The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 164

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164

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

conference sessions, called the house to order and
opened the conference in the name of the Triune
God, whose business the dusty caravan had come to
carry on. After the opening hymn had been sung,
and after Chairman Peay had delivered his excellent
address, the conference entered upon the routine
business of organization for the five days of hard
work which lay ahead of it.

Election of Officers.

Rev. Chas. Peay was reelected chairman of the
conference; Rev. J. S. Montgomery, vice-chairman ;
Rev. B. R. Skinner, secretary; Prof. J. W. Twitty,
assistant secretary; Superintendent T. A. Westcott,
treasurer of the conference. The chairman then
appointed Pastors Gauthreaux, Hunt, and Eddle-
man as Committee on Excuses, and the conference
elected the following as reporters to the several
church-papers carrying news of our Mission: Super-
intendent Westcott, Pastor Dreier, and Prof. Lynn
to the Witness, Missionstaube, and PIONEER, respec-
tively; Mrs. K. L. Grace to the Missionary Lutheran.
By resolution of conference the time of meeting was
set as follows: 9.30 a. a. to 12 u., 2 to 4.30 P. M.,
and 7.30 p.m. Pastor Tervalon was elected con-
ference chaplain. With the winding up of this
routine business the time for noon adjournment had
arrived. The conference adjourned to reassemble at
two o’clock for the afternoon sessions.

The afternoon sessions were begun with the
singing of “Let Every Ear Attend.” Chaplain Ter-
-valon then read the 103d Psalm and invoked God’s
blessing upon the session. The reading of the
minutes and the roll call completed the routine
business. Pastor Dominick of Joffre then presented
a very instructive paper on the timely subject “Chris-
tian Giving.” The paper was developed along three
main lines of thought — who should give, why these
should give, and how they should give.

Christian Giving.

In developing the first thought, the author of
the paper brought out that the Christians, those who
are spiritually rich in God, should give of their
earthly means. The author pointed out that God
does not want the gifts of the unbelievers, nor does
He need them. The unbelievers are unfit to do good
works for the Lord, and the Church therefore should
not ask them for gifts. Christians are to give to the
cause of the Lord, and this means that every Chris-
tian is to contribute of his means to carry on the
work of spreading the Gospel. The Christians, by

their gifts and good works, reflect the wonderful
goodness of God.

The essayist, in the second part of his paper,
stressed the fact that Christians should give because
it is their duty to do so. The unbelievers give be-
cause they wish to receive something in exchange for
their gifts, but Christians give because it is their
duty to contribute. The fact was also stressed that
Christians give because they regard it as a privilege
to contribute to the cause of the Lord. Then, too,
Christians give out of gratitude to God for His
wonderful mercies towards them and because God
needs their gifts to feed the Bread of Life to starv-
ing souls.

The third point of the essay developed the
thought that, while all Christians are to give, still
all are not to give equally, but are to contribute in
proportion to what they have, as God has prospered
them. They are furthermore to give regularly to
the support of the Gospel. The gifts which are
brought to the Lord’s altar should be brought will-
ingly and cheerfully and not grudgingly.

The paper evoked a lively discussion among the
members of the conference; the discussion, however,
was a profitable one. After the discussion the paper
was accepted by the conference with thanks to the
essayist.

An Interesting Evening Session.

Wednesday evening Pastor Tervalon of Hybart,
Ala. (formerly Tinela), delivered an inspiring ad-
dress to a perspiring, but attentive audience. Pastor
Tervalon answered the question, “What Does the
Lutheran Church Stand For?” After the address
Pastor Dreier, of the local congregation, read an
excellent paper on “Giving and Taking Offense.”
In his introductory remarks the author defined the
word offense as used in the Scriptures and supported
his definition with Scriptural texts. He also pointed
out that offenses originate with the devil and not
God; this, too, was supported with Scripture. The
body of the essay was developed along two main
lines, namely, what it means to give offense and to
take offense.

In the first part of the paper the essayist pointed
out that to give offense means to cause one to fall
into sin, to do something contrary to the Word of
God. This may be done especially by the teaching
of false and pernicious doctrine. He showed also
that not every sin is an offense, for example, secret
sins in the heart. Such sins are offenses only when
they become manifest and open to the world. As