The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 46

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46

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

after his eightieth year. He is buried on the island
near the church he loved so well. Rev. O. Husoft
followed, and more recently Rev. A. H. Grambo
moved there from Silverton, Oreg. Pastor Grambo,
on October 27, moved with his congregation into
a new church edifice and held a confirmation service.
The church, which is termed an “ornament for the
island,” is 3050 feet, with slanting floor and new
furnishings, such as altar, altar-piece, pews, pulpit,
piano, carpets, and the like, and was dedicated with
a debt of only $1,000. The fisher folk are so en-
thusiastic over their work that twice during the past
year they increased the salary of the pastor, thereby
reducing the amount the mission board must pay.

The worst factor in the life of the pastor and
people on the island is the enforced isolation, which
involves some privations. The people are hopeful,
however, that this will be remedied soon through the
building of a large bridge over the river connecting
the island with the mainland. Secretary Caspersen
says: “Their compensation is.the climate, which is
said to be delightful, although somewhat damp in
the winter season. It is an exact duplicate, we are
told, of the climate of Northern Italy, considered
the most delightful of all Europe.”

N. L. C. Bulletin.

Another Way of Doing It.

One of the finest and wariest of all wild birds is
the Canada goose. Early in spring these fine big
birds fly away north to the Arctic regions, where
they make their homes. Late in the fall they come
back and fly south as far as the Gulf of Florida.
Every year they travel thousands of miles. —

But there is a man in Canada who has learned
how to make friends even with the wild geese. His
name is Jack Miner. He came from Ohio and lives
at Kingsville, Ontario. Uncle Jack— he likes to
have the boys and girls call him “uncle” — began
by putting out food for seven wild geese which
-settled on a big pond near his home. It was not
very long before those seven wild geese learned to
trust him. They flew away south for the winter,
but next spring they all came back to the pond.

It was several years before any more geese were
bold enough to join the little flock. Then, one
spring there were eleven, and the next spring
twenty-four, and the next spring four hundred.
And now the wild geese come in great flocks, so that
it takes thousands of bushels of corn to feed them.

Uncle Jack caught some of the geese and put

little tags of metal on their legs, so that he would
know them when they came back. “Box 48, Kings-
ville, Ont.” was stamped on the tags. Hunters who
shot a goose would know how far the bird had flown.

One day a Salvation Army lass sold Uncle Jack
a calendar. There were Bible-texts on it — one for
every day in the year. Then, one starry night, as he
heard the wild geese going overhead on their flight
to the far North, Mr. Miner thought how splendid
it would be to make them his messengers by stamp-
ing a Bible-text on every tag. So now, every spring
Uncle Jack catches hundreds of the wild geese, and
when he lets them go, every one of them carries
a verse of Scripture on the inside of its little metal
band....

Many a lonely hunter or trappet who has shot
a goose for his dinner must have been surprised to
find a metal tag on the bird’s leg. If he should look
at it closely, he would find the Bible message. Per-
haps the hunter had no Bible to read, but he would
not forget the little text that came to him out of
the air.

So the wild geese are really missionaries. They
go into the far places where there are no churches
and no preachers and carry God’s Word to men who
would not hear it in any other way. — Youth's
Companion.

And still there are many Christians who come
into contact with hundreds of people in their every-
day affairs and who never personally have done
a thing to spread the salvation which they possess.
They weakly protest that they wouldn’t know how
to go about doing it. Here is one way, there are
many others. Get busy, find a way, and then go
about doing it, ere the night cometh, when no man
can work. — Missionary Lutheran.

When the Robbers Wept.

About thirty miles southwest of Yenshih, Honan,
lies a small village at the foot of some high moun-
tains. Jiven this place has been visited by the
Gospel. A few years ago they had never heard of
Christ. Since the year of the famine in 1921, this
out-of-the-way place has been singularly blessed.
These mountain people were more receptive to the
Gospel than there more’favored brethren in the
fertile valley on the other side of the mountains.
Many have turned to the Lord, and we have no
fewer than three very promising preaching-places in
that district at present.

In time of lawlessness as well as in time of