The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1924, Page 98

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to do their share!

98 The Lutheran Pioneer.

been begun on chapels and schools. In not a few
instances the enthusiasm of pastors, teachers, and
children was so great that they did not wait for
collection material, explanatory literature, envel-
opes, and the like, — but immediately went ahead
with the collection. Already in October we received
this news from Cincinnati: “The pupils of Trinity-
Emmaus day-school contributed $50 toward the
Synodical Conference Colored Mission Building
Fund and $50 for Emmanuel Colored Lutheran
School at Cincinnati. ‘(This is the mission-plant
which the white Lutherans purchased and put at
the full and free disposal of the’ Negro Mission
Board this year. News from Cincinnati received
while writing this tells us that the building will be
ready for dedication November 30.) There are less
than a hundred pupils in Trinity-Emmaus School
of Cincinnati.” Just think of it! The good people
of Cincinnati donate a complete mission-plant, and
then, besides, the children give their share toward
the general collection! May their missionary zeal
inspire many others!

From Kansas comes the information that one
pastor out of his own means contributed $20 to our
Negro Missions, and that the children will collect
for the Building Fund. From Wisconsin a pastor
writes that-he is reminding the children of the
collection every Sunday, and that the offering will
be made on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. And
from the same State a lady writes that she expects
to get $1,000 in several weeks, which she wants to
give for the erection of a chapel. This splendid
gift will be sufficient to give the good people of
Kings Landing a chapel and school. From Ne-
braska a pastor writes that there will be no need
to send him any envelopes, as they are in the midst
of the collection, having distributed barrels among
the children for the purpose. Pastors from Minne-
sota and other States ask for cuts which they wish
to use in their parish-paper to create interest.
A pastor in Ohio reports that when he told some
of his Sunday-school teachers that their children
ought to bring up about $100, he received the an-
swer: “We ought to do much better than that!”
From a mission-congregation in Indiana came $10
from the Sunday-school and two friends with the
earnest prayer that God would bless the gift! The
smal) churches in Saskatchewan, Canada, promise
Iowa writes: “Of course we'll

‘collect for the Negro Building Fund!”
From schools and individuals the money is com-
ing in in an encouraging way at this time, and all

the indications are that our appeal to our children
will also in this case not have been in vain.

God bless our boys and girls and preserve in
them this spirit! F.J.L.

Systematic Personal Mission-Work.

Unless we shall succeed in arousing our Chris-
tians more generally to realize that Christ means
them individually when He tells His Church to
preach the Gospel, and then, after having aroused
them to see this personal responsibility, unless we
shall succeed in convincing our people of the im-
portance of systematic mission endeavor, we shall
be far from having done what we should do to carry
out the Lord’s Great Commission to go into all the
world and preach the Gospel to every creature.

By God’s grace much is being done among us to
arouse the consciences of our Christians concerning
their responsibility toward their fellow-men who are
still sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death,
both at home and abroad. Of course, in the case
of many this recognition of responsibility extends
only so far as to prompt them to pray for missions
and to open their pocket-books. ‘They are still of
the opinion that they are doing their share in carry-
ing out the Lord’s command to evangelize the
nations by praying for the conversion of the heathen
and assisting with a small offering in sending mis-
sionaries to the frontiers at-home and the heathen
countries abroad. There are still not a few who do
not realize that the possession of the Gospel and its
grace should impel them to do what Andrew did
when he had found the Christ. They forget that,
as soon as Philip had learned that Jesus is the
promised Savior, he did not rest until he had in-
duced his friend Nathanael to “come and see.”
They do not seem to remember that the woman
of Sychar could not keep her discovery of Jesus -
to herself, but hastened to her home city to tell
the glad news to all her townspeople. Yes, many
among us hayve-not yet been aroused to see that they
should personally work to spread the Gospel and
enlarge the Lord’s kingdom by personal evangeliza-
tion. There are still not a few who imagine them-
selves to be good Christians and faithful followers
of Jesus because they confess His name, go to
church, use the Sacraments, and pay their “church
dues,” besides contributing a little to the benevo-
Jences of their church.

But, thank God, there are those among us, and
they are increasing in numbers, who ask, “What