on the south piazza, where the cool breeze wafted all cares into the distance.

“Oh, yes, we have a Luther League, of course. The attendance is pretty good but the meetings are terribly dry. I simply can't get any good out of them, except the practice I put on my voluntaries. I play, you know, and try to make that part as interesting as possible to make up for the defects in the rest of the meeting.

"Missions? We do something for them. I don't know just what--follow the mission topics in the league and have special mission services sometimes.

"Sunday school? Well, that's the best part of the work. I do try to keep my class alive. I'm not sure I teach them orthodoxy, but I do try to teach them Christianity." Stella laughed rather uneasily and rocked the hammock backward and forward once.

"Progress? Well, our reports tell of progress, but I don't see any. In fact, aunt, it's all dead, and I fear it will be very trying for an active worker like you."

"And you?" asked Aunt Stella, bending forward and looking into the discontented face.

"I? Oh, I just let it drag on and put up with it," said the girl with another uneasy laugh.

"Can't you tell me more about yourself?" said her aunt at last. Indeed, she had read her niece's disposition and experience in her description of other things, but she wanted a chance to help her.

"Well, aunt, the truth is, I'm tired of being a Lutheran. Things are so dead, and I can't find that faith and doctrine cover my needs. I need light and help and Christian experience and grace. It's not advanced ideas that I want. I'm willing to be fifty years behind the times, and I will accept the doctrine, Augsburg Confession, Book of Concord and all. But I'm not satisfied with references to the glories of our past and boasts of our stability. I want something to show for it all. I need a special supply of grace. You know all the responsibilities I have, and all the trials the children for instance; and I've been a Lutheran for twenty years (I'll be twenty-one to-morrow), and haven't even learned to hold my tongue, and can't keep my New Year's resolutions the first half of the year. Perhaps you will think I'm an unusual case, like father. He's so good he simply can't imagine a person with doubts and fears like mine."

She looked off across the lawn to hide the quiver of her lips, but her aunt answered softly and kindly:

"No, dear, I don't think anything is wrong about you, except your point of view."

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her eyes to her aunt's face in evident astonishment.

"Yes, your point of view. It is so easy to get that turned about in the hurry and bustle of existence. You are not an unusual case. I have felt just the same way myself."

"You, the most orthodox of women!" exclaimed Stella incredulously.

"You see, dear girl, your points are so twisted that you have no room for doctrine and experience, too; but if you allow me to speak plainly we will get it all straightened out soon. Let's begin with the New Year's resolutions. What were they?"

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"Oh, I wrote them all out," cried the girl. "I'll bring them," and she ran off eagerly, soon returning with the neatly written list.

"And a nice lot of resolutions they are," said her aunt, glancing down the column. "But, Stella, you promised all these things solemnly before God when you were confirmed, when you vowed to forsake the devil and all his works and ways.' So why should you write them all out again?"

"Oh, but surely that doesn't mean being kind to the children, patient with the housework and all those little things?"

"Just think a minute, child, and you'll see that it includes it all. Why, I'm so very thankful that I'm a confirmed Lutheran I don't see how any one can be content to be anything else."

"I never thought of it that way, aunt," said Stella, gravely.

"Then, how did you go about keeping these resolutions? What did you do New Year's Eve?"

"Well, auntie, Bessie gave a little party, and I get out so little that I went. I'd truly have gone to church if it hadn't been so dry. But father preached the same sermon I'd heard for five consecutive New Year's Eves, and I concluded it wouldn't matter if——”

"Yes, dear, that was your point of view, too. But after it's changed you will not ‘forsake the assembling of ourselves together' for any party. And, dear, you must not blame the Church for its deadness' when you are not doing your part to keep up its life. Now, about the children. Let us try, just for a week, to look upon them as blessings instead of trials-to see how it works. You say you want a revival. Why, so do we all. Even Paul had to put off the old man and put on the new daily. Then you say you should like to be converted. That is the strangest part to me. We who were washed in the water of regeneration in infancy, and who put off the old man for good and all at confirmation, go around hunting for experience and expecting to be converted just as if we weren't regenerated Lutherans. Why, child, you are converted. You are regenerated and bap

tized, and ‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.' Believe that you are saved, Stella, and be happy. You say you are tired of faith, but it is because you haven't half enough of it. If you will only believe that you are a truly converted and redeemed Christian you will be happy in your faith and won't need anything else.

