The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 46

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46 | THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

Inner Missions in Germany.

The latest published figures showing the extent
and magnitude of Inner Missions of the Evangelical
Church of Germany bear eloquent testimony to the
power of the Gospel. From the Friedensbote we
glean the following interesting facts.

There are to-day over 26,500 institutions and or-
ganizations in which daily over 413,000 people are
cared for in Germany. The famous Bethel Inner
Mission Institution is in reality a garden city with
6,000 inhabitants, among whom there are 2,500
epileptics. Inner Mission institutions with more
than 16,000 beds in 60 homes care for about one-
third of all the epileptics in Germany who are in
institutions, and in the 261 invalid homes more than
100,000 incurables are provided for. Twenty-eight
homes of cripples with over 5,000 beds, constituting
about half of the homes of cripples in Germany, are
institutions of the Inner Missions. Twenty-three
homes are used for the reception of 1,200 deaf
patients. For inebriates there are 32 sanatoriums;
for tuberculosis patients, 22. In 330 hospitals of
the Inner Missions there are 40,000 beds available.
In 576 Christian convalescent homes, from the
mountains to the sea, 30,000 persons can be accom-
modated. Inner Missions maintain 231 homes for
mothers with small babies, 2,500 kindergartens, with
room for 165,000, over 240 shelters for children,
with accommodations for 9,640, 540 boarding-
schools and orphans’ homes for 27,300 children, and
150 homes for young people, with 11,000 popula-
tion. For the moral protection of women and girls
there are 150 homes with 8,000 beds, and the mid-
night missions in large cities are doing much to
safeguard women. Other branches of the Inner
Mission work are the spiritual care of prisoners,
help for those discharged from penal institutions,
railway-station missions, care of impoverished
homes with large families, and employment and
settlement service, 173 hospices with 10,000 beds,
71 stations for counseling and advising the emi-
grants, 60 seamen’s missions throughout the world,
960 old folks’ homes, with accommodations for
28,000 men and women.

There is virtually an army of helpers in the
service of this great ministry of love, consisting of
43,000 deaconesses and other Evangelical sisters,
4,460 deacons, 2,800 advisers and helpers, and
16,500 other persons in the various institutions.
The supply for this service is furnished by 113
motherhouses, 21 deaconess institutions, seminaries
and schools. — News Bulletin, N. L. C. ,

Story of a Jewish Maiden.

In the time of the Old Testament the Jews were
the chosen people of God. But when Christ, the
promised Messiah, was born, they, as a people,
rejected this Savior, and therefore the city of Jeru-
salem was destroyed, and the Jews were scattered
among the other nations of the earth. Most of
them are still waiting for the Messiah to come and
still reject our Savior. By the power of the Gospel,
however, God in His mercy brings many of them
to true faith in Jesus. Mr. Millard, an agent of the
British Bible Society, tells the following beautiful
story of a Jewish Maiden : —

She was the only child of respectable parents
living in one of the country districts of the kingdom
of Poland and was brought up with great care and
tenderness. She was a very quiet child, seldom
joining other children in their lively sports. Thus
her life sped away until she was sixteen years
of age. About that time she was one day sitting by
herself in her father’s garden, which was separated
only by a wooden fence from the garden of her
Christian neighbors. Several girls were playing
on the other side of the fence; but of this the
Jewish maiden took no heed until a cheerful shout
startled her. A young friend ran up to the group
of girls, crying, “Look here, is not this a pretty
book? My father has just bought it for me.”
A short pause followed while the new book was
being examined, and then one of the girls cried
out, “Oh, I know that! That is the New Testa-
ment; I shall read a piece to you.”

She then read the nineteenth chapter of
St. John. The Jewish girl, on the other side of
the fence, listened to the reading. The words, never
heard by her before, sank deep into her heart. She
also well remembered that the book had been called
the New Testament, and she made up her mind to
get a copy. This was easily done. She then com-
menced a regular course of reading, and very soon
she felt so attracted by that Savior, full of love and
compassion, of whom every page spoke, that she
believed in Him as her Master and her Savior. She
told her parents of this and begged them to read
the New Testament for themselves and adopt the
Christian faith. The parents were struck dumb
with astonishment. Was this their own daughter,
once so. timid and simple and now pleading so
warmly the cause of the God of the Christians?
Was this possible? And how had the girl got

these notions? They told the girl never again to -

speak on this subject and threatened her with a

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