The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Sheet 186

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

erected their own church-buildings without as-
sistance from the Missionary Board. However, since
the congregation in Yonkers still has a debt of
$4,000, on which it pays interest at the rate of six
per cent., some provisions should be made to lend
this congregation $4,000, repayable in ten or prefer-
ably fifteen annual instalments.

Spartanburg Appropriation.— Years ago the
Synodical Conference made an appropriation of
$1,500 for Spartanburg. Present conditions do not
warrant the expenditure of this sum. We therefore
ask that this appropriation be canceled and turned
over to the Building Fund.

This brings the biennial report of the Board for
Colored Missions to an end. Those of our readers
who have read the report will have had occasion
again and again to praise the Lord of the Church
for the manifest help and blessing which He has
accorded workers among the freedmen of our
country. Despite the many obstacles put in the
way of progress the work has gone onward from
month to month and from year to year. New fields
could be opened and old ones more extensively
cultivated.

It is greatly to be deplored that circumstances
have compelled the Board to close our higher school
at New Orleans and to reduce the Selma normal
school to a junior high school; but no doubt there
is a silver lining also to this dark cloud which we
are not yet able to see. The poet tells us that the
darkest clouds are big with mercy and will at God’s
time burst in blessings over our heads. F.J.L.

St. Matthew’s Lutheran Sunday-School,
Baltimore.

Our friends heard of this Baltimore mission in
a previous issue, in which we showed pictures of
the modest chapel and of a few of. the members.
Some may ask, “Why another picture? Why take
up such valuable space?” If you see the picture of
our Sunday-school and read what we shall tell you
about it, we hope your questions will be answered
to your satisfaction. Your missionary wishes to
show, not in dollars and cents, but in real values,
what your gifts of love have helped to accomplish.

It is necessary to state that a year and a half
ago there was no Sunday-school at this place,
although the mission is a little over two years old.
Were there no children to be found, or did they all
belong to some other Sunday-school? Oh, no!

183

There were, and still are, many to be found who
should attend a Sunday-school. But when you take
into consideration the state of affairs in homes
where the parents are not much, if at all, interested
in matters pertaining to the soul and the children
have no religious training whatsoever, it becomes
evident that the task is not an easy one to persuade
the people to send their children to a Sunday-
school. It requires much patience, many convinc-
ing words, and not a few visits to gain the child.
And when the child has been gained, he receives
no encouragement from home to be faithful in his
attendance. Only in a few instances also the
parents are interested.

Still, dear reader, do not think the missionary’s
life is all shadows, without any sunshine. His ef-
forts are not all futile; for he knows that his work

St. Matthew’s Lutheran Sunday-School,
Baltimore, Md.

is not his own, but His who sends him, and there-
fore the faithful labors of God’s servants cannot
be in vain. _And the missionary rejoices over every
soul that has been won because he has been privi-
leged to participate in such a glorious undertaking.
Of course, the results obtained are never on a par
with human expectations. But our chief concern
should be whether those whom God has entrusted
to us are being shown the saving truths of His
Word. Of that we can be certain since our dear
Lutheran Church still has the one thing needful.

The accompanying picture shows the fruits of
your missionary’s labors — the promising Sunday-
school established at this mission. It is a school
worthy of the name Christian. Here the little ones
are being taught to know their Savior from sin,
they are guided by His wholesome Word and taught
to walk the way that leads to eternal joys. They
are learning the matchless Lutheran hymns, which
help to impress upon them the truths they have