The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 126

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126

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

with their heathenish practises. One of the hardest
things the world round, it seems, is the breaking
down of a long-established custom. In China this
seems doubly true. A man may readily accept the
Christian doctrine, but to change customs is ex-
tremely difficult. We hope and pray that the rest
of this family will also accept the Lord Jesus as
their Savior.

»  Kweifu, Szechwan, China. H. Kier.

Church Extension.

There is much talk in these days about over-
churching, and, no doubt, some of it is justified;
much of it, however, is based on wild conjecture
and misinformation. ‘There are communities that

have too many churches. We have neighborhoods

| where there are to-day two or three churches, where

one church could take care of all the work; we

have churches of sister synods occupying and work-

ing the same territory. Where churches of the same

faith are so situated that they actually become rivals

of one another, the real end of the church is, prob-

ably, in many cases defeated. We have seen little

hamlets, scarcely large enough with their surround-

ing territory to support one church, having in their

midst three and even more churches whose confes-

sional standard is. actually the same; as when, for

» example, a little village of possibly 250 people has

a Methodist-Episcopal, a United Brethren, and an
Evangelical Association church!

But there are many times more communities
that have no church at all, and we should not per-
mit the overchurched exceptions like those we have
referred to to lead us to forget this most important
fact. We somewhere lately read that there are
more than 10,000 rural communities in our country
in which no’Christian religious organization of any
kind is represented. And besides these rural dis-
tricts which have no church at all, there are said
to be 30,000 other rural neighborhoods that have
churches, but no resident pastor living among them.
And a church: without a minister in the neighbor-
hood is bound to lack that efficiency which it ought
to have. ‘To be really effective in his work, a min-
ister ought to live right among his people, share
their lives, and be one of them, not live fifteen,
twenty, or more miles away.

But if it is true that we have many under-
churched rural districts, this is still more true of
our larger cities. I am sure that I need not fear

‘to overstate facts when I say that not one of our

large cities has as many churches as it ought to
have, that all of them are sadly underchurched.
Cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago
are not in a position to take care of more than one-
fourth of their populations. In cities like Detroit
and Cleveland chapels are a most crying need.

There are dozens of fair-sized industrial centers in

our country that are in dire need of Lutheran
churches and chapels. If the synods comprising
the Synodical Conference had a fund of $5,000,000
in their Church Extension Treasury to-day, they
could have lent every cent of it in a few days to
such congregations throughout the length and
breadth of our country as stand in actual need
of help.

Surely as long as such conditions face us, there
can be no thought of retrenchment, and there must
be no talk of standing still. Enlargement instead

of retrenchment must be our motto if we do not

wish to be guilty of treason to the Lord of the
Church. F. J. 1.

Praying for Missions.

Great is the place of prayer in the work of mis-
sions. There can be no reason to doubt that our
missionary enterprises would be far more successful
if we were more diligent and earnest and persistent
in our prayer that the kingdom of God might come
to all men. - We were strongly put in mind of this
when we read the following little article in the Holy
Cross Messenger, the parish paper of Holy Cross
Church, St. Louis. The article is from the pen of
the venerable Dr. C. C. Schmidt, the senior pastor
of Holy Cross: —

“‘And this is the confidence that. we have in
Him, that, if we ask anything according to BB will,
He heareth us.’ 1 John 5, 14.

“Christians have confidence in prayer, we learn

from this Scriptural text, namely, the confidence
that God will hear them. But is not that confidence
somewhat: uncertain and doubtful, seeing there is
a condition .attached to the promise that whatever
we ask must: be ‘according’ to His will’? How can
one know that his petitions are according to God’s
will? Does not this condition rather preclude all
confidence and assurance in prayer? By no means.
In the first place, we know from God’s Word what
things are in conformity with His will. Think of
the countless teachings and exhortations and warn-
ings and comforting promises given us in Holy
Writ; and each of them we may turn into a prayer
with absolute certainty that such prayer will be
pleasing tothe Lord. ‘Turn Thou me, and I shall

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