The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 148

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148

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

quested Jesus to dismiss the starving multitudes
that they might go and scatter themselves over the
country and seek the food which they required.

Then came the startling reply, “They need not
depart; give ye them to eat.” Hereupon, like the
unbelieving nobleman at the gate of Samaria, many
‘doubtless were ready to inquire, “If the Lord would
make windows in heaven, might this thing be?”
Five loaves and two fishes to feed thousands of men,
women, and children! How can this be done?

It is thus in spiritual matters. Words evidenc-
ing almost equal astonishment are heard from the
lips of some professed Christians when they hear
the Savior bidding them feed the countless millions
of the human race whose souls are perishing for
want of the Bread of Life. “Whence,” ask they,
“ean we get so much bread in the wilderness as to
fill so great a multitude?” Difficult, however, as it
may seem of accomplishment, the command is ex-
pressed: “Go ye... and preach the Gospel to every
creature.” The nations are perishing; their souls
are dying of hunger; give ye them to eat.

Let us remember that as the widow’s oil in-
creased in the pouring out, and as the bread in-

- creased in the breaking, so it is with God’s grace in
the heart. While other things perish in the using,
spiritual gifts increase in the using. God “min-
isters seed to the sower” and multiplies, not the seed
hoarded up, but “the seed sown.”

During the past two years God has again won-
derfully blessed the work of the Synodical Con-
ference carried on in the Colored Missions. He has
wonderfully multiplied the “seed sown.” We shall
observe this blessing as we follow the statistical re-
ports on the various fields of the mission.

(We have taken the liberty of transposing portions of
the Board’s report for the sake of expediency. — Eprror.)

Our Mission-Schools.
Our Lutheran day-schools, which are maintained
with the single exception of Grace School, St. Louis,
only in the southern portion of the Eastern Field,
_are mission-schools in the full sense of the term, in-

asmuch as only two or three schools have on their
| rolls an appreciable number of children of Lutheran

_ parentage. Until now gains by. confirmation have
been disappointing, due to the fact that the number
‘of children in the upper grades is small in propor-
tion to the enrolment in the Jower grades. People
‘are drawn to our schools because they are private
1001s, in which the teachers devote much atten-
ion to the laying of a good foundation in the three

compete with the public schools in cities, in which
each grade has a special teacher, parents, in most
eases send their children to the public schools upon
completion of the fourth or fifth grade, when, as
a rule, the children are too young for confirmation.

Satisfactory gains by confirmation are being
made in one of our schools, which has the neces-
sary physical plant and excellent equipment, in-
cluding an approximation of the number of teachers
usually found in public schools. This fact seems to
indicate that by improving our schools, children
may continue their training through all the grades.
And some may be gained for the church. But such
a program of improvement would require many
more thousands of dollars. The question also arises:
Is it wise to spend so much money in one place
when vast regions and millions of people are still
untouched by our Church?

This year the schools in Cincinnati and in Mon-
roe, N. C., were closed, because hardly any Lutheran
children were on the roll and very few had ever been
gained for the church. All other schools will be
continued, since, due to the depression, the budgets
of public schools have been materially decreased and
consequently our schools may enroll a larger number
in the upper grades. :

Expansion of the Work.

For almost fifty years, work among the Negroes
has been practically confined to a number of States
of the South, particularly to Louisiana, North Caro-
lina, and Alabama. These were the logical places
for our endeavors hecause of the existence of a very
large Negro element in the population. But within
recent years there has been a tremendous shift of
population to the North, somewhat reminiscent of
the migration of nations during the Middle Ages.
Thus in the State of New York the Negroes in-
creased from 198,483 in 1920 to 412,814 in 1930;
in the small State of New Jersey the increase dur-
ing the same period was from 117,132 to 208,828.
Such States as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and even
Michigan, in spite of its more rigorous climate, have
since 1917 received a correspondingly large number
of Negroes from the South.

Moreover, in the North the Negroes. have not
scattered over the States, but have rather congre-
gated in the larger cities. Thus New York City has
now become the largest Negro center in the world.
Manhattan Borough alone has 224,670 Negroes,
practically all of whom are residing in Harlem.

Because in the North the Negro enjoys superior
educational facilities, has political influence, and