The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1927, Page 154

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154

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

with every visit. On her eighty-seventh birthday,
after one of our little birthday celebrations (a feature
of our Family Welfare work), Miss K. related that
she had read the tracts given her and had studied
the Bible and Luther’s Catechism, and she expressed
the sincere wish to be baptized. After a little
further instruction our friend “Grandmother” K.
was baptized. Her face, though care-worn and
wrinkled, was beaming with real joy. Tears filled
those dimmed eyes as she stretched forth her hands
in blessing over your workers on bended knees at her
side. . With stammering and faltering voice she
managed to say, “God is good.” In the Easter
season she was ready for the Lord’s Supper. Again
an impressive scene was enacted in that rear room
on the fifth floor. As on previous occasions she first
thanked God for His mercy, and only later did she
express her gratitude to the Church, which sent. its
workers to her, and to the workers for their kind
_ interest.

Grandmother K. is very ill. Soon she will be
called to be with her Jesus for eternity. Her body
is weak, her faith is strong. God grant us more of
such rare privileges.

Your Metropolitan Lutheran Inner Mission
Society is constantly embracing every opportunity
through the far-reaching work and labor of love
assigned to it by our congregations.

cd * *

Detective X of the Street Station called
and informed us of a man at the police station who
was in dire need and who claimed to be a former
Lutheran minister.

The case revealed that drugs and alcoholics had
taken their heavy toll and that this former leader
was now a despised, homeless, friendless human
derelict. A position was secured for him, and he
promised to show the fruits of repentance. A week
passed, and he “showed up dead drunk.” Another
appeal, another position, — then fired and another
spree. We then entered him into —— Hospital;
and after several weeks a new man came forth, a
new man outwardly, but not a new man inwardly.
After a few days he again betook himself to drugs.
Thus months passed, and we, in the name of Jesus,
worked with him, for him, in all patience and kind-

liness. A year passed. Up and down went the
thermometer of rehabilitation. But God’s grace is
a powerful agency and force. This low-sunken man,
by the grace of God, gradually overcame his vicious
habits and is now working steadily. His battles are
“many; but when he is assailed with temptations,
_ he seeks our help, and that prayer on our knees gives

him strength to tread onward in the path of right-
eousness. The point at issue in this case is that he’
feels the Inner Mission alone can help him and
prevent another decline.

Co ok *

We pause and wonder if the brother’s advice is
really causing the desired effect. Is this informa-
tion leading you to the climax?

Thousands of girls leave home, run away from
home, to see and taste life in the “Big City.” Among
them must be Lutherans. Are we, as a Church,
seeking and finding them? Are we rescuing them
from the pit of vice and crime? Oh, that we could
do more! Something is being done. Youthful
Miss M. leaves home and arrives in New York with
stolen money. Her funds are soon depleted, and she
works as a dish-washer for a meal at a bakery. The
next day she returns in a rainstorm and again
desires to wash dishes for a meal. The owner sought
to question her, but her lips were sealed. She left,
and as she was leaving, the owner told a policeman
about her. The officer took the half-starved girl to
Hospital, where she again refused to tell who
she was and the circumstances in which she was
found. She did say she was a Lutheran. We were
called, and we visited her. Gradually her story was
told. The story was sad, brief, pathetic. Though
she had been in our city but a few months, the price
she paid was terrific. We reminded her of her God,
her Savior. Days passed, and she refused to go
home, preferring jail to her home. But listening to
our admonition from God’s Word, she consented to’
return and was taken back to that little town in
another State.

Whom does this girl’s mother thank but the
Church that sent her daughter back home?

Or take the case of Miss D. She was in a hall
given over to reckless hilarity and was sought out
because her laughter was forced and not at all whole-
hearted. Talk to her there at that place? Of course!
She was not in a mood for revelry because she could
not banish thoughts of home from her mind. That
interview led to another. She heard God calling her
back from’ the path of danger, and she returned
home with a letter from us to her mother. Did that
mother need to read our letter to fold her lost, but
found daughter in her arms?~- She did not. Our
letter remained unread for days. ‘Then came @
mother’s prayer that we might reunite many such
daughters and mothers.

Who is that aged man? A released convict on
his way to the Inner Mission Center to find those of
whom a fellow-prisoner reported, “If any one can