The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 53

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

53

as chairman of the Board for Colored Missions for
five years and was editor of the Missionstaube till
his death, for a period of twenty years.

Because they saw that their pastor was seriously
overworked, Bethany Congregation requested the
Synodical Conference at its convention in Toledo,
August, 1916, not to reelect him to the mission
board. The Conference, however, felt that it could
not dispense with his valuable services and again
elected him. At the same time Dr. Geo. Mezger and
Pastor Louis Wisler were requested to wait upon
Bethany Congregation and ask the members to
grant their pastor’s services to the Synodical Con-
ference. When this request was denied, Pastor
Drewes resigned from the board, but was permitted
to serve till February, 1917. In the mean time the
board decided that it needed the whole-time ser-
vices of Pastor Drewes and so extended to him a call
to become its executive secretary. ‘This call he ac-
cepted, entering upon his new duties May 1, 1917.

Before he became the Executive Secretary of the
Board for Colored Missions, Pastor Drewes had
made several trips to the mission-fields. He visited
the Louisiana Field in April, 1910, and he made his
first visit to the North Carolina Field in 1913.
During the'last fourteen years of his life he made
frequent and extended trips to the various parts of
the large field for his own information and for the
encouragement and direction of the missionary
workers.

A large share of the burden of carrying on the
extensive enterprise of our Negro Missions naturally
devolved upon Director Drewes’s shoulders, and this
burden became ever greater because of the rapid
growth and wide expansion of the work in the last
fifteen years. Unexpected emergencies often had
to be met and difficult problems solved. From the
tribute paid Director Drewes by Miss Young in this
number of the P1oNEER the reader may see how our
departed friend improved the opportunities offered
him when he visited the different parts of the field,
how he brought cheer and courage to workers and
members, and how he thus endeared himself to
young and old.

: . Pastor Drewes and the Sunday-School.

Though fully persuaded of the paramount value
of the parish-school as an agency of the Christian
education of our children, he also saw the great
value of the Sunday-school if properly conducted,
especially as a missionary agency. For this reason
he strongly advocated the founding of Sunday-
schools, by our city congregations in particular, and

urged that great care be taken in providing these
schools with the proper teachers and literature. In
1909 he organized the Association of Lutheran
Sunday-school Teachers in and near St. Louis and
served as chairman of the organization for two
years. Early in 1909 he planned the Concordia
Sunday-school Lessons. By request of the Board of
Directors of Concordia Publishing House he wrote
the Lel:tionen fuer Mittelklassen and the Lektionen
fuer Oberklassen and revised the translation of these
lessons for ten years. In January, 1910, he was ap-
pointed on the Sunday-school Lessons Committee.
He was the author of the Concordia Bible Class
for the years 1919 and 1920.

While changes may have been made, - possibly
many changes, yet to the writer it seems that our
Sunday-school Lessons still plainly bear the marks
of Pastor Drewes’s early work, which apparently
proves that he planned and builded well.

In this connection we must not forget to men-
tion that in 1915 our late friend also edited the
Lutheran Sunday-school Hymnal, published by
R. Volkening, which has enjoyed a large sale.

Other Literary Work.

In 1904, while still a young man and in the
early years of his ministry, Pastor Drewes had oc-
casion to write two pamphlets against two secret
societies, the Knights of Pythias and the Maccabees.

_ These pamphlets bear the titles Catechism on the

Knights of Pythias and Catechism on the Mac-
cabees. Both booklets have proved very. useful
weapons against secretism. His history of our
colored missionary enterprise, Half a Century of
Lutheranism among Our Colored People (1927), is
a well-written book. His Introduction to the Books
of the Bible (1929) deserves a welcome into every
home and should be within handy reach of
every pastor, parish- and Sunday-school teacher
among us. He is also the author of a Christmas
program, Prophecy and Fulfilment. We have reason
to believe that another book whose contents were
gathered and edited by him will appear in the near
future. It will be a collection of mission-stories.

Probably the most important book that has come
from the hands of Director Drewes is the Lutheran
Catechism, which first appeared in 1924 and saw no
fewer than seven editions in four years. It was
written and published by request of the Board for
Colored Missions. ‘The popularity of this exposi-
tion of Luther’s Small Catechism is easily to be
understood by any one that examines this’ master-
piece of catechetical literature.