The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Page 10

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10 THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

The Indian nurses stopped in the courtyard,

knowing that the doctor would empty the room of
women in order to give her patient more air. So
the nurses sat under a tree and sang: —

King Jesus has come,
King Jesus has come,
To triumph oyer Satan, —
King Jesus has come!

It was such a glad tune, telling such a trium-
phant story. And very soon other women came
and sang with them that King Jesus had come to
triumph over Satan. Think of it, there in the very
heart of Satan’s stronghold!

“King Jesus has come, King Jesus has come.”
The bells of all the temples seemed to catch it up.

King Jesus has come,
King Jesus has come,
To triumph over Satan, —
King Jesus has come!

B.M.L., in Pilgrims’ Progress.

Does It Pay?

/

After describing the work done by him among
the poorer class of unchurched people, one of our
city workers continues thus: —

“But does this work really pay? . If we looked
at this work only from the standpoint of dollars
and cents, we should, of course, have to say: It does
not pay. For while these people who are thus won
for Church finally become a help to us also finan-
cially, the returns in dollars, as we know, are
usually not such as would warrant our carrying on
this work.

“But we Christian people cannot and do not
Jook at this work only from such a standpoint. We
have our Lord’s command to go out into the high-
ways ‘and compel them to come in.’ We have our
Lord’s command to evangelize the world. And we
look at this work also from a soul-winning stand-
point; yes, we are bound to look at this work first
and foremost from this standpoint.

“And looking at our work in this way, let us see
whether or not it pays. During the writer’s short
experience at this house-to-house mission-work that
he has been called upon to do it has been one of his
pleasures, as a result of this work, to bring three
hundred children into our churches and Sunday-
schools, by far the great majority of whom are
such as, before they were looked up by him, were
not definitely connected with any Sunday-school.
And remembering that the Lord has said concern-

ing His Word that has been sown into the hearts
of these children: ‘It shall not return unto Me
void, but ‘it shall accomplish that which I please,
and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it,’
would any one think of saying of this work: It does
not pay?

“But this house-to-house mission-work reaches
not only the children, of course, but reaches also
the unchurched adults; and so often the man or
woman who, because he or she does not belong to
church or who for some reason or other is opposed
to church, would never be reached in any other way.

“While doing this work, the writer of this
article came to a home one day in which neither
of the parents belonged to a church. The wife in
that home was of Catholic parentage. These people
were not opposed to church; neither, however, were
they interested in church. They simply belonged
to the large number of those who do not know what
the Church really stands for, who have never been
properly invited, and who therefore are still out-
side df God’s Church. These people were spoken to.
The wife in.that home attended one of our church
services after that. She came again the next Sun-
day. Then she brought her husband. And these
people have since that time not only joined the
church themselves, but, like that disciple of old
who found and brought his brother, these, too,
have since then brought others. These people, in
short, have become active Christian people, in
whose home and lives a wonderful change has
taken place.

“But a more remarkable case still, perhaps, is
that of a man who, after having spent practically
all his lifetime opposing God, was turned to God
‘in the eleventh hour’ of his life. He had left his
father’s home in his boyhood days. He had gone
to sea and for a number of years had been a sailor.
He was a splendid man otherwise, but a wrong
training and bad associates in his younger years
had made of him a skeptic and an enemy of all
churches. The writer visited this man one day
when he was on his sick-bed, and he has never seen
a more beautiful change in the life of any one than
was finally brought about in the life of this man.
‘God bless that man who brought me the Word of
God and turned me from darkness to light!? were
some of his dying words.

‘Does this work pay? In view of such expe-
riences as these —and similar experiences, I am
sure, could’ be mentioned by every missionary who
is working with those who are yet outside of the