"As to crowding down your emotions and yearnings, my dear, that's just the trouble with most of us. Instead of letting them overflow and abound in good works, as we ought, we kill them at the emotional stage without a chance for development. Don't be afraid of being happy in your faith. Be happy and show it. It will do good to both you and others.

"Now, let us try to straighten out this League business. You say it's so dry. I suppost you read over the Topics and Scripture references every week?"

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Sometimes, auntie, but I'm so busy, and, as I said, I have the music to attend to and

"Yes, Stella, I see; but we'll let the music go and prepare the Topics this week and see how it goes."

The dusk was falling and they still talked. Stella's viewpoint was being changed, but it was all done so sweetly and kindly that the girl could not be hurt or angry, though she saw all at once how petty and paltry her excuses and subterfuges appeared in the full light of her aunt's clear, quiet explanations.

The point of view made a vast difference that evening, and Stella arose the next morning a changed girl.

The little birthday surprises, which she had known of for at least a fortnight, were interesting and amusing, and the children were so delighted at her appreciation of their gifts.

The birthday cake which Edith had conglomerated was palatable in spite of its weight, and Stella was ashamed to see tears of joy in the young cook's eyes as she praised her effort. Stella was looking out for blessings, and what a vast difference it made! All day her heart sang a new, sweet song, "I'm saved, I am saved."

In the afternoon Aunt Stella and the girls read the League Topics together, and Miss Carpenter decided that a simple melody could well take the place of the elaborate voluntary she had hoped to render in her aunt's honor.

It was a rainy evening, and the meeting was poorly attended, but Stella lost not a word of the leader's simple talk, and she joined in the hymns with a vigor unprecedented.

"I'm sorry your aunt happened in on one of our worst meetings," said the president as they left the room.

“One of our worst meetings!" exclaimed

Stella, radiantly. "Why, I never enjoyed a meeting so much in my life."

Before Aunt Stella left her niece's life had taken on a new meaning, and it showed itself in the whole household.

"You've made a new person of me," she said when at last the good-bys had to be spoken.

"Not at all," said Miss Fraser, smiling. "I simply changed your point of view. Don't worry about anything. Our Lutheran Church has a glorious future. It won't be long until she is in the front ranks, not only as to doctrine, but in works; but," she added, with a sigh, "a good many people must change their point of view before that."

Why do we not always smile when we meet the eye of a fellow being? That is true recognition which ought to pass from soul to soul constantly. Little children in simple communities do this involuntarily, unconsciously. The honest-hearted German peasant does it. It is like magical sunlight all through that simple land, the perpetual greeting on the right and on the left between strangers as they pass by each other, never without a smile. This, then, is the fine art, of smiling, like all fine art, true art, perfection of art, the simplest following of nature. -Helen Hunt.

A workman who is doing well a fine work is pleased to hear the footsteps of his employer. His appearing may be quite unexpected, but the competent workman is not frightened or embarrassed. He has nothing to conceal. He rather enjoys the close scrutiny of his work by his master. The co-worker with God must do thorough work. He cannot dally in secret with what he condemns in public. His Employer sees all.-Dr. Gobin.

What These

MAY 1, 1879.-The Missionary Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission (Leipzig) Society moved into its new and commodious building at Leipzig (not Dresden). Whatever may have been their previous education, its students receive very thorough training, which is one of the main reasons for the high standard of the work done by the Leipzig missionaries in South India and East Africa.

MAY 2, 1842.-The only one among all the Lutheran Synods in the United States which has its own Superintendent of Missions for a single metropolis is the Synod of East Pennsylvania, which has called Rev. S. D. Dougherty to devote his entire time to planting and fostering new missions in the single city of Philadelphia. Every other great city in this whole country ought similarly to have a wide-awake, energetic man in personal charge of the Lutheran mission work within its own suburbs. Our prosperous people, who are moving away from the congested centers, out into the residence sections, dare not be lost to our church because no Lutheran congregation has been established in their neighborhood. Hence the importance of every such city having a Local Church Extension Fund, like Brooklyn, Baltimore and Pittsburg. The investment would soon be repaid tenfold.

