The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 111

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

111

He is pleased that we enter, not this life, but the
heavenly life.”

Qu. 5: “Why is our life like the stormy voyage
of the disciples ?”

A.: “When the disciples were in the boat, as
soon as the wind blew, they forgot about Jesus and
wailed. So also now, forgetting Jesus and dis-
regarding His Word, when a small evil befalls us,
we forget Him. You ask how? Thinking, ‘Oh, He
cannot be God; I have prayed to Him, and [yet]
He has caused this evil to befall me.’ Thinking
thus, we quit Him and forget Him.”

Qu 6: “Why did Jesus praise the faith of the
Canaanitish woman ?”

A.: “Though she was of a foreign people, be-
cause she followed Jesus no matter how many ex-
cuses He made to her, continuing to follow Him,
He finally said, ‘O woman, great is thy faith.”

Qu.7: “What lessons do we draw from the
parable of the Prodigal Son?”

A.: “First, that we should obey our parents;
secondly, when sinners who have forsaken God and
suffered, confess their sins, our very merciful
heavenly Father receives them again; thirdly, He
tells also the angels when a lost sinner repents ; and
they and the Father rejoice. In this way the merci-
ful Father welcomes also us sinners when we
repent.”

Qu. 8: “Why do we say we all are like the man
born blind?” jf

A.: “How that blind-born man had to suffer in
this world! To him sight was given by Jesus
Christ to see in this world. So Jesus opened to us
the eye to see for the hereafter. Therefore we are
like the blind-born man. That the eye blinded by
sin may be opened, we must believe on Jesus
Christ.”

Qu. 9: “Why did Moses and Elijah on the
Mount of Transfiguration talk with Jesus about
His coming suffering and death?”

A.: “When Moses and Elijah were on earth,
they urged all people to fulfil the Law. After-
wards, knowing that the people would not become
good by the Law, they preached about the things
that Jesus must suffer. This is the reason.”

A careful reader will have several questions in
mind when he reads such answers: —

What is the value of such tests in Bible or Cat-
echism? Certainly, we know, such tests do not
establish whether the person concerned is a Chris-
tian or not. We know of cases where gifted
Brahmin boys have scored 100 per .cent., and yet

there was no more Christianity about them than
there is in a phonograph. But such tests do show
the teacher a good deal; they reveal to him whether
his teaching is “going over,” and they suggest to
him a great variety of things he ought to know
about his pupils.

Again, what evidence have we that boys such as
the two mentioned above are not revealing head
knowledge? It is admitted that this is possible;
but I can assure the reader that their whole life
bears witness that their knowledge goes deeper than
the head. They have renounced all the outward
tokens of their pagan religion, they behave like
Christian boys, and above all they come to the
preaching-services at the village regularly and talk
of their new faith freely at home. They have also
openly expressed their desire to become Christians,
and again and again they ask me how to answer
objections raised against the Christian religion by
their parents or elders.

In addition to several mistakes found in these
answers, the reader may note also that their definite
testimony of salvation through Jesus’ blood is not
prominent. That is explained by the fact that the
subject-matter covered in the test dealt not with
the cardinal doctrines of the Second Article, but
with other parts of the Catechism.

Such test papers as these prove conclusively that
not all pupils who are listed officially as “heathen”
are heathen at heart. They furthermore show that
we are justified in admitting into our schools the
non-Christian along with the Christian child. No
one who desires the conversion of the Indian people
to the true God will want such educational evan-
gelism restricted or discontinued. There is no
country in the world where the obstacles to the
Gospel are so peculiar and so difficult to overcome
as in India; but here we have an effective weapon —
our schools. And God Himself, whose servants we
are, will lay His hand of blessing upon these schools
and will bring to glad fruition what we, His un-
profitable servants, are permitted to plant and
water.

Vadakangulam, February 1, 1933.

E. H. MEInzeEn.

A. Terrible Contrast.

That millions of people on the earth should be
threatened with hunger and starvation when vast
amounts of food supplies are being allowed to go to
waste or are being destroyed seems almost incredible.