The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1920, Page 6

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

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6 The Lutheran Pioneer.
EE ————ee——— El

The Sun will Never Set on This
Pastor’s Work.

Weariness. dragged at the muscles of the min-
ister’s eyes, making them twitch sleepily as he rode
along by the side of one of his members.

“Pastor, I think it’s a shame that you have
to sleep about half your life,” began the man at
his side.

The minister started guiltily. “Why?” he asked.

“Because if you weren’t sleeping that half, you
could be preaching and otherwise working all the
time. I was thinking about that Sunday morning
when you were speaking about missions, and I’ve
decided that we’d better go into partnership.”

“How’s that?” asked the minister.

“Well, I’ve figured it out this way. Seems to
me the world is losing a lot of time by sleeping.
Now I can’t preach, but I’m willing to give the
use of my mowing-machine to support another min-
ister. He can preach out in China while you sleep.
As it’s day there when it’s night here, one of you
will: be working all the time.”

“Good business,” approved the minister, now
thoroughly awake. “The sun will never set on my
work.” =

Chinese Beggar Priests.

Missionaries tell us that it is no uncommon
sight to sce one of these beggar priests going about
begging with four or five long iron skewers run
through his forearm and little ribbons. hanging
therefrom. One missionary speaks of having ‘met
two such beggars that had long iron rods running
through their cheeks, and they‘had taken an_oath
not to remove them until they had collected a cer-
tain sum of money sufficient to repair their temples.

One had kept the iron rod through his face for over
four months, living the while on soap and tea only.

Another way of raising money is for a priest to
take his seat in a little brick séentry-box and let
himself be walled in, leaving only a small window
through which he can see and can pull a rope, by
which a big bell is sounded and the attention of

~ passers-by attracted. Here he will sit for months.
One was known to remain in his box for nearly
"a year without being able to lie down or stand up,
‘but apparently Periecuys happy, and always ready

to have a bit of gossip.
> False religions are indeed a house of bondage

and make men cruel, not only toward others, but
also toward themselves. ‘The priests of Baal, in
the time of Elijah, also cut themselves with knives
till the blood flowed, but their prayers were not
heard.

A Hindu Rendering of the Story of the
Garden of Eden.

For many ages the common people of India have
learned the history, the religion, and the romance
of their country through song. Bards traveled from
village to village, singing the old songs that told
the common people of their gods and heroes. In
a land where only about half the people can read,
the most effective way to spread the message of
the Gospel is to have it sung into the hearts and
minds of the people. Below we give our readers
one of the Bible-songs now being sung in Hindu
villages by the native headmen. During the singing
the story is often enacted in pantomime, special
spirit being shown in the crushing of the serpent’s
head. The song is addressed to the serpent, and
is called

Tire LAMENT or Eve.
My garden has been lost through words;
No guns were fired; it was lost through
deceit.
I loved you and kept you in my heart,
With my own hand I fed you;
But deceit was in your nature.
Now I have lost the garden
Because I listened weakly to you;
But the One who gave me the garden
And the work He wanted me to do,
Will crush you with His heel.

A Christian Girl Graduate’s Work.

The Rev. J. C. Garritt, of Nanking, China, thus’
describes a graduate of a Christian school in
China : —

“Miss ‘I'sai is the daughter of a former governor
of one of the central provinces. Her brother also
has been an official. She has therefore the gentility,
the tact, and educated manner of the higher classes.
She studied English in the first government school
for girls opened in Nanking, but, becoming dissatis-
fied with the poor teaching in this school, she, with
a number of others, left. She entered our Ming
Deh School, and afterward attended a Christian
finishing-school in Soochow, her former home. -