The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 63

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

persons. They have received into membership dur-
ing the last four years no less than 7,500 persons.
They are serving a field 10,000 miles in extent.

A Large Negro Church. — In Chicago there is
a colored Baptist church which boasts a membership
of 10,000 and is served by five pastors. The head
pastor draws an annual salary of $6,000. The
Sunday collections are said to reach $500—$600.

Romish “Missions” in Norway.— The Roman
Catholics have been using much effort in trying to
gain a firm foothold in Norway. At present they
have congregations in fifteen of the larger cities of
Norway, in Christiania (since the beginning of this
year called Oslo) and Trondhjem even two. The
present clergy consists of a bishop and twenty-three
priests. A few of the latter are Norwegians, but
most of them have been imported from Holland.

A Musical Missionary Contribution. — One of
the students attending Drew Theological Seminary,
a Methodist institution, is Theodore B. Tu, a native
of China. He has a fine voice, and so the Victor
Talking Machine Company has recorded eight
Christian hymns in Chinese which Mr. Tu sang.
He has refused to accept any pay for his singing,
but wants his services to be regarded as his con-
tribution to the cause of Christian missions.

The Sad Spiritual Plight of Lutherans in Russia.
There are said to be 100,000 Lutherans in Lenine-
grad and Ingermanland and only two pastors to
take care of them. In the Black Sea district of
Russia one pastor is trying to care for forty-eight
rural congregations. While conditions may be some-
what better in the Volga region, the need for pas-
tors there is also very great.

A Spiritual Beggar.

Rev. Williams, the “martyr missionary of the
South Seas,” tells a most affecting story of a spir-
itual beggar known as Buteve. On one of the
islands there were six or eight stone seats, regarded
with much yeneration by the people as connected
with their grandfathers, or some great chiefs. They
were generally formed of two smooth stones, one
of which served as a seat and the other as a support
for the back, and here, in the cool of the day, would
be found certain persons ready to chat with any
passer-by. As the missionary one day passed near

_ these stone seats, his attention was arrested by see-
ing a person get off one of these seats and walk

‘upon. his knees into the center of the path, shouting,

“Welcome, servant of God, who brought-light into

this dark island!
Word of Heaven.”

The missionary asked this cripple what he knew
about heaven, and from his answers he found that
the cripple knew much about Christ and His work
for sinners, about the future life and the work of
the Holy Spirit, and he said: “Buteve, where did
you get all this knowledge? I do not remember
ever having seen you at the settlements where I have
spoken; and, besides this, your hands and feet are
eaten off by disease, and you have to walk upon
your knees.”

Buteve answered: “As the people return from
the service, I sit by the wayside and beg from them
a bit of the Word as they pass by; one gives me
one piece, and another gives me another piece, and
I gather the pieces together in my heart, and think-
ing over what I thus get and praying to God to
make me know, I come to understand.”

This poor cripple, who had never been in a place
of worship himself, had thus picked up the crumbs
which fell from the Lord’s table, and eagerly de-
voured them. Would that we in this highly favored
land of ours were as eager to hear the Word of God
as that poor cripple was!

To you we are indebted for the

The Christian’s First Business.

Forget not that your first and principal business
as a disciple of Christ is to give the Gospel to those
who have it not. He who is not a missionary Chris-
tian will be a missing Christian when the Great
Day comes on which all service performed in true
faith will be graciously rewarded.

Therefore ask yourselves daily what the Lord
would have you do in connection with the work of
carrying the news of salvation to the perishing
millions.

Search carefully whether He would have -you go
yourself to the heathen if you have the youth and
fitness required for the work. :

If you cannot go in person, however, inquire
diligently what blood mortgage there is upon your
property in the interest of foreign missions, how

much you owe to the heathen because of what you

owe to Christ for redeeming you with His precious
blood.

I warn you that it will go hard with you when
your Lord comes to reckon with you, if He finds
your wealth hoarded up in needless accumulations
instead of being sacredly devoted to giving the
Gospel to the lost. — Dr. A. J. Gordon.

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