The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1927, Page 136

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

136

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

“Excuse me,” said Dr. Allen, “but may I ask
how much you give ?”

“Fifty cents to the Foreign Mission Society,
twenty-five cents for State Missions, and twenty-five
cents for the work of the Publication Society.”

“A dollar a year for world-wide missions!” said
Dr. Allen slowly.

The young man looked somewhat ashamed.
“T suppose it does seem rather small,” he admitted.
“How much do you think I ought to give?”

“Don’t you think that everybody ought to give
in proportion to his income? The old Jews were
compelled to give one-tenth of their income for the
Lord’s work. To us the Lord has given no such
command, but has rather left it to our judgment
what we should give to His kingdom. He has, how-
ever, told us that we are only stewards of what we
have in our possession; that we are not our own,
but belong to Christ, who has bought us with His
precious blood. ~All that we are and all that we
have belongs to Him who loves us and gave Himself
for us, keeping nothing back. Is it too much to
ask that we give back a reasonable portion of all
that He has given us to send the glad news of
salvation to the souls that are still in darkness?”

“T shall do as you say,” answered the young
man. “I shall begin by giving one-tenth of my
entire income during the next year and shall try to
do more thereafter. Half of my self-imposed ap-
portionment I shall give for the home work of the
Church and for charity; the other half I shall give
to missions.” :

“Let me count a little,’ continued the young

Christian. “That would mean $7.50 a month for
missions. Quite an increase over what I have been
doing; but by God’s grace and with His help I
shall do it.”
_ The two said good night and parted, but the
minister prayed long and earnestly in his room that
night for the young stranger whom God had thrown
inhisway. ~

A few weeks later, in a neighboring city, he hap-
pened to meet the superintendent of the Sunday-
school of the church in which he had preached that
morning. He at once inquired by name about the
young man with whom he had talked that night.

“He is doing splendidly,” said the superinten-
dent warmly. “He is a fine young fellow, but he
never did much in the church until a few weeks
ago. The Sunday after you preached to us he
came to me and asked if I could give him a class
in the Sunday-school. I told him no, as all the
classes had teachers. Then he pointed to two or

three rows of vacant seats at the back of the room
and asked if he might have them if he gathered a
class himself. I told him, ‘Certainly’ and now he
has a class of six boys whom he gathered from the
streets. He holds them, too, for they all seem much
interested.”

A year later Dr. Allen again came to the church
to which the young man belonged, on their Foreign
Mission Sunday. He had just descended from the
pulpit, when he saw his young friend making his
way through the crowd. He grasped the preacher’s
hand warmly, while his face beamed with joy.

“T have been longing to see you for days,” he
said, “to tell you that this has been the happiest year
of my life. Every month, when my salary comes
in, I lay aside the tenth, and it is a joy to do it.
I have a class of fourteen boys in the Sunday-school,
all gathered from the streets, and nine of them have
been converted and baptized this year.”

Every Christian a Missionary.

A great many of our Christians do not seem to
be aware of the fact that they are to be missionaries
and do mission-work. They believe that mission-
work is a matter which concerns only ministers.
“The ministers are trained to do mission-work. Let
them do it; it is their work. The lay members are
in most cases either farmers, laborers, or business
men. Mission-work is not a part of their business.
It is not expected of them to do mission-work.”

But such an opinion is contrary to God’s Word.
When our Lord commanded: “Go ye therefore and
teach all nations,” “Preach the Gospel to every
creature,” He said this not only to the apostles, but
to all Christians who were gathered together on that
occasion. In the eyes of the Lord all true believers
are His disciples. ‘They all have the same privileges,
the same blessings; they all have the same duties
to perform.

Mission-work is such a duty and privilege which
the Lord has assigned to every one of His disciples,
whether he be a minister or a lay member. He
wants us to tell others about the wonderful works
of God. He wants some of us in the public office
of the ministry. He wants some of us to become
teachers and professors in our institutions of learn-
ing. He wants some of us to become missionaries to
go out and devote all our time to the blessed work
of preaching the Gospel to those who are still with-
out Christ.

But we cannot all be public preachers of the