The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Sheet 168

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. 166 THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.
SOS — EO)

library may be brought up to college requirements.
The alumni pledged themselves to stand behind “the
Old Rock” in its new undertaking and to do all in
their power to keep it functioning at college level.

An Evening Service.

Thursday night Pastor Robinson of Kings Land-
ing presented the conference with a doctrinal sermon.
The theme of his discourse was the great and im-
portant doctrine of conversion. His text was Acts
8, 19, and in developing his theme he pointed out
what conversion is and how it is brought about. The
sermon was well received by the conference and by
the strangers present. After the sermon, Pastor
H. J. Lehman of Selma read a paper on “Infant
Baptism,” answering the question, Why should in-
fants be baptized? His answer was, “They are in-
cluded in ‘all nations’”; “they have sinful flesh and
are in need of regeneration” ; “in them regeneration
can ordinarily be wrought only by Baptism”;
“they, too, can believe.” After a profitable discus-
sion the paper was received with thanks to the
author.

The Friday morning session was given over to
the business of the new teachers’ conference.

The Friday afternoon session was devoted to
business. The invitation extended by Our Savior
Congregation at Possum Bend to the conference to
hold its 1932 sessions there was accepted, and, God
willing, Alabama Luther Conference will meet with
the good people at Possum Bend in the early fall of
1932. The conference set as its goal during the
Harvest Home Mission-festival season the sum of
twelve hundred dollars; this sum is to be presented
to the Mission Board as a thank-offering. In view
of the fact that most of our congregations in this
field are located in the rural districts, that the chief
' source of revenue, cotton, is selling for 4 cents, and
that the landlords are forcing the farm laborers to
receive their wages “in kind,” — in view of all this
the goal set by our congregations, while not im-
posing, is at the same time not a mean one. Our
prayers are that He from whom come all good gifts
will bless our efforts.

Sunday-School Convention.

Saturday, September 5, was Sunday-school Con-
vention Day. The convention was opened by the
vice-chairman, Mr. N. T. Ramsey, of Birmingham.
He based his annual address to the convention on

“Christ's Entry into Jerusalem.” ‘The key-note of
_ his address was, “The Lord has need of us.’ He
showed that the Lord can use all of us; everything

that we have can be employed in the service of
the Lord. During the day a number of interesting
papers were read, and addresses were made by
various members of the convention. Teacher Stew-
ard, for instance, read a very interesting and in-
structive paper on “Why Are So Many Sunday-
schools a Weak Department in the Church?” In
answering the question, he pointed out that many
people think that the Sunday-school is a department
separate from the church and that it exists solely
for the children. The parents show little or no con-
cern for the spiritual welfare of their children and
make no effort to get them into the Sunday-school.
Many congregations fail to see the value of the
Sunday-schools and make no effort to keep them
alive, either spiritually or financially. Again, many
pastors, sad to say, take little or no interest in the
work of the Sunday-school. These pastors give their
teachers no instruction how to teach the Sunday-
school lesson, but allow them to teach in a hit-or-
miss fashion and seem to be perfectly satisfied with
the results. These indifferent pastors thus contrib-
ute to the weakness of their Sunday-school. There
is no personal contact between the pastor and the
children of the Sunday-school. This attitude on the
part of the pastor is reflected in the teachers, who
take only a half-hearted interest in the work and
have no definite aim, but work at random and thus
reap a random harvest.

Another interesting and important paper on the
program was that presented by Pastor Eddleman
of Birmingham on “The Importance of Having
Regular Sunday-school Teachers’ Meetings.” Pastor
Eddleman pointed out the benefit of such meetings
to the teachers and to the Sunday-school. Both these
papers were received with thanks by the Sunday-
school Convention. During the afternoon session
the following papers and addresses were given:
a paper on “The Necessity of a Sunday-school
Teacher’s Doing Follow-up Work,” by Mrs. L. M.
Bradley of Selma, a model catechization by Miss
E. E. Dukes of Hamburg, and an address, “Putting
Christ into Every Sunday-school,” by Pastor L. R.
Gauthreaux of Oak Hill.

The delegates from the various Sunday-schools
then made their reports on the condition of their
several Sunday-schools. At the end of each report
the delegate presented the convention with a special
offering from his Sunday-school. When all reports
were in and the offerings had been counted, it was
found that a total of $132.75 had been laid on the
table. This sum was turned over to the treasurer,