The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 139

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

Piney Woods Country-Life School. — The
Proneer received a letter from Principal Laurence
C. Jones some weeks ago. Referring to letters of
appreciation from students for the replacing of re-
ligious books destroyed by fire which appeared in the
June issue, Mr. Jones writes: “What these writers
expressed is in no sense equal to the gratitude and
appreciation these students felt when these helps
came to them and they could go on with their study
of the Bible without the handicap of a shortage of
books. I want to add my acknowledgment of this
generous favor. It would take volumes to do justice
to what the Lutheran Church, through its literature
and the wonderful pastor furnished us, is doing for
this school and community. Tor Rev. Geo. A.
Schmidt’s influence is felt throughout this locality
as well as in our school. His little group now num-
bers over one hundred members, most of them com-
municant. I’m sure this group will hail the day
with delight when they can have a little chapel on
this campus and when local people as well as stu-
dents will flock to it to hear the Word.”

KFUO. — Our own KFUO regards its potential
audience as numbering almost 2,000,000. ‘Though
not all these tune in to hear our station’s broad-
casts, there is good reason to believe that very many
of them do. A man who canvassed about a thousand
homes in Missouri twice a year states that nearly
all are regular listeners to KFUO, regardless of
their church affiliation, and even non-church-
members are regular listeners and speak in terms of
commendation of the programs. ‘Thus we learn
with a great degree of satisfaction that KFUO is
a real missionary of the air, bringing the pure
Gospel into many a home where else it would
probably find no entrance.

What Missions Mean to Us. — We are saved be-
cause of past missionary efforts; others are to be
saved by our present missionary efforts. — The most
important fact in the world, so far as we know, is
that 800,000,000 human beings are still groping in
ignorance without the knowledge of their God and
Savior. — The work of missions is the biggest, the
most far-reaching, the most divine task that con-
fronts us. —The power latent in the churches, if
properly utilized and directed, would be amply suf-
ficient for the speedy evangelization of the world.
Who is responsible for the fact that centuries will
be required for what could be accomplished in a few
decades ? — The conversion of souls is with God, but
bringing the Gospel to them is a task which God
has entrusted to us.

A Few China Notes. — In Shasi there was high
water in June and again in July. — Our mission-
aries had their general conference at Kuling from
July 26 to August 4. At these conferences the mis-
sionaries spend their time partly on doctrinal papers
and their discussion and partly on practical ques-
tions. In a country like China, where polygamy
and concubinage are practised, this question causes
our missionaries considerable trouble at times; for
occasionally a polygamist wants to join the Church,
and it is by no means as easy as it may seem to us
in America to convince such a person of the sinful-
ness of polygamy and of his duty to put away all
but one wife. And yet our workers must insist:
“Only one wife; put away all but the first one!” —
OF course, we all know that the use of opium is also
quite common in China, and it is only natural that
this vice should cause our missionaries much worry.

Missionary’s Residence in Shasi.
View of the Yangtze.

As the proper treatment of polygamists will greatly
concern our workers, so also the proper attitude to-
wards opium addicts. While there are many polyg-
amists in China, the number of opium users is far
greater. No less than seventy per cent. of the people
are said to be more or less the slaves of this terrible
drug. We can well imagine that this vice will give
our workers much trouble and cause them many an
anxious hour. We are, however, pleased to add that
one of our missionaries is able to write: “In the
three places I have so far served I-do not believe
there is one opium smoker among members that are
in good standing.”

Do Foreign Missions Pay? — A converted
Brahman gave this answer to the question-before an
audience in Philadelphia: “This cultured audience
convinces me that Foreign Missions pay. Long after
India had reached a high state of civilization,;-your
ancestors were barbarous and degraded heathen. It
was Foreign Missions in the early. days of Chris-