The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1927, Page 185

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

185

sons and daughters of consolation, whom the Lord
has blessed with worldly goods and who could well
afford to sell part of their lands or stocks or bonds,
and to establish and finance this institute for mis-
sionary lay workers, which we need so sorely in our
Lord’s Gospel cause.

In it our nurses and deaconesses who go into
foreign mission-fields could be housed and instructed
in the language, religion, and habits of the people
in their heathen fields and also learn about the pre-
vailing dangerous Oriental diseases and how to
guard against them. As far as we know, this is not
done, at least not as thoroughly as it ought to be.
The same holds good of our young missionaries and
their brides.

Again, there is Africa, bleeding, tragic Africa,
calling to us for generations, “Come over and
help us!” Whenever we enter that great field, we
shall need not only preachers of the Gospel, but
also trained men and women who live at the mission-
stations and who by word and example will teach
the heathen how to lead a Christian home-life and
inculeate upon them the virtue of thrift and other
virtues. experiences of other denominations have
proved long ago that the founding of such mission-
stations or colonies is the only feasible means of
carrying on the Lord’s work successfully in heathen
lands. Hence they have long ago established in
their midst institutes for the training of missionary
lay workers.

We can do the same thing. There is our fine,
solid, but vacant Concordia Seminary at St. Louis,
so well adapted for our sorely needed missionary
institute for lay workers. If thirty or forty of our
sons and daughters of consolation would each lay
$5,000 at the feet of our Foreign Mission Board,
the necessary $200,000 would be on hand to equip
and finance the institute for years to come, and no
burden would. be placed on our heavily indebted
other mission treasuries with their heartrending
accusations on account of the wide-spread lethargy
obtaining in our midst for the Lord’s Gospel cause.

O ye Lutheran sons and daughters of consola-
tion, will you not listen to this appeal, coming to
you in the name of Him who is your only Con-
solation in life and death? Will you not open your
hearts and hands and give Christ’s battling Church
the needed sums for this institute? What is $5,000
to you, and what is the Lord Jesus to you? You
can take none of your worldly possessions out of
this world. ‘The only one to be with you in the
hour of death — God grant it! — will be your Lord
Jesus, your Savior. Will you not for His sake help

us to acquire this sorely needed missionary insti-
tute for lay workers? God grant it! But to all
doubting and fearing hearts who will want to raise
all kinds of objections we confidently say: It can
be done if, with the great Carey of India, we
attempt great-things for God because we can expect
great things from God.
F. W. H., in the Lutheran Deaconess.

“In Perils of Robbers.’’

Often people talk of the “good times” the mis-
sionaries have in foreign countries. Many seem to
be under the impression that our foreign workers
are lying on beds of roses. Not a few think that
at every step our foreign missionaries are waited
on by native servants. The following account,
written by Miss Stayner, a worker of the China
Inland Mission, should be sufficient to show that,
as was the case with the Apostle Paul, so likewise
to-day the messenger of the Gospel in non-Christian
countries is often in peril of his life: —

“We started on Monday morning for a journey
across the river, and on Tuesday and Wednesday
we visited several villages, where we were received
very well by the people, and nothing but quiet was
experienced till Thursday night. On that evening,
about six o’clock, we reached Du-Kang, a small,
lonely village, hidden away in the hills, inhabited
by only seven or eight families, all of the name
of Chi. We were to stop that night at the house
of a Christian family living about five minutes
distant. We were accompanied from the previous
village by our private servant, a Bible woman,
a preacher, and two Christian men, who were all
to stay at the same house. We were received well,
and quite a number gathered for the service, which
was held at about eight o’clock; and soon after we
retired to rest in a room in a loft, our Bible woman
and the woman of the house sleeping in an adjoin-
ing room, an open doorway leading from one to
the other, the men of the party sleeping down-stairs.

“About midnight we were aroused by great
shouting and lights in the next room. A moment
later our room was filled with a crowd of men,
perhaps about a dozen, carrying flaming torches,
who at once started pulling our clothes off the bed
and emptying our provision basket. I attempted
to speak to them, asking what they meant by this,
but could not make myself heard; and when I tried
to hold on to our bed quilt, one man struck me on
the hand with his bamboo stick and held on a
minute or so, but at last I got free.