# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1934 masthead not in scan _S105
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

105

lies. It is also possible that the schools and colleges neglect the necessary moral education, so that the boys are not brought up to be good citizens. If more were done in this respect and other things were set aside, it would be very advantageous to our country." The paper from which we take this report then quotes a saying of the former Judge Cavanaugh, who once said: "Wherever the churches are full, the penal institutions are empty." The paper thus puts the blame on the churches, and not without reason. To prove this, it reports the following: At an American college the students were also questioned about the Bible. Since so many knew very little about the Holy Scriptures, they were assigned in class the task of explaining this ignorance in a short essay. One student then wrote: "After I have tormented myself for ten minutes trying to recall even a single name of a biblical book, the book 'Proverbs' occurs to me. I heard this name from my parents when I was still a child. But I do not yet quite know whether this really is a book of the Bible. Please do not take me for a heathen, for I go to church almost every Sunday and very often to Sunday school. But in our Sunday school they no longer talk about the Bible, but only about things like the World War, the splendid ball playing of the Red Sox, etc." There is hardly any doubt about the correctness of this statement. In many American churches unbelief has become so dominant that God's Word has almost vanished from them. But how do things stand with us? Thank God! we still have God's Word in all its purity; but do we use it as we should? Do we let the word of Christ dwell among us richly in all wisdom? Let us examine ourselves honestly before God's face. And let us not forget in this what an important role our parochial schools play in this work of education. The increase of crime in this country is simply appalling. To what degree are we also to blame for it? That is a serious question, about which we should reflect.
J. T. M.

The Last Words of Dying Christians. The "Apologete" brings, under the heading "The Look into the Beyond," a whole series of last words of the dying. Of the Jewish Rabbi Jochanan ben Sakkai, who because of his wisdom and "piety" was called the "Light of Israel" — he was the president of the Jewish High Council at the time when Jerusalem was destroyed —, it is reported that on his deathbed he fell into great fear and cried out: "Two ways lie before me, one to Paradise, the other to hell. I do not know which of them will be my way, whether it will go with me into Paradise or into hell; should I not burst into tears?" Another Jewish scholar, Rabbi Jehuda, whom they called the "Holy One," raised his ten fingers to heaven in the hour of death and cried that not one of his fingers had ever broken a law. Despair and self-righteousness! So the unbeliever goes to his own place in his hour of death. Quite differently, however, Christians speak when it comes to dying. The English martyr John Bradford, who died in 1555, said to another martyr who stood beside him: "Be of good cheer, my brother; tonight we shall with joy hold the Lord's Supper with the LORD." The English writer Joseph Addison, who died in 1719, died with the words "See in what peace a Christian can die!" The English hymn writer Charles Wesley, who died in 1788, departed with the words "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness," and Maria Bucher, who ended her life a few years ago, said shortly before her death: "My faith is not a question mark, but it is an exclamation mark." By this she meant to say: "I do not doubt my salvation, but only marvel at the great grace that has prepared such a salvation for me." Yes, blessed is everyone who can depart from this vale of tears in faith in Christ. And the true certainty of our salvation comes to us precisely in the holy Passion season, as we place the passion story of our Savior before our eyes. "The punishment is upon him, that we might have peace, and with his wounds we are healed," Isa. 53:5.
J. T. M.

Foreign Countries.

The Growing Hatred of the Jews. In our daily papers a great fuss is made about the alleged persecution of the Jews in Germany. Yet formal persecutions of the Jews are also setting in in other countries. Thus the Jewish Missionary Magazine reports on the persecution of the Jews in the whole world. According to it, in Poland, the "hotbed of Jew-hatred," many Jews are literally close to starvation. In Latvia Jewish students are prevented from attending vocational schools. In Belgium, posters demanding a boycott of Jewish businesses have been pasted up in Antwerp. Rumania, according to the said paper, is "half barbarous in its treatment of the Jews." In Greece the population shows the Jews very clearly that they no longer want them there. Even in Tunis, Africa, attacks on Jews have occurred. In Argentina, too, there is a strong movement against the Jews. In China, Chinese robbers recently extorted large sums of money from the Jews by threatening them that, if they did not pay, they would arouse the hatred of the White Russians against them. In Toronto, Canada, a new anti-Jewish newspaper is appearing. This paper points to the words of the Psalm: "Let us root them out, that they be no people, that the name of Israel be remembered no more," Ps. 85:5. In Palestine the Arabs there are having Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" sent to them, together with other writings against the Jews, in order to fight them all the better. Who would not think here of the words of curse which the Jews themselves called down upon themselves: "His blood be on us, and on our children!"? Matt. 27:25.
J. T. M.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon. This year the English Baptists will hold a special memorial celebration to honor the greatest Baptist pulpit orator of England, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who was born a hundred years ago, on June 19, 1834. When he died in the year 1892, his congregation numbered well over five thousand members; in all, 15,691 souls had been won through his testimony. In addition, he was the founder of 22 mission stations, 27 Sunday schools with 312 teachers and 8,034 pupils, a college in which pastors and missionaries were trained, and a number of orphanages. In the year 1854, not yet twenty years old, he was called to London, where he labored for forty years. Ever greater crowds pressed to his sermons, so that finally in the year 1861 a building had to be erected that could hold six thousand persons. As long as Spurgeon labored here, the hall was always packed full, indeed he often asked the regular hearers to skip a Sunday so that strangers could find room. And in what did his power of attraction consist? People have pointed to his wonderful gift of oratory, to his fine voice, to his earnestness and his devotion to his calling; but what probably drew the crowds again and again was the preaching of the grace of God in Christ JESUS. To be sure, Spurgeon did not know the Word of God purely and clearly. He was a Baptist and as such a despiser of the sacraments; otherwise too he confessed, especially in his great sermon on Luther and the Lutheran