The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1915, Page 50

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50

The Lutheran Pioneer.

that our mission boards have found themselves in
great financial troubles. On the one hand they saw
the great field white to harvest, and on the other
a depleted, empty mission treasury. What should
they do? Leave the great harvest go to ruin, or,
trusting to the Lord of the harvest to supply their
treasuries with the necessary funds for the blessed
work, send out the laborers into the ripe fields?
Thank God, they did the latter; but I am sorry
to say that the faith of our people did not always
keep pace with the faith of their mission boards.
Just now again various mission boards are facing
great difficulties. The Home Mission Boards are
erying for funds to efficiently carry on their work,
crying for funds that are in the possession of our
Christians, and which should be gladly surrendered
upon the Lord’s demand. So also our Colored
Mission Board has its present financial troubles.
Dozens of new fields have been opened up by our
hard-working missionaries, dozens of new fields are
ready to be worked; our Colored Mission Board is
calling for help, — but, alas! the cry seems almost
to be unheard by our people. The President of the
Board writes that they have a number of colored
workers at their disposal, but lack of funds pre-
_ vents their being put to work. Atlanta, New
Orleans, Wilmington, Spartanburg, and many other
fields need chapels and schools, but lack of funds
prevents their being built. Immanuel College at
Greensboro needs a girls’ dormitory, but lack of
funds hinders its erection.
Lack of funds! Lack of money! Is it not
a pity that there should be a want of money in our
mission treasuries while our purses are filled, our
personal bank accounts are growing, our farms are
being enlarged, and our wages and business increas-
ing? Ought it to be so, dear brethren and sisters?
As sure as we are Christians, so sure our love
will belong to Christ, and with our love will go
all we have. But what will happen if we content
- ourselves with giving a few dribs now and then for
the prosecution of the greatest work on earth, the

- work of missions?

I have lying before me the recent report of one
of our largest American Lutheran synods on general
benevolence for the year 1914. Yor all extra-con-
gregational purposes the 585,000 communicant
members of this synod contributed in 1914 the sum
of $871,819.30, and $344,556.76 of this was for
missions. Now, these look like big sums, and they
are such in fact, but just take the trouble of ana-
lyzing them a little, and you will find that they

mean that each communicant member of this synod
contributed only dhree cents a week to carry on all
the work of the synod and about one cent per week
for missions! The weekly three cents from each
communicant member had to pay the salaries of all
the professors at its seminaries and colleges, had to
keep up all the various educational and benevolent
institutions, carry on all the mission work of the
synod, and much more besides. Three cents a week
from each communicant member had to do all this!
Why, three cents isn’t even enough to buy a dish of
ice cream or a glass of soda! And think of it, one
cent a week, the price of a stick of candy, for carry-
ing on all missions! Is there one among us who for
a moment doubts that the luxuries enjoyed by us
during last year cost far more than ten times that
much? I ask again, Ought it to be so? And I also
once more ask, What will happen if we do not wake
up, and more fully realize our duty of giving to the
Lord and His work?

The northern part of Africa was once a highly
civilized part of the world and a garden of beauty.
Where now the Bedouin hordes sweep over the waste
desert and pitch their dirty tents, there once were
flourishing villages and cities, beautiful churches,
and fine homes. And these villages and cities were
populated by Christians. But now this beauty has
vanished, and the former home of the Christian
has become the haunt of the Mohammedan. Why
this sad change? History tells us; because the
Christians grew indolent and indifferent to their
trust. They neglected their duty of spreading the
Gospel among their fellow-men. And the wilder-
ness of to-day is the consequence of their sin. With
fire and sword those nations to whom they should
have brought the tidings of Christ, the Savior, but
whom they neglected,—I say, those very same
nations came down upon them and swept them away.
What a sad picture! : :

God preserve us against spiritual indolence and
indifference, and arouse us to put ourselves, and
all we have, in His blessed service! F. J. L.

“Behold, a Greater than Solomon
Is Here.’’

Each country and age have their heroes, leaders,
and wise men, whose fame is proclaimed more or
less widely. But the undying fame of the Fairest
of the children of men, “who moved in love and in
meekness among men,” the great Man of Sorrows,