MAY 3, 1898.--After five years of experiment the United Synod of the South has not yet seen its way clear to release Dr. Probst from the duties of his parish in Atlanta, but it hopes to soon be able to free his hands from congregational work, that he may throw himself with all his heart and strength into the prosecution of the Synod's Home and Foreign Mission and Church Extension interests. Even this office of itself is enough to keep any three men constantly busy, and each of the three causes would help rather than hinder the other two.

MAY 4, 1873.-David Livingstone always regarded himself as not chiefly a geographical explorer, but pre-eminently before everything else a Christian missionary, and as such a pioneer of civilization. The work which he set out to do for Africa was supremely and distinctly religious. His immense service in other spheres was therefore incidental, and is a striking illustration of what gigantic importance even the incidentals" of the Gospel have often proved to be in the history of Christendom. When Livingstone began his career vast regions on the map of Africa were a blank. It was he, too, who roused the indignation of the world by depicting the inhuman horrors of the African slave-trade.

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MAY 5, 1808.-Louis Harms, the founder of the Hermannsburg Missions, was born on this day at Walrode, Hanover, North Germany. His father was a minister of the Lutheran Church, and later on was pastor at Hermannsburg, in the Lunenburg Heath, south of Hamburg. Louis studied theology at Goettingen, where he was known, admired and persecuted for his seriousness, piety and studiousness. Unaccountably strange as it seems to us, for fourteen years he had no appointment as pastor. During this long period of waiting he lived as a private tutor, though he excited no little influence in religious and philanthropic circles, and became famous as a powerful, if only occasional, preacher. In 1844 his father called him as his assistant, and in 1849 he became his father's successor at Hermannsburg. There he preached in a backwoods country church, founded 1,000 years ago, to a congregation of crude, simple-hearted farmers until his death, November 14, 1865. His

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constant and effectual theme was Repent Ye, and Believe the Gospel." His sermons were listened to eagerly by thousands every Sunday, and he proved to be literally a true Lutheran revivalist." filled with the power of the Holy Ghost. He awakened in his poor, receptive, honest farmers a living, intense, permanent interest in the Church's great work of spreading the Gospel, and together with his peasants founded the unique "Hermannsburg Mission,' which he liked to designate a "Farmers' Mission.' He at once began with a seminary to train workers for foreign fields, and in 1853 he sent forth from this, his own parish institution, its first graduates as missionaries to South Africa. These sailed on the ship Candace," which he had specially built for him at Hamburg. The glowing enthusiasm of his "Missionsblatt" helped to stir up the whole of North Germany for the cause of Foreign Missions as it had never been stirred, and the yearly "Missionsfest" at Hermannsburg and other parts of the Lunenburg Heath were attended by immense crowds, many of whom had traveled incredible distances. His restless activity and his austere life shortened his days. His brother, Theodore, succeeded him as pastor and superintendent of missions, and his nephew, Egbert Harms, is the present superintendent, residing partly at Hermannsburg and partly in South Africa. The Hermannsburg Missions are carried on in the spirit of their saintly founder. They are of special interest to us, because their field of labor in India is one of the four fields of our Lutheran Church in the land of the Telugus. They are trusty neighbors and friends, full of burning zeal and sanctified energy. (See item of March 7. Also comments in the REVIEW for

March, page 13.)

MAY 6, 1898. The Local Church Extension Society for the city of Brooklyn has set the good example to the other cities of our land of building a new church every year since its organization. And there is enough ungathered Lutheran material left to keep up this creditable record for fifty years to come.

