The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1927, Page 169

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. 169

However, not long after, her eyes rested upon the
large head-lines of some bargain sale. Right then
and there she cast her good missionary intentions
to the wind, and that very same evening she might
have been heard coaxing father and mother to spend
many dollars to replenish her wardrobe.

A young man receives from some unknown
friend a number of mission-leaflets. As he reads
them, his heart is touched and goes out in sym-
pathy to the poor heathen, and his soul is filled with
admiration for the missionaries as he learns of their
sacrifices and labors. He cries out, “Surely every-
body ought to help them. Let me see what
I can do.” But just then the telephone rings, and
a friend reminds him of the automobile trip he
promised to make to another city. The result is
that another good intention to help missions is
buried and forgotten.

A good mother was busy mending the children’s
clothes. As she performed this task, she recalled
what the pastor had said in his sermon the day be-
fore about the sad spiritual condition of the people
of the homeland and abroad. “It is all very good
for women without children to make clothes for poor
Negro boys and girls down South, so that they may
go to school and hear about their Savior. That is
what they ought to do; but a mother with five grow-
ing boys should not be expected to do any extra
work. And yet, maybe, I could give a little, after
all. -But, no; what I could give would be so very
little it would not be worth much. Perhaps later,
when the boys are grown up, I could do something
actually worth while; so I shall wait until we are
better able to do something. It is not that I do not
want to give anything, but I just feel that I should
not deprive the boys of things they want.” And
thus this worthy Christian mother is putting aside
a grace that might have brought upon her and her
family untold blessings and the joy that is to be
found in Christ alone to some unfortunate fellow-
beings now sitting in darkness.

One of our business men overheard several
pastors discussing the mission-problem as it con-
fronts our Church in this country. As, he heard
these pastors talking of the mission-opportunities
presented to us on every hand and our Church’s
inability to go in at the open doors because of the
lack of men and means, he found himself form-
ulating plans to alleviate the distress of the Church’s
missions. “Why,” said he to himself, “such a state
of affairs dare not be allowed to go on. Surely our
Lutheran people would not let such conditions con-
tinue if they knew of them. We simply have to wake

up and be a doing!” But just then a friend of his
boarded the car while the pastors left it. Soon the
two friends were deeply engrossed in their business
affairs, and all thoughts of the business of missions
had fled from our business man’s mind. Another
good missionary resolution buried and forgotten!

One of our pastors put down the church-paper,
in which he had just read that the congregation in
a near-by city was showing great interest in missions
and had just had a very successful Mission Sunday.
With a sigh he laid down the paper and said: “It is
easy enough for those large city congregations to
have such successful Mission Sundays, but in a small
town like ours, and with a congregation of only a
few hundred souls, it cannot be done. My people
simply would not permit me to emphasize the need
of giving as it is done in A. by Pastor X. As it is,
they are complaining to me that I talk money too
much, and they tell me that they want to hear more
Gospel-preaching. It is not that I do not see that
our Home and Foreign Missions need help, but my
congregation cannot be made to do more than it is
doing. Of course, I know very well that my people
are not doing what they should do; but how can
I get them to do more?” And the pastor, rather
than tell his people of the great need, sends a con-
tribution which he takes from his own small salary,
forgetting that in withholding from his people the
knowledge of the great need in the mission-fields, he
is depriving them of part of that message which he
has been called to bring them. _

Dear reader, have some of your good missionary
intentions been buried in the past? F.J.L.

Items of Missionary Interest.
By the Eprror.

“The Church of Christ in China.” — A purely
Chinese administered Church has been organized in
China. The new body is represented in sixteen
Chinese provinces and numbers more than 1,000
congregations with no fewer than 120,000 members.
It is said that 800 American and 400 British mis-
sionaries are affected by this step. It seems that the
Presbyterian and Congregationalist missions are the*
main promoters of the new organization, while the
Baptist and Methodist missions are as yet not com-
mitted to the movement. Lutheran missions are not
in sympathy with this “non-sectarian” body.

St. Louis, Mo. — Our new Negro chapel in
St. Louis was not touched by the recent storm,
but Grace Church (Pastor Peters) and Bethlehem