The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 174

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174

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

that all he has is God’s and yet freely spends his
money upon himself or stores it away, while he
refuses to give a proportionate part of his income
for the up-keep and extension of God’s kingdom.
If Christian stewardship means anything at all, it
means that our giving—and that means the
giving of all of us — must be in proportion to our
giving possibilities; and if it is less than that, we
are proving ourselves to be unfaithful stewards.

We are not saying that you must tithe yourself
for the Lord, as the Jews were commanded to do;
for the Lord has laid down no law for us Christians
as to what part of our income we should give to
Him: As in other things, such as in eating and
drinking and the keeping of certain days, the Lord,
in the matter of giving, no longer treats us like
children, but like “grown-ups,” who may judge for
themselves what their duty is, without any specific
instructions. But if the Jews were commanded to
give at least a tenth, do you not think that our
minimum should be higher? Surely we Christians,
who are enjoying the full comforts of the Gospel,
and are walking in the bright light of the proph-
ecies’. fulfilment, should do more than did the
Jews, who lived only in anticipation of much that
we actually possess. As God has prospered us, 80
let us give, every one of us,—that is the evan-
gelical counsel of Paul to the Corinthians, and it
holds good to-day. :

We cannot too strongly emphasize the free
Gospel, but in doing so, we should not neglect to
lay the proper stress on what Paul so strongly
urges in the eighth and ninth chapters of Second
Corinthians. It is right that we should delight in
the second chapter of Acts, in Peter’s matchless
answer .to the question of his alarmed hearers,
“What must we do?” The air is so pure, the water
so clear, the landscape so beautiful. Yes, we must
ever stress that great chapter and unceasingly
proclaim its glorious message. But we should
not forget those other two chapters, which were
inspired by the same Holy Spirit, and we should
bear in mind that we must know and do what they

teach us if we would be Christlike. F.J.L.

Items of Missionary Interest.
By the Eprror. 1

Salisbury, N,. C. — This station has received a
mumber of new members by removal from another
place, — seven in all. The school has opened under

very favorable conditions. The enrolment is seventy-
six pupils and is still increasing. — When St. John’s
celebrated its Harvest Home Festival on Sep-
tember 19, all three services were well attended.
Prof. Naether preached the sermon in the morning,
Pastor Lash filled the pulpit in the afternoon, and
the pastor, Rev. C. R. March, himself delivered the
sermon in the evening service. The services were
beautified by the singing of the local choir. The
collection was gratifying.

Charlotte, N.C.— The people of Charlotte, in
particular the colored population, were recently
much agitated by the antics of a certain “faith
healer,” who calls himself “Bishop” C. M. Grace.
His methods seem to have been much like those of
the old-time camp-meeting preachers, and the
results were very similar. Rev. F. D. Alston writes
that not a few fell into convulsions and trances.
The trances sometimes lasted for hours. Many of
the ignorant hailed Grace as “Jesus” and “Mes-
siah,” and to contradict them was often dangerous.
When Rey. F. D. Alston expressed his doubts as to
the ability of Grace to raise the dead, a barber
threatened to beat him. Of those whom the
“Bishop” pretended to heal, only about one per cent.
remained “healed.” On September 12, a Sunday,
Grace baptized 643 converts, and of these two were

“white. Besides these accepted converts, about fifty

or sixty during the baptismal service, in a spasm of
religious frenzy, leaped into the muddy lake regard-
less of the damage done to their clothing. It is
said that on one occasion the “Bishop” promised to
give the Holy Ghost to everybody that gave him
a dollar!

Tucson, Ariz. — Since 1888, 1,516 Indians have
attended the school at Escuela. During the last
year the school was attended by 154 pupils. The
school is conducted by the Presbyterians.

Valparaiso, Chile. — More than 600 are enrolled
in the Presbyterian mission-schools of this city. If
there were more room in the schools, more boys and
girls would go. Parents beg to have their children
accepted, but the space is exhausted. There seems
to be a wonderful opportunity in this city. The
people want their children to go to school, and they
want them to go to Christian schools.

Louisiana Luther Conference. — This confer-
ence recently convened at Mansura. Pastor and
people did their utmost to make the visitors feel at
home. Pastor Kramer, the superintendent of the
Louisiana field, writes the editor that it was one of
the best conferences he ever attended. The papers