MAY 7, 1887.-Two great organizers loom up conspicuously in the history of the Lutheran Church in the United States, towering head and shoulders above all others. These are Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, and Walther of Missouri. In his own inner spiritual life Walther notably resembled the early struggles and development of Luther. During his schooldays and at the university his soul was encompassed by the darkness of Rationalism, as Luther's had been by the might of Popery. When he entered the university he heard not a word of Gospel truth uttered by a believing teacher. In the university he found his Staupitz in a candidate of theology of riper years, who gathered about him a number of younger students for spiritual exercises of a rather pietistic type. These did not satisfy his profound heart-hunger, and finally young Walther found himself at the verge of hopeless despair, with its bitter anguish. Then it was that he also found a spiritual Frau Cotta, at whose house he was a frequent guest, and the comforting words of this devout matron first led him to find the peace that passeth understanding in the free, saving grace of God in Christ Jesus and His atonement. (For this and the two following items see articles in Lutheran Cyclopedia.)

MAY 9, 1760.-Count Zinzendorf, a descend ant of Austrian nobility, born at Dresden in

1700, was a religious genius, richly endowed with gifts of head and heart. Speuer was one of his sponsors in baptism, and a glowing pietistic ardor came to be the master passion of his soul. When a little band of Moravian exiles, who had survived the frightful ravages of the Thirty Years' War, took refuge on his estate in 1722, he organized them into the "Unitas Fratrum," and the place received the name of Herrnhut. In thus becoming the founder of the modern Moravian Church, it was not his purpose to separate from the Lutheran Church and organize a distinct new denomination. Hence he continued to protest his unswerving loyalty to the Augsburg Confession and Luther's Catechism, but his controlling aim was to gather into one fold all true lovers of the Lord Jesus, of whatever denomination, though each congregation should retain its own Confession of Faith. The plan was thus a universal fellowship of Christian love. Zinzendorf came to Pennsylvania, and with Bethlehem and Germantown as centers, he occupied himself far and wide with his darling scheme of bringing the various denominations into his Moravian Union. But an abstract general ideal is one thing, whilst the settlement of specific concrete details is quite another. All sorts of dissensions and distractions ensued, causing no end of trouble.

Zinzendorf served for a time as pastor of the Lutheran Church in Philadelphia, and even assumed the titie and functions of Inspector-General of all Lutheran churches in America. Very serious disorders were thus brought about, especially as the congregations were to so large an extent unorganized and destitute of Lutheran pastors. Indeed, amid this lamentable condition of things, the feeble American Lutheran Church would have been strangled in its infancy in the meshes of fanaticism had it not been for the timely arrival of Muhlenberg and his colaborers.

MAY 9, 1854.. Neuendettelsau was an obscure German village, near Nuremberg, without any significance whatever until Loehe began his wonderful activity there, and now it is a blessing to three continents. Though its mother-house is not the first institution of its kind, it is altogether an original creation, upon a decidedly Lutheran basis. Loehe rejoiced in having proved by this institution that the orthodox Lutheran Church is possessed of quite as much vital force as other churches. Clustered around the Mother-house, as the centre and soul of the group, are the Home for Idiots, the Magdalenium, the Hospital for Men, the Hospital for Women, the Eventide Retreat for Sick and Aged Sisters, the beautiful memorial church, the Brother-house, the Inn for Visiting Guests, the Industrial School for Girls. (See comment in the January REVIEW, page 17.)

MAY 9, 1902.-To-day marks the first anniversary of the founding of the first federated Inner Mission Society in America. This took place in old historic Philadelphia, the cradle of the venerable Mother Synod. The center of Inner Mission activities must always be the individual congregation exerting itself in its own immediate neighborhood, and the federated association serves only for counsel, direction and incentive. Nowhere on earth does any Christian congregation exist which could not find abundant scope for a practical, hand-to-hand, everyday ministry of love among the sick, the aged, the poor, the little children, the friendless, the forsaken, the erring. No church can discharge its obligations to God and to the community without the constant exercise of the Inner Mis

sion spirit. What is your own congregation doing in this respect? How much of a factor are you yourself?

MAY 11, 1884.-Any Lutheran whom God has blessed with wealth, and who desires to gratefully devote part of it to His glory, ought to carefully ponder what would be the immense value for all future time of a commodious central Lutheran Building in New York, in Philadelphia, in Chicago, in every metropolis_teeming with Germans and Scandinavians, who are rapidly Americanizing. This would be the headquarters of all the general activities of our Church in that city and that whole section of the country; for the book rooms and publication interests; for the secretaries' offices of the various boards and missionary societies; for the weekly meetings of Sunday-school teachers, and convention committees, and Luther League executives; for strangers in the city seeking a bureau of information; for the Superintendent of Inner Missions and philanthropic movements, with his assistants, lay readers, etc.

