The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1930, Page 183

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

183

useful Phoebes, and hospitable Marys, like the
mother of Mark, have ever been in evidence with
their talents, using them in the service of Him who
helped them to overcome their weaknesses and to
develop their powers.

One of the great needs of our day is the return
‘of woman to this simple love and its blossoming
works in home and Church. The opportunity of
‘woman to help pastor and officers in her own quiet,
God-appointed sphere by prayer, personality, and
unostentatious deed is inestimably great.

Pharaoh’s daughter told the mother of Moses,
“Take this child and train it for me.” In saying
this, the princess called attention to woman’s great
and important work, a work that far transcends in
importance many, many activities that women of
to-day strive to enter upon. “Take this child and
train it for me.” If this command were conscien-
tiously obeyed by every mother in the Church, it
would transform the Church in one generation. The
mother’s power to influence the child is from God,
and it is one of the most precious and important
of her gifts. Ah, if Christian mothers would but
realize of what far-reaching, almost unlimited in-
fluence for good they may be for their offspring if
they faithfully use this God-given talent, not so
many of our modern Christian mothers would strive
to be Joannas, but would be fully content to be
Lydias.

Then, many a woman has a talent for friendly
association with young people, a power with almost
limitless possibilities to draw girls into practical life
service and to help see the needs of girls like them-
selves who do not have the joy and liberty that
Jesus brings. What a glorious opportunity to work
for Christ and His kingdom is pointed out to such
women in conditions as they obtain among us to-day !

Many of us deplore that woman within the past
few decades has left the-sphere for which she is
particularly adapted by her peculiar talents and
that she has exposed herself to much of the coarsen-
ing and destroying glare of public life. It seems to
us that the delicacy of woman is intended above all
for the privacy and quiet of the home rather than
for the noise and bustle of public life. We are of

.the opinion that much of woman’s wholesome in-

fluence has been sacrificed by the relatively recent
change and that she was a more dominant power
for good in former years, in home, Church, and
State. Then, more than now, did Christian women
show in their own lives and in their contacts with
others the power that comes from living out the

*

teachings of Christ in His blessed Gospel. Just as
sure as the Christian home is the garden and nursery
of the Church, just so sure mothers should find their
all but exclusive sphere of labor in their work as
loving and attentive gardeners, tenderly caring for
the precious plants put into their care. The power
of Christian mothers having a vision of the loving
Savior can perform miracles in*the narrow con-
fines of their homes so far-reaching in time and
space that future generations of the Church will rise
up and call them blessed. May He who by the work-
ing of His power within us can do all things awaken
within every Christian woman the desire to follow in
the footsteps of the psalmist, who says: “I will run
the way of Thy commandments when Thou shalt
enlarge my heart,” Ps. 119, 32. F.J.L.

With Outstretched Hands.

We here give the true story of the difficulties
faced and overcome by a Mexican high-school girl
in one of the cities of the Southwest. The barrier
of a foreign language, the chill of race prejudice,
the narrow avenue of opportunity for life work, all
these did not deter nor discourage this young girl.
We bring this short article, feeling that it will
help to interest our readers in the blessed work
which we have begun to do among the Mexicans
of Texas.

“TJ shall treat this subject from a personal stand-
point, giving some of my own experiences and some
things I have observed. Perhaps my case is not
typical because my parents came to this country
when I was only three months old, and all my edu-
cation has been in the public schools of the city
where they settled. Of the Mexican children now
attending the public schools many have started the
first grades in Mexico, and their case is more diffi-
cult because they have to adapt themselves to the
new customs, new ideas, and new educational
methods.

“Personally I had one disadvantage which is
common to all, the struggle to conquer the English
language. As my parents are Mexicans and Spanish
was the language of our home, English was prac-
tised only in the classroom. We Mexican children
are also retarded from learning English faster be-
cause we associate entirely with children of our own
race. When we are in the grammar school, we find
no acquaintances among Americans; our neighbors
and playmates are Mexicans. We do not.come in
touch with Americans when we are small children