A New Definition.
“Four hundred Lutherans were assembled in one of our annual conferences in India. Missionary Eckardt, who is the Livingstone of our Mission, was speaking. He has gone farther inland than any of his predecessors had gone. His district embraces three hundred thousand people, who have no hope of hearing the Gospel unless he brings it to them.
IMMANUEL COLORED LUTHERAN COLLEGE, GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA.
BETHANY INDIAN MISSION BAND, WITTENBERG, WISCONSIN. (NORWEGIAN SYNOD)
“He stood up that day at the conference, and said that up in the hills, where there were a number of Christians, but more heathen, a hill had been given him by a heathen, on condition that a church would be built on it. He said that it would be a center for all the Christians in that locality, and a constant call to the heathen to come to the living God. The difficulty was: how to get the money to build the church? He did not want to ask the Christians in America for it; so he asked whether our Christians in India would not help him?
“The conference listened with interest and sympathy. The hill-country had for years been its home mission field. After much casting about for some satisfactory method, the suggestion was made that all the Christians be asked to practice self-denial from Ash Wednesday to Palm Sunday, bringing their free-will offerings to the service on Palm Sunday.
“When the proposition was announced to the Rajahmundry congregation, the interested faces, quickened eyes, and, in some cases, the tucking of heads to one side, all bespoke approval and willingness to help.
“And what did the members do? They cut off a little here and a little there; true, only a little, for if it had been much, there would not have been anything left for themselves. More than a little would have been all.