The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 89

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

89

desire and prayer to God was that the children
might be saved, not only for the present life, but
also for the life to come, and he was convinced that
this could be done only by an education, prayerful
training, and example such as would bring each
child’s heart into intimate contact with the person
of the crucified and risen Savior. Above all, these
children should learn the saving Gospel that through
it they might come to believe in their Savior and
to love Him. It was this great desire to save chil-
dren that also kept his pen indefatigably busy in
behalf of the support of two orphanages in Germany
since the World War. The stroke of apoplexy that
ended his busy life came as he was writing an article

Rev. Philip Wambsganss.

in behalf of these charitable institutions, which he
loved so much.

Pastor Wambsganss was gifted with great prac-
tical insight, extraordinary resourcefulness, and an
unbounded enthusiasm. God had also endowed him
with the gift of eloquence, a pleasing personality,
and the power of persuasion. In all his philan-
thropie programs he placed the Word of God above
all else and regarded the works of mercy done in
Christ’s name not as the chief object of philan-
thropic enterprise, but only as the practical demon-
stration of that love through which the faith
wrought by the Word exercises itself. He has helped
us better to realize the Savior’s well-known utter-
ance: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the
least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto

Me.” He fully believed, and consistently tried to
live up to his conviction, that any kindness shown
the poor, the friendless, the sick, the orphaned, is
by Christ regarded as a personal kindness to Him-
self; that Christ, as it were, identifies Himself with
the needy and miserable among men. This convic-
tion helped our departed friend to see a new hope
and a new dignity in each individual life, gave new
importance and new sacredness to the service of
man, and made it literally the service of God.
Though he was not possessed of brilliant learning,
God had given him a great measure of practical
wisdom, an exceptional capacity for labor, and un-
tiring energy, and these gifts he was willing to use
for the glory of Him whose servant he was. “He
must increase, but I must decrease,” was the regula-
tive principle of Pastor Wambsganss’s life.

F.J.L.

Missions among the Natives of Australia.

Referring to the rescue of Captain Bertram and
his companion Klausemann, two aviators who were
wrecked near Drysdale Station in the extreme
northern part of Western Australia, the Australian
Lutheran brings the following interesting article on
the work which the Christian Church is doing
among the aboriginals of that continent. Koonibba
Mission Station, to which the last paragraph of the
article refers, is conducted by our brethren in
Australia, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of
Australia. Koonibba is located on Denial Bay, on
the southwestern coast of South Australia.

“Much has been written, and much is still
being written, concerning the natives of Australia.
Captain Hans Bertram has paid the highest tribute
of praise to them for their devotion and trust-
worthiness. No one could have shown more sym-
pathy towards him and his companion in mis-
fortune, Klausemann, than was done by the mission
blacks of the Drysdale mission-station. Seeing the
two forlorn aviators too greatly exhausted even to
chew the wallaby flesh they brought them, the na-
tives first attended to the mastication of the food
and then passed it on to the starving men. And
when it was desired that a message be hastily sent
to Wyndham, a native boy ran from dawn till late
in the afternoon to deliver the message. When the
rescuing launch was unable to approach the spot
where the enfeebled aviators, who had been fifty
days without food, lay and it was necessary for them
to walk a few miles, the natives cleared a track,