The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 10

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10

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

won’t go back home; we are going to stay here until
you train a teacher and put him into our hands
and let us take him back with us into the great
darkness.’ ”

A traveler, not himself a professing Christian,
has this to say concerning what he saw: —

“One day I stood near one of the great temples
in India. With me was a friend. While we stood
there, a native woman came, carrying a little child.
She took no notice of us, but at the foot of the
temple steps she threw herself prone upon the
ground, holding the baby up in her arms. It was
a poor little, feeble, sickly child. And she prayed,
*O grant that my child may grow healthy and fair
like other children. Grant that it may grow strong.*
O hear the cry of a mother, of a mother’s breaking
heart? As she was going away, we said, ‘Friend,
to whom have you prayed?’ She said, ‘I do not
know, but surely somewhere there must be some one
to hear a mother’s cry and keep a mother’s heart
from breaking.’ ”

Is there anything so sad and hopeless as
a heathen’s grief or as dark as a heathen’s grave?
And what a change takes place when they learn of
Him who came to heal the broken-hearted and who
said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life”! Said
a little Manchurian girl, in referring to the grave of
her baby brother that had been planted with flowers,
“The grave has become a new place to us since Jesus
came to our village.”

If our Lord’s heart went out in pity and loving
help to the multitudes in Palestine because they
were in distress and like sheep without a shepherd,
how much should we long to help these larger,
needier multitudes of non-Christian lands! He
came down to teach and preach and heal body and
soul, to shepherd the shepherdless, to save the lost.

-Isn’t this also the mission of the Church, your
mission and mine? Does not Christ say to us, “As
_the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you”? We
cannot be Jesus’ true followers and refuse to be sent
upon our mission. We cannot lay claim to being His
disciples and yet not strive to be compassionate to
those who sit in darkness and distress. We cannot
be honest and upright in our profession of being
Christians and not long to have a heart like He had.

—_—_—_—--—__ F.J.L.

In Many Lands. — Federated Lord’s Treasury
Societies of Germany (Gotteskastenvereine) are
working especially in strongly Roman and Greek

_ Catholic countries; but they are likewise supporting

"work in a number of other countries in Europe and
_ America. ;

Lutheran Sunday-Schools in Chicago.

Congregations of our Synod in and around Chi-
cago have long realized the importance and value
of Sunday-schools. Not only such congregations as
do not maintain day-schools, but also those which
have successful day-schools are achieving desired
results in and through their Sunday-schools.

At the present writing approximately 150 con-
gregations in the Greater Chicago district have
regular Sunday-schools, with an enrolment of about
20,000 pupils and a teaching-force of more than
1,800. Most of the congregations conducting day-
schools expect all day-school children to attend also
the Sunday-school, though none makes it obligatory.
But the happy combination of day-school children
with non-day-school children in that hour of
Sunday-school once a week has in the experience of
many congregations proved to be a desirable source
of benefit to church, school, and Sunday-school. It
is a matter of record and statistics that the proper
coordination and conduct of these two institutions
for religious instruction have in no. way hindered
either institution, but rather added possibilities for
progress in both.

Modern methods of evangelizing the world must
include the use and the promotion of the Sunday-
school, especially in large cities. Chicago congre-
gations have, through their Sunday-schools, found
open doors into the homes of unchurched families
and realize that for this reason the cause of the
Sunday-school ought to be promoted. That is the
reason why our congregations are insisting on proper
conduct and management of the Sunday-school and
are endeavoring to improve it in every respect. The
better the Sunday-school is conducted, the greater
are the possibilities of gaining the unchurched chil-
dren and their parents. :

The Northern Illinois District Board of Edu-
cation in a recent discussion, which extended over
several meetings and in which the great value of
a Lutheran Sunday-school was pointed out, empha-
sized the importance of the proper conduct and
management of Sunday-schools by recommending
to the congregations the establishment of training-
institutes for teachers and officers actively engaged
in Sunday-school work in our various congregations.
A Lutheran Sunday-school, founded on Lutheran
principles and under the supervision and direction
of Lutheran pastors and teachers, can and will do
that which is involved in the Great Commission:
“Go. ye and teach all nations.” That is the aim
before us. Herpert Koxnn.