The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 82

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

_ crated to their great purpose.

82 THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

Dedication of Concordia Seminary,
St. Louis.

Just about when.this number of the PIONEER
will get into the hands of its readers, the new
buildings of Concordia Seminary will be conse-
The dedication will
take place on Sunday afternoon, June 13.

As all readers will know, Concordia Seminary is
the leading theological school of the Lutheran Mis-
souri Synod. The new plant is directly west of the
city limits of St. Louis. During the Louisiana Pur-
chase Exposition it was the site of the Philippine
Village. The beautiful, wooded site is four blocks
west of Forest Park.

The group of buildings comprising the plant
includes an administration building, two dining-
halls, ten dormitory units, a power-house, and
twelve faculty dwellings. The style of architecture
is consistently churchly throughout. The walls are
built of varied-hued stone with Indiana lime-stone
trim and tracery. It must be a surprise to any one
who visits the plant how it was possible to erect it
all for the sum of $2,500,000. Members from the
3,300 congregations, whose liberal contributions
made possible the erection of this New Seminary,
when coming to attend the dedication ceremonies,
will marvel, we know, when they see this architec-
tural masterpiece that has been reared with their
free-will offerings.

We understand that the Lutherans of St. Louis
are making very extensive preparations to take care
of the thousands of people who are expected for the
day of dedication. Besides the thousand and more
accredited delegates present in St. Louis at the time
to attend the Thirty-third International Conven-
tion of the Missouri Synod, June 9—18, it is ex-
pected that special excursion trains from every
direction will bring 100,000 visitors to the city for
the dedication. Thousands of auto tourists will
also be in attendance for the occasion. ‘The vener-
able President of Synod, the Rev. F. Pfotenhauer,

D. D., and the Rev. J. W. Behnken, of Houston,

Tex., will deliver the main dedicatory addresses,
and a large choir, composed of the singing organi-
zations of fifty St. Louis Lutheran Churches, has
been organized to render a number of selections
during the service.

The student-body of Concordia Seminary num-
bers almost 400, and an even larger enrolment is ex-
pected next year. No less than ninety-six men will
graduate this month from the school to enter the

ministry. It is this large and increasing number
of students that made the erection of the Seminary
plant with its splendid buildings necessary. The
Seminary has no less than ten “feeders” .in the col-
leges that are maintained in various parts of the
Missouri Synod just for that purpose.

The history of Concordia Seminary tells of
a marvelous growth. It was begun eighty years ago
in a log cabin, in the forest wilds of Perry County,
Mo. That was the beginning of all the educational
endeavors of the Missouri Synod. ‘T’o-day this
Synod has, besides its great Seminary at St. Louis,
another theological seminary with 235 students at
Springfield, Il, normal schools at River Forest,
Ill., and Seward, Nebr., and the ten classical
schools referred to above. Last fall a number of
pastors and interested laymen saw a promising

‘educational opportunity in the acquirement of Val-

paraiso University, and a spirited and determined
effort put forth made the purchase possible. This
will be another institution that may be classed from
now on as one of the higher educational institutions
of the Missouri Synod. The Synod also maintains
several schools in other countries: Brazil, Argen-
tina, China, and India, and fosters and supports
a higher school in Germany.

May the New Concordia at St. Louis be, as was
the old, the rallying-point for positive, Biblical
Christian teaching! May it ever remain a Bible
school in the fullest sense of the word! May those
who go forth from its halls never be ashamed of the
Gospel of Christ! May they ever be ready to go
onward and forward to make new conquests for
Christ at home and abroad! May they ever seek
their own glory, and strive to induce others to seck
their glory, wholly and solely in the Cross of Christ!

F. J. L.

Reclaiming Christ’s Heritage.

XVIII.
ALASKA.

When William H. Seward, then Secretary of
State of the United States, paid $7,200,000 for «
Alaska to the Czar of Russia, most of our people
united in deriding him for doing so. They de- *
lighted in referring to Alaska’s 591,000 square
miles of snow and ice as “Seward’s Ice-box’ or
“Seward’s Folly.” However, Alaska in the past
sixty years has turned out to contain an amazing”
wealth of gold, copper, and coal, millions of acres
can be brought under the plow, and its rivers are