The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 15

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

15

a large sum, but much less than half our annual
crime bill and only about one twenty-fifth of our
automobile-purchase bill. Somebody has made this
computation: Out of every $100 income $3.35 goes
for schools, $3 for crime, $4.52 for life-insurance
premiums, $7.43 for building operations, $15.15
for passenger automobiles, and $1 for religious
purposes.

How about Us? — We read this in the Bulletin
of our church in Lawrence, Kansas: “One of the
best governors of the Isle of Man was impeached
for treason in the civil wars of England and sen-
tenced to death. The king was prevailed upon to
pardon him; but the letter of pardon fell into the
hands of the governor’s bitter enemy, who never
delivered it. The governor was executed. — We
hold in our hands the pardon of the world, which
God wants us to deliver through the preaching of
the Gospel. Shall we hold it back and let poor
sinners die? As Christians we have a tremendous
responsibility. In the Gospel we hold the pardon of
all sinners, but some do not know of this divine
pardon because they have never heard of the great
love of God. May we realize the responsibility to
tell others everywhere of the pardon which Christ
offers all who hear the Gospel!”

Strange Occupations of Home Missionaries. —
In a report on Home Missions a superintendent
writes that he found one missionary also function-
ing as an undertaker, another as a real-estate agent,
one as an insurance agent, still another as an
orange-grower, one as an auto-repair expert, one as
a rural letter-carrier, one as a dealer in honey, one
as a salaried Chamber of Commerce secretary,
another as a post-office clerk, another as a wholesale
chicken-raiser (raising and selling them by the
thousands), and last, but not least, as a profes-
sional magician !

Known by Their Fruits.—'The Hindu Shastras
have given us India; the Koran has given us
Arabia, Turkey, and North Africa; the doctrine of
Buddha has given us Burma, Tibet, and Siam; the
teaching of Confucius has given us enfeebled and
distracted China. The Bible has given us Germany,
Britain, and the United States, nations which,
though unhappily afflicted with numberless evils
because the Bible is not yet allowed full supremacy
in the individual and social life, are in the van of
human progress, enlightenment, and civilization.
In five hundred years no really useful invention or
valuable discovery has originated in any land out-
side the pale of external Christendom. Neither
pagan Asia nor heathen Africa, for twenty genera-

tions, has contributed a single idea from which the
world is reaping comfort, enrichment, or uplifting
impulse. ‘This is not taking account of the spiritual
blessings the Bible brings to the heart that reads its
sacred pages and keeps it, blessings which far out-
weigh in importance and pricelessness the material
blessings referred to above.

Picture of the Heathen World. — This is the
sad picture of the heathen world painted by Bishop
Foster: “Paint a starless sky; hang your picture
with night; drape the mountains with long, far-
reaching vistas of darkness; hang the curtains deep
along every shore and landscape; darken all the
past; let the future be draped in deeper and yet
deeper night; fill the awful gloom with hungry,
sad-faced men and sorrow-driven women and chil-
dren. It is the heathen world—the people seen
in the vision of the prophet, Is. 60, 2, who sit in the
region and shadow of death, to whom no light has
come, sitting there still through the long, long
night, waiting and watching for the morning.”

A Story with a Lesson for All of Us.

Two wealthy Christians were traveling around
the world, and in Korea they saw a boy in a field
pulling a plow, while an old man held the handles
and guided the instrument. The visitors were rather
amused and took a picture of the pair. They showed
it to the resident missionary and asked him whether
these two people were poor. The missionary de-
clared that they were very poor, but when the little
Christian church was being built, they were very
anxious to contribute their mite. They had no
money, and so they sold their only ox and gave the ©
money to the church and were glad that they were
able to give their share. They did not feel like com-
plaining, but rather thought they were very for-
tunate to have an ox to sell. This was the reason
why these two did their own plowing.

The wealthy lawyer, when he reached home, went
to his minister and said: “I want to double my
subscription to the Church, and please give me some
plow-work to do. I have never known what sacrifice
for the Church meant. A converted heathen taught
me. I am ashamed to say that I never yet have
given to the Church that which has cost me ANY:
thing.”

It is really a privilege to give to the cause in
which we, with all our hearts, believe. ‘Sacrifice be-
comes a joy when we are ‘anxious. to see a beloved
cause prosper. — Onward. : +