The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Page 14

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14

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

Of Missions in Asia.

Missionaries have been the pioneers of civiliza-
tion in hitherto unknown regions of the earth; they
have been explorers, geographers, philosophers,
tamers of the wild in nature and of the savage in
humanity; they have lived as aliens among men
with whom they longed to live as brothers and for
whom they would have been glad to die; not in-
frequently they were aliens perforce to men of their
own blood and breed; they have esteemed lightly
the dangers of persecution and disease, and in lone-
liness they have strengthened their souls for the
performance of duty when duty was hardest; they
have been responsible for the upholding of standards
which no society around them followed or respected
and which many — sometimes of their own kin —
mocked and set at naught; they have had wres-
tlings with their own flesh and blood to maintain
purity without being cold and courage without
being rash and patience without being dilatory;
they have had wrestlings also with enemies not of
flesh and blood, but with the powers of darkness
entrenched within the society in which they lived.

Rey. H. H. Gowen, D.D., in Asia; A Short History.

The Christian and Mission-Work.

It is very significant that the proclamation of
all the wonderful deeds of God to save sinful man-
kind is accompanied by the exhortation — expressly
stated or implied—to spread the tidings of sal-
vation. In that holy night of wondrous glory and
awful mystery the angel of the Lord appeared to
the shepherds on Bethlehem’s plains and said, “Be-
hold, I bring you good tidings of great joy” — and

- immediately he added: “which shall be to all
people.” — ‘
And having in worshipful adoration accepted the
Babe in Bethlehem’s lowly manger as their Savior-
King, the shepherds immediately made known the
saying which was told them. Having accepted Christ
as their Savior-King, they became missionaries for
"Him. The Wise Men came from the far East and
found Christ and in Him all they had sought, their
“soul's salvation. While the sacred record does not
"explicitly state it, as it does in the case of the shep-
herds returning from the manger to their fields, we
evertheless standing on Scriptural ground when
f that the Wise Men were not content with
und Christ themselves, but on their way
spread the wonderful message of salvation.

Ls

WEAR,

On that first wondrous Easter Day the disciples
were gathered together, and suddenly Jesus stood in
their midst. His first word to them was: “Peace be
unto you! As the Father hath sent Me, even so send
I you.” When the risen Lord was about to ascend
up on high to sit at the right hand of His heavenly
Father, He gave His disciples this Great Com-
mission: “Go ye into all the world and preach the
Gospel to every creature.”

When on the great Day of Pentecost the Spirit
of the living God was poured out on the disciples,
they immediately began to preach the wonderful
works of God, and as a result. of their missionary
preaching three thousand souls were added to the

Church of Jesus Christ.

What lesson does this teach us? It is this, that
to be a Christian and a missionary for Christ is one
and the same thing. One cannot be a true Christian
without being a missionary for Christ; and every
one who with his whole heart is a missionary cer-
tainly is a Christian. The two are inseparably
linked together.

You profess to be a Christian. Are you a mis-
sionary for Christ? Do you pray for the expansion
of God’s kingdom? Do you work, do you put forth
your personal efforts to bring others to Christ and
to salvation? Do you give in the same proportion
that God has given to you?

He Nevér Smiled at His Children
Until —.

Tony was just one of the many hundreds of
thousands of godless Italians that crowd our great
cities in the East. Like multitudes of his fellow-
countrymen he was a laborer, reared without any
real religion in spite of the outward connection
which his parents had had with the Roman Catholic
Church. People in the neighborhood of his home
in Hoboken told Pastor Bongarzone, our Italian
missionary, that the atmosphere of his home was
most depressing. He could not bear the sight of
his wife; he never smiled at his children, and when
he came home from his work, he spent the evening
in a corner saloon, with the result that he often
staggered home in the brutal rage induced by in-
toxication. : ‘

One day while our missionary, Pastor Bongar-
zone, was canvassing the neighborhood, he happened
to meet Tony in his usual depressed frame of mind.
He addressed him in a kind manner, but he paid no
attention to his words. Later Pastor Bongarzone