then, what is the
matter? You seem to be mourning.” With a ges-
ture of despair he replied, “My son tells me that
my dog has eaten a leaf of the Bible.” “Well,” an-
swered the missionary, “perhaps I can replace, it.”
“Oh,” said the man, “the dog will never do any
good; he will never bite anybody; he will never
catch any jackals; he will be as tame as I see people
become who believe in that Book. All our warriors
become as gentle as women, and my dog is done for !”

. OF course, the poor savage was mistaken when
he thought that the eating of a leaf of the Bible
would have such an effect upon his dog. But is it
not praise that he bestows upon the Gospel when
he says that it changes the life of every one that
believes it? — “By their fruits ye shall know them.”

Give God the Best.

A Hindu mother having two children, one of
them blind, said her God was angry and must be
appeased, or something worse would come to pass.
Some time after, ‘a missionary saw that only one
child was left; the mother had thrown the other
into the River Ganges. “And you cast away the one
with good eyes?” he asked. “O yes,” she said, “my
god must have the best.”

Alas! the poor mother had a true doctrine, but

she put it to bad use. Let us give God the best.

Too long and too often have we put Him off with
the drippings from life’s overfull cup. — Selected.

Ir is no danger to have only one talent; it is
a great disgrace not to use that one talent.