The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1916, Page 22

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22 The Lutheran Pioneer.

tithe their incomes, and this tithe, in addition to
thank-offerings, enables them to support more than
one-tenth of the number of their membership as
missionaries in “the regions beyond.”

The organization and history of this mission
reads, indeed, like another chapter in the romance
of missions. At the end of the third year after its
organization one lame man was baptized. Naked
cannibals came to his little hut to hear the story
of ‘the great Physician, and at the end of another
year thirty-one of these savages from seven warring
villages were baptized by the missionaries.

Assembling for-the first time around the tiible
of their Lord, one upon his own initiative arose
and proposed that it be made the rule of the new
church that every member tithe his income. ‘This
was heartily agreed upon, and again this child of
paganism and superstition proposed that one out
of every ten of their number give his entire time
to heralding the “good tidings,” and that these be
supported by the other nine members in each group.
This was as joyously accepted as the first proposal.

Nine years have gone by since that resolution.
The one station is multiplied by four, and the mem-
bership has grown to more than 2,000, and yet this
practise has been persistently followed.

The medium of barter and exchange are brass
rods, eleven inches in length, in value worth about
one cent of American money. The members each
week bring their tithes to the treasurer, who enters
the amount upon his books. — Lutheran Witness.

- + --- ~e em

Faith of a Child.

A little boy lay very sick. A minister came to
see him, but, finding him very weak; spoke only
a very few words to him. Before parting, how-
ever, he gaye the child a verse of five words as
a motto, a word for each finger of the hand.

The boy counted over the words on his thin
little fingers.” Yes, there they were, five only, and
one foreach knuckle: “The — Lord — is — my —
Shepherd.” “And ‘my’ is the best of the five,”
he said. oe EE ;

A few days later the minister came again. At
the door he was met by the sorrowing mother. “It
is all over,” she said; “my little son is dead. But
come and sce him.” And she led the way to the

"darkened room. Very thin and white was the little

face, very sweet and peaceful was the countenance

of the little sleeper. Then the mother drew down

the coverlet, and, turning to the minister, said,
“That’s the best.”” The little hands were crossed,
and on the fourth knuckle of the left hand rested
a finger of the other hand. Im silence the life
had sped, with the hands clasped to utter, “The
Lord is my Shepherd.”

Blessed the death of him who with his expiring
breath can say, “The Lord is my Shepherd !”

—-- 0

A Parable.

Once there was a briar growing in the ditch,
and there came along a gardener with his spade.
As he dug around it and lifted it out, the briar
said to itself, “What is he doing that for? Does
he not know that [ am an old, worthless briar?”’
But the gardener for all that took the briar into
his garden and planted it there among his choice
roses. As he did this, the briar once more lifted
its voice in protest and said, “What a mistake he
has made, planting a good-for-nothing briar among
such beautiful flowers as these!” But the gardener,
having planted the briar, went away, never heeding
,its words. After some time he returned, bringing
with him his keen-edged knife, made a slit in the
briar, and grafted it with a rose. By and by sum-
mer came; and on that old briar-bush began to
bloom a great number of beautiful roses. ‘Then
the gardener said to the briar-bush, “Your present
beauty is not due to what came out of you, but
that which I put into you.”

This is just what Christ is doing all the time
with poor human lives. ‘They seem to be of no
use, and there seems to be no hope that they ever
will be of any use. Then Christ takes them in
hand, pours His love upon them, lifts them up out |
of the dust, puts something’ of His own life into
them, and by and by they begin to he :like Him,
little branches of His own beautiful life. “TITe that
abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit; for without Me ye ean do
nothing.” (John 15, 5.) FB. J. Ti.

Items of General Missionary Interest.

A Crisis In THE LonDON Missionary Socrery.
Two years ago the board of this society decided
on « line of policy involving a reduction in the
annual expenditure of about $30,000 and an annual
increase in income of $50,000. But, owing to the