The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1922, Page 68

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68

The Lutheran Pioneer.

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heed to the Word of Life when it is preached to
them.

May God, who has called Pastor Cozart into His
service, bless him and his congregation, so that
through his labors many souls, still groping in the
Black Belt of Alabama, may be brought to know and
confess Christ as their Savior and be eternally

_ Saved. E. R. BerGer.

Missionary Zeal of the Moravians.

The bicentennial of the Moravian Chureh this
year brings to mind the great missionary zeal shown
by the members of this church since its foundation.
They were among the pioneers in the foreign mis-
sion-field. Only a few years after Ziegenbalg and
Pluetschau went to India, the first pair of Moravian
missionaries went to the slaves of the West Indies.
‘They started out with five dollars between them.
When told that the slaves would not trust them, but
would class them with their cruel taskmasters, they
answered that they would become slaves themselves
if in that way they might bring spiritual freedom
to those that were in bodily bondage.

Other Moravian missionaries went to Greenland,
where they in certain respects lived like the natives,
in order to get near them. More than six fruitless
years did they spend in this inhospitable land before
they made their first convert.

Within ten years, from 1732 to 1742, ten mis-
sionary enterprises had been undertaken, and though
the death toll was heavy among these heroes of the
Cross, yet they never grew dismayed. Others were
always found ready to take the place of those whom
death had carried off. From 1732 till to-day many
thousand Moravian missionaries have gone out to
bring the message of Jesus to the poor heathen.
They have gone to the Negro slaves of the South
and to the Eskimos of the North, to the Calmucks
and Tatars of Asia, to the Georgians, the Samoyedes,
and the Laplanders of Europe, to the Moors of
Algiers and the Copts of Egypt, to the Hindus and
Persians, to the natives of Australia, the Hottentots,

Kaffirs, and Bantus of Africa, and to the Indians of

North, Central, and South America. They carried
‘the Gospel to the Bush Negroes and Coolies of
Surinam and Demerara, and brought the tidings of
salvation to the lepers of Africa, South America,
and Palestine. ‘They always seemed to seek the
“most neglected and despised of men. Some of their
missionary enterprises failed, but most of them were

Fund.

very successful, so that the Moravian Church has
the distinction of having the larger part of their
membership made up of converts on the mission-
fields in the proportion of two or three to one.
F.J.L.

———_—> es —___ __

Children and Our Colored Missions.

There is nothing more gratifying to a friend of
the mission cause than when he sees the children
taking a lively interest in this blessed work. Such
gratifying experiences we have had this summer
again and again in connection with the Jubilee Col-
lection. If our Board for Colored Missions finds
itself able to carry out the most necessary building
program it has mapped out, it will be largely due
to the interest which the children have been taking
in the whole matter. From the North and from the
South, from the East and from the West, letters
are pouring in with contributions from our children
for the Jubilee Building Fund. And though in
many cases the contributions are not large, the
words which in many instances accompany the gifts
bring home the fact that these gifts were given in
the same spirit that the widow gave her mites.

Just read what Pastor Hafner, Haven, Kans.,
writes: “It was at the annual school picnic. ‘Two
of the pupils asked their teacher, ‘May we bring our
ponies, with which we ride to school, to the picnic
and let the other cliildren ride on them for a nickel
a ride and give the money to the Colored Missions ?’
Permission to do this was readily granted by the

teacher. It was amusing to see the little tots climb’

on the ponies and grasp the reins with fear and
trembling. Sometimes the mamas had to hold them
and walk along beside the ponies. If they had no
nickel, a penny was accepted! At the end of the

picnic, when the two little friends of our Colored °

Missions counted their treasure, they found that
their ponies had earned no less than $2.33.” When
once our children show such an interest in the cause
of missions, we need not fear that the Church of
the future will forget the Savior’s parting com-
mission.

Pastor R. Piehler, Goodenow, Ill., has a band of
“Mission Chicken Raisers” in his school. ‘This year
these “Mission Chicken Raisers” and the small class
of confirmands sent in $41 for the Jubilee Building
F. J. L.

THE more religion we export, the more we
possess.

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