The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 13

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

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feet. Cried one, “Forgiveness.” Said another with
beaming face, “Joy.” A third cried, “Strength to
withstand temptation.” Others added, “Peace,”
“Comfort in distress,” “Guidance and protection,”
“Life eternal.” Because of this lively realization of
Christ’s blessings Korean messengers are so diligent
in carrying the letter of God’s love into China,
Japan, and to the islands of the sea.

This same experience made Paul the faithful
bearer of God’s Word of Love to the world. “Unto
me, who am the least of the saints, was this grace
given to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ and to make all men see,” thus cries
the apostle in the exultation of his heart.

Ah, that we all had Paul’s sense of gratitude and
trust! “I am put in trust with the Gospel,” Paul
says. Because God had given him the precious
knowledge of Christ, he felt that he owed this
knowledge to the whole world. “I am debtor,” he
declares, “both to the Greeks and to the barbarians,
both to the wise and to the unwise.” Not to do his
utmost to bring to others God’s message of love
meant to him to prostitute a sacred trust with dire-
ful consequences for others and for himself.

F. J.L.

Items of Missionary Interest.
(By the Eprror.)

Piney Woods, Miss.— A few weeks ago the
first-fruits of our new work at Piney Woods were
gathered in: Roberta Bessie McGee was baptized as
the first child taken into our Colored Lutheran
Church in Mississippi. From a reliable source we
receive the information that the work is progressing
wonderfully well under. Pastor George Schmidt.
Pastor Schmidt spends four days of each week at
Piney Woods. ‘Teachers of the school at Piney
Woods are anxious to retain the services of Pastor
Schmidt in the future.

A Director for Luther Preparatory School. —
Pastor Paul Scherf, temporarily located at Sey-
mour, Ind., has accepted the call as director and
professor of our higher school at New Orleans.
By the time these lines are read by our readers,
Professor Scherf will probably have taken up his
new duties at this youngest one of our colored in-
stitutions.

A Missionary Tailor. — Charles T. Wichman
recently died in New York at the age of seventy-
eight. Four years ago he retired from a prosperous
business in Rochester, New York, to go to New York

13

City, where, without charge, in a little room near
the entrance of the Salvation Army Hotel, he re-
paired the clothing of the men who dropped in.
During the four years not a few men came in to get
their clothing repaired and left again with their
hearts repaired by the wholesome advice he gave
them. Mr. Wichman regarded as his real job, not
to sew rags, but to get at the hearts of the men with
whom he came in contact. No fewer than 30,000
men passed through his little room in the four years
during which he carried on his unique missionary
work. “Love is inventive,” says the old adage, and
its truth is exemplified in this work of the old Lu-
theran tailor. There are so many legitimate ways
in which we can approach men to bring them to
Christ; let us use every one that may present itself
to us.

Lutheran Work of Evangelizing. — Since we
Lutherans lead all other denominations in the in-
crease of membership, according to the last Govern-
ment Census, we might be led to believe that we are
more efficient in our work of evangelizing than we
really are. The fact of it is that we have been very
remiss in the past in taking care of the millions of
immigrants coming into our country from pre-
dominantly Lutheran countries of Europe. Accord-
ing to the latest religious census, the Lutherans
increased almost one and a half million in the
decade from 1916 to 1926, while the Baptist in-
crease was about a million and a quarter, the
Methodist not quite a million, and the Presbyterian
about 370,000 during that period. This makes
a splendid showing for us until we consider the
number of immigrants from Lutheran or pre-
dominantly Lutheran countries. It is estimated
that there were in our country in 1920 about
1,700,000 nominal Lutherans that were foreign-
born. In that year there were about seven and
a half million persons of foreign descent and of
Lutheran parentage living in the United States.
But the last religious census lists only about four
million Lutherans. This makes it quite plain that
we have not lived up to our opportunities; for there
can be no doubt that among these millions of
nominal Lutherans there are thousands who have not
been brought into membership of our churches be-
cause we were not awake to our duty towards them.

A Young Society Builds a Mission. — The
Daughters of the Reformation, a young women’s
society of the Norwegian Lutheran Church of
America, during the first year of its existence has
given almost $4,000 for the building of a new
mission-station in Alaska.