The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1915, Page 63

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

finance and oversight of foreign missions. _Amid
the conflict and distress of nations the society is
going on with its proper business, and steadily car-
rying out the object for which it exists. ‘Trans-
lators and revisers of the Scriptures have made no
pause-in their sacred labor. During the past year
“portions of the Bible have been printed by the
society in nine more languages. ‘There are no fewer
than 487 languages in which the Bible Society has
helped to produce or circulate the Scriptures. ‘These
include the complete Bible in 129 languages, be-
sides the New ‘l'estament in 118 more. ‘The year’s
issues of the Scriptures reached the huge total of
over ten million copies, an increase of over 1,200,000.
‘estamenis have increased by half a million, and
smaller portions by 827,000. ‘These unprecedented
figures are swollen by the large war distribution,
but they also reflect the eager demand for Gospels
in the Far Hast. ‘The society is warmly to be con-
gratulated on its continued prosperity. ‘The income
last year was about $1,300,000, and the year’s work-
ing has left a deficit of less than $10,000. ‘The
report closes with this vivid picture: “A soldier
has pictured one furious battle in the Carpathians
full of blood and fire and roar of cannon and
vapor of smoke, where death was reaping a dread-
ful harvest. Yet close by, on the verge of the
danger zone, a peasant with his yoke of oxen was
plowing long furrows across the field, while another
peasant cast seed into the earth, seed for the future,
germinating new life. ‘Those peasants are a parable
of the Bible Society.”

Tae Unrrep PrespyrertaANs AND ToreIGN
Missions. — The United Presbyterians only num-
ber about 130,000 members, but during the year
1914 their Board of Foreign Missions received no
less than $164,226.61 for the prosecution of its
work, in other words, the sum of more than one
dollar from each communicant member for foreign
missions, not to mention what was done for the va-
rious home mission enterprises of that church-body.

A Grear THanK-orrertnc. — In 1898, the
Methodist Episcopalians resolved to gather twenty
million dollars till the 31st of December, 1902.
They succeeded in their enterprise. ‘This money
was not gathered by means of fairs and bazaars,
but by free-will offerings. The success of the enter-
prise is, howevér, mainly to be attributed to the
fact that every member was personally asked to
contribute. Here lies the secret of all successful

collecting, that nobody is passed by, and all are
given an opportunity to give. F. J. L.

63

1

Why So Many Christians Do Not
Thrive Spiritually.

They have Bibles in their homes, but their real
food is the daily paper.

They talk of peace, but do not lay down their
arms to gain it.

They pray that God’s kingdom may come, but
hinder its coming by leading a worldly life.

They listen to sermons on self-denial and un-
selfishness, but cat and dress extravagantly.

They carry crosses on their watch-chains and
necklaces, but refuse to bear the cross which God
imposes upon them.

They praise Christ as the Physician of their
souls, but claim that His precepts are impracticable
and not adapted to present-day life.

They have many words of sympathy on their
lips, but their deeds of charity are few.

They have much to say and sing of the sweet-
ness of the Gospel, but are too selfish to give the
poor heathen one drop of it.

—— ——

A New Heart.

Livingstone relates that one day a certain Afri-
can chieftain, named Sekomi, came to him and
said: “You have to change. my heart. Give me
medicine to change it, for it is proud, very proud,
and stubborn.” Jivingstone took his New Testa-
ment to show him the only way in which his heart
could be changed; but Sekomi interrupted the mis-
sionary by saying: “No, not words; I want my
heart changed by means of medicine. Give me
medicine that I can drink, and have my heart
changed at once.”

Many people are just like this heathen chief.
They see the need of a change in their heart; they
know that in their present condition they are not
as they should be; they want a new heart. But
they do not want to get it in God’s appointed way.
They despise the Word, the means of grace which
God has given us to change our natural hearts, and
wish to be changed by means of their own choosing.
They forget that the natural heart can be changed
only in: this way, that God begets us anew by the
Word of Truth. Do not belong to this class. You .
can only be saved in God’s way. Remember what
Abraham said to the rich man: “If they hear not
Moses and the prophets” (the writings of Holy
Scripture), “neither will they be persuaded though