The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1927, Page 8

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

8 THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.
SSs—ooOoOoyqoqqwoaaoaoa

least a pound of something. They marched from
the church about a quarter of a mile, followed by
an auto carrying flour, rice, beans, sugar, syrup, etc.,
to the home of one of our old members, Aunt
Lucinda Long. They gathered in her yard and sang
one verse of “Blest Be the Tie that Binds.” When
they had entered the home, an appropriate Psalm
was read, and a prayer was offered by the pastor,
after which the cupboard was filled, and the con-
gregation departed.

Aunt “Cinda” has been sick since early summer,
having suffered a second stroke, which rendered her
helpless;, her left side is limp. Yet through it all
she is cheerful and confident. Although born in
slavery, she somehow learned to read, and judging
from her quotations, she certainly did not fail to
read her Bible. She does not read now; however,
not only does she quote long Bible-passages cor-
rectly, but she can tell just about where you will
find them. She knows the doctrine of salvation by
grace, through faith, better than many who have
had much better opportunities than she.

When she heard the singing, her eyes filled with
tears of gratitude to think that she had not been
forgotten by her friends. She praised the Lord and
burst forth in thankfulness when she saw what was
being done. Truly, this was the first of its kind, but
it was the third proof shown her that Mount Cal-
vary remembers the aged and never forgets the sick,
the afflicted, and those in need. F.D. A.

The Spirit of the Giver.

In Kannapolis little Frances Russell, who is

nearing the ninth year of her age, is counting the,

years before she can “join the church,” as she puts
it; she has been anxious for it ever-since her older
sisters were confirmed. It seems to bother her
much that it will take quite a while yet before that
goal will be reached; for she worries her mother
almost daily with her question. She was told that
she must wait four years yet.

On the third Sunday in November we had a
special collection for our Building Fund. Little
Frances said to her mother, “I can’t wait four years ;
give me some of my money for my church.” She
had earned a little by picking cotton and felt that
she must give some of it to the Lord. All her
confirmed sisters — and, of course, mother and
father — gave larger gifts, but little France’s gift,
too, had the right ring as it fell into the treasury.
Though small, it helped to make the hundred
dollar collection. F.D. A.

Missions versus Chewing-Gum.

“We are spending too much for missions — we
can’t afford it.”

It wasn’t a day-laborer that said this to me,
but a man of large business affairs. And coming
from him, it caused me to stop and think. He is
a man of considerable sagacity; if he were not, he
would not have made out of business what he did.
He certainly knows business conditions much
better than 1 do, for he is a real business man, and
I am only a preacher. Therefore I thought that
he might be right about the matter, and that it
was time for us to think of retrenching. Possibly
we cannot afford to run our missions on the scale
we are running them at the present time. They
tell us that foreign markets are upset; that farm
values are not what they ought to be; that collec-
tions are very slow. I really became concerned.
I began to investigate. Had we really spent more
than we should for missions? Had we taken over
more than we could take care of? I brushed aside
the Biblical philosophy that he who gives prospers
in the end. No idealism. Only cold business facts
were to decide this question. And what did my
investigation reveal ?

Fact No. 1 already surprised me. Government
figures showed that we pay about $55,000,000 for
chewing-gum. That is, all the people of the United
States taken together use that much chewing-gum.
The share of the Missouri Synod in this consump-
tion would be about one-hundreth part—$550,000!

And I had heen worried about spending
$550,000 for missions! I had actually begun to
fear that the business man was right when he told
me that we were spending too much for missions!
Just think of it, we of the’ Missouri Synod spend
annually as much for chewing-gum as we do for
missions! The saving of immortal souls at home
and abroad is taking just as many of our dollars
as is the habit of chewing-gum.

But I was not convinced. Though I could not
by any stretch of imagination see that chewing-gum
was an absolute necessity, yet I thought of certain
advertisements which told me how it aids digestion
and sweetens the breath and does other useful and
desirable things. And so I continued my inyesti-
gation into the matter.

I was told that it kept 170,000 persons working
hard last year to keep us supplied with bouquets
and dinner flowers. I do not know what the flowers
cost. I am sure it was enough. A florist only the
other day told me that coal conditions were the

q