MAY 13, 1875.-Kimberley owes its existence to the excitement of discovering the "Star of South Africa," a very large, dazzling diamond, in 1869. Within eight years after the finding of this bonanza the population numbered 45,000, of whom 30,000 were blacks. Among these adventurous diamond diggers were men who had lived in stations of the Berlin Missions in Cape Colony. Missionary C. Meyer, of Peniel Station, on the Vaal, followed them up and gathered them around him. There now is a considerable Lutheran church at Kimberley, although the population is forever shifting like a kaleidoscope.

MAY 14, 1850.-The atmosphere of Breslau is favorable for the development of a powerful Lutheran mother-house, since this was the section of Germany whence proceeded the open resistance of the unionistic edict of King Frederick William III., which constituted the State Church of Prussia. Convictions which find as fearless expression as this make a spiritual_climate in which vigorous churchly institutions thrive.

a

MAY 14, 1902.-When all the Lutherans in America, the 900,000 who speak German, the 210,000 who speak Norwegian, the 115,000 who speak Swedish, the 20,000 who speak Danish, the 5,000 who speak Finnish, and the 3,500 who speak Icelandic, shall have learned to speak English as our national language, what mighty factor our grand old Mother Church of Protestantism will be in this expanding republic! The transition is rapidly going on, and will be still more rapid in the next generation. Meanwhile the English Home Mission Boards and the Church Extension societies have a stupendous task on their hands.

MAY 17, 1804.--There are now 175 deaconesses in forty-three Lutheran Magdaleniums, devoting their lives to the reclaiming of fallen women--loathsome wretches, sunk to the lowest depth of human degradation. immeasurably below the level of brute beasts. Whilst this is unquestionably the most difficult and discouraging phase of rescue work, yet even in this sphere the saving grace of the Lord Jesus is ofttimes marvelously manifest. Is any other spirit truly Christian than the spirit which is willing-yea, eager, to seek and to save that which is lost "? MAY 19, 1853.-A semi-centennial which surely ought not be allowed to pass by unnoticed. Precisely fifty years ago the first Lutheran Church Extension Society in the United States was organized. This vital cause is the very nerve-centre of the whole body, and if we

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had a million dollars in the fund every cent of it could find profitable investment, insuring large and ever increasing returns. Whatever else you may remember or forget, be sure to name the Church Extension Society in your will.

MAY 20, 1895.-The National Lutheran Home for the Aged at Washington is justly regarded with pride as a model of its kind. Beautiful for its situation, proverbial for its good management, it well repays a visit of Lutheran tourists to the nation's capital. The last remnant of its debt is now paid.

MAY 21, 1854.-See the March issue of the REVIEW, page 11, second column.

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MAY 22, 1877.-The Norwegian F. M. Society invaded Madagascar from Zululand in 1867. They "occupied the capital, Tananarivo, in 1870, because many of their adherents in Betsileo province were required by law to work there. The superintendent of the great work of the Norwegians on the island is located in the capital of the country, an island embracing 228,000 square miles, with a population of three and one-half millions, which now is a colonial possession of France. A theological seminary for the training of native pastors was opened on May 22, 1877. The students are being well prepared for their work according to the sound educational principles of our Church. They all study diligently the Augsburg Confession in their native Madagascar tongue. native Lutheran pastors-more than seventy today are esteemed by other missionaries as very efficient and steadfast men. The first principal of the seminary, Pastor L. Dahle, was one of the revisers of the Madagascar Bible, a work which occupied the committee for fifteen years.

