The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Sheet 47

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

nibalism was practised and where the Gospel was
unknown; and: in that short time he had grown
into a fine, intelligent Christian young man.
Epunda departed with the package of precious
manuscript for the printers and in due time re-
turned with the finished copies of the gospel en-
trusted to his care. FJ. 1.

An Overwhelming Thought.

As we make a survey of the unevangelized world,
as we listen to the tramp and hear the wail of
countless millions moving on to eternity ignorant
of the birth of God’s own Son, uninformed as to
His atoning death, His resurrection from the dead,
and His ascension to glory, and unaware of the full
and free deliverance from sin and death and hell
through Him who is the only, but all-sufficient
Savior, our courage threatens to forsake us when
we think of the immensity of the task this condition
of the world presents to us.

As the sobbing of these 1,200 millions of poor
non-Christians sounds in our ears, our hearts are
moved to attempt to measure something of their
darkness, something of their blank misery, some-
thing of their hopeless despair. We vividly see
their needs, their wants concern us, we look ap-
palled upon them in their untold woe, sleep flees
from our eyes, the thought of our responsibilities
toward them overwhelms us with dismay.

But if we who are far removed from the scene
of this pagan misery and woe, who actually never
come in direct contact with heathenism in all its
naked sordidness and squalor, all its hideousness
and devilishness, —I say, if we have hours when
the thought of the many millions of souls on this
earth that are hastening to endless perdition for
want of the Gospel which Jesus bade us bring them
overwhelms us, how much more must this thought
clutch hard upon the hearts and minds of those who
are living in the midst of heathenism and all its
degradation !

When Dr. Francis Hall, the well-known medical
missionary, lay dying in Peking, he thought in his
delirium that he once more heard the pleadings of
his patients. Struggling to rise from his bed, he
exclaimed, “I hear them calling; I must go!”
Only with greatest difficulty his friends succeeded
in restraining him, and he died murmuring
with his expiring breath, “I hear them calling;
I must. go!”

47
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Would to God that all Christians could hear
the voices of the millions of men, women, and little
children of Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South
America calling us to bring them the only help for
their ailments and the only balm for their wounds!
And would to God that we were all ready to say,
“I hear them calling; I must go!”

At present there are in non-Christian lands
approximately 25,000 American and European mis-
sionaries — one for each 55,000 inhabitants! China
has one missionary for each 65,000 of its popula-
tion; India, one for each 62,000; Japan, one for
each 52,000; Africa, one for each 24,000. In view
of the small number of missionaries scattered
throughout heathendom and the great masses of
people for whom they are working, we may well
cry out, “What is that among so many !”

F. J. 1.

Preach the Gospel.

Deep gloom was in the heart and on the coun-
tenance of a young man as he lay upon his bed
while contemplating a life which was now near its
close. The popular pastor of the church had been
sent for, and as he came in, he recognized the young
man as one of his congregation and very kindly
inquired if there was anything he might do for
his parishioner.

“T have asked for you,” said the young man,
“not that anything can be done for me now, but
because I wished to tell you something. Five years
ago I came here from a dear Christian home, think-
ing myself almost a Christian. I went to your

.church, and I liked to hear your discourses about

Nature, and Art, and Philosophy, and Social Edu-
cation, and Progress, ete. I began to think my old
minister and my father had been too stern, and
I was glad to be let off easier. Then I began to
read Matthew Arnold and kindred writers, who
preached the same way more eloquently. After-
wards I began to stay at home and read Shakes-
peare, and I got down to Pope and Byron and the
Sunday papers. Now I’ve been wanting to tell you ~
that you started me down this way. Oh, don’t do
so to other people, but preach of a holy God, and
lost men, and of Christ who has died’ to save them,
and that, if not saved, they are forever lost. Oh,
preach that—and you will deliver your own soul
and those that hear you, even if it should seem to
empty your pews.” — Selected.