The

MAY 26, 1707.-Inasmuch as Ziegenbalg and Pluetschau had just baptized their first catechumens in Tranquebar three weeks before this date, it is hardly likely that these would be appointed as catechists so soon. Not even in his report of 1712 does Ziegenbalg yet speak of catechists, though he did say in 1711 that he was then educating several Tamil youths for school teachers, who might some day be able to serve as catechists, adding very confidently, "I am sure that after we can once employ natives as catechists, trained by ourselves, our work will grow more rapidly." A theological and pedagogical seminary was opened October 23, 1716. with eight students. The first missionaries had indeed employed some of their servants as occasional catechists, but found them unreliable until thoroughly trained.

MAY 29, 1871.-The organ of the Lutheran Central Association of Jewish Missions is "Saat auf Hoffnung ("Sown in Hope"), for many years edited by the famous Prof. Franz Delitzsch, who also translated the New Testament into Hebrew for the benefit of the Jews. In some universities of Germany so-called Students' Jewish Institutes are established, in which students have an opportunity of making themselves better acquainted with Judaism, its literature, and the mission work among the Jews. first "Jewish Institute" was the Callenberg Institute at Halle, which from 1728-1792_ produced a long series of missionaries. (See January 12, with comment in the January REVIEW.)

The

JUNE 2, 1894.-Twenty-nine years ago there sailed from these shores a young bridal couplenot, however, like the most of such couples, bound for a lingering honeymoon among the English lakes and along the Paris boulevards and under the blue skies of sunny Italy. Beyond the seas lay for them, not the art and history of Christian Europe, but the darkness and degradation of heathen Africa, to answer whose

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Macedonian cry they were turning their backs on all that was nearest and dearest to them. And yet she was a happy bride-happy amid such forewells-happy in the face of such prospects happy, though she had just been told by a returned missionary, at a farewell meeting: "Remember, my sister, no woman missionary has ever returned from Muhlenberg! In spite of it all, she was happy, for she had given her heart and her future to David A. Day, knowing that that meant Africa for them both-and that was possible to her only because, like the Macedonians, she had first given herself to the Lord and His work. And her heroism in that departure and her calmness and cheer amid all the pain and difficulty of it were marked characteristics of her noble life during all the years that followed. Nothing deterred her, nothing daunted her, and even though it was pointed out to her that the climate was deadly, this regal soul never wavered, but trusting to the leading of her Master went on, and for twenty-one long years, by the side of her noble husband, poured out the energies of her life into the work which had been committed to her hands, transforming, as it were, the wilderness of the mission life into a garden of beauty and roses.-Frederick T. Huber, in the REVIEW for September, 1895.

JUNE 5, 755.-The roots of German Christianity run back to the beginning of the eighth century. At that time a movement proceeded from England and Ireland for the conversion of the still heathen people of Europe, who were practising horrible orgies as religious rites. Among the noble missionary volunteers were Siegfried, who consented to go to Sweden, and Winfried (afterwards St. Boniface) to go to Saxony and Hesse. Everywhere he baptized multitudes, and consecrated their idolatrous groves as Christian churches. Hence he was named Archbishop and Primate of All Germany, with power to establish bishoprics wherever he saw fit. In his old age this venerable hero was fallen upon by an armed mob of savage heathens and died the noble death of a martyr.

JUNE 5, 1860.-On account of lack of space the splendid work of the Swedes in America cannot be set forth in this issue, but it will be the subject of a special article in the "Topics " of the July number.

JUNE 6, 1895.-How strange that among epileptics, with their clouded intellects, the religious faculty is often the one thing left! They know their hymns and their Bible verses when all else is gone. And this is cultivated. It seems as if the deteriorating effects of their terrible malady trouble the mind rather than the soul. The affections, for instance, are left when thought and reflection are almost gone. Gratitude is left. They do know when you are kind to them. The spiritual faculty is left, enough at least to be cultivated. The cozy little chapel in the Passavant Home for Epileptics at Rochester, Pa., is the focus of the institution's life. It is the only home of the kind in Pennsylvania, if not in all the United States.

Catalogue of Church Fittings

A new catalogue of church fittings has recently been issued by the Gorham Mfg. Company, Broadway and Nineteenth street, New York. whose advertisement will be found on page 6 of this issue. This firm are now carrying a large line of lecturns, crosses, candlesticks, church silver and other church goods of the finer grade. You will find it advantageous to send for this catalogue, which is mailed free on application.