organization of a State League and showed in many ways the need of such and its useful

ness.

At the close of the address Mr. Bardo read the names of the extension committee and a few closing remarks were made by pastors and delegates. With the singing of the Luther

League Rally Hymn and prayer the convention closed.

It was a great pleasure to have the General Secretary of the Luther League of America, Rev. Luther M. Kuhns, present at all the sessions and to be permitted to listen to his excellent addresses.

SOM

OMEONE has quaintly said, "The value of a hitching post is in the fact that you can find it precisely where you leave it." It is a good thing for young men to have a "hitching post," tying to principles that will not change, rather than to impulse as fickle as a wave of the sea. Seated in a railway car en route to an engagement a successful, hard headed business man was commenting on the need for young men to have as their capital a few fundamental principles to which they I could hold to in their lives. These he counted a possession that was gilt edged. It was refreshing, invigorating conversation.

The General Secretary spent several weeks in the office of THE LUTHER LEAGUE REVIEW. It was an interesting place. Wonder how many could imagine the amount of work done there for the Luther League by the men connected with the paper. How many little details have to be cared for! How many of other people's mistakes must be rectified if possible! Then the large amount of cheap advice, and the catalogue of the wise who could out Solomon Solomon. It is interesting, and the rest of us should appreciate what is being done for us by THE REVIEW and the men in charge at the busy New York office. What was the General Secretary doing there? Playing? Not a bit of it. It was work from 8 o'clock in the morning until midnight every night, and still people ask: "How is the Luther League? Is it growing?" Well, it is not dying; no obituary notices yet.

The Indiana convention at Camden, Rev. Morgu L. Webb, pastor, in point of delegates was the largest and in point of interest the best in the history of that State League. The delegates and visitors were delighted with their host. A new constitution for the State League based on the Model Constitution was adopted. "The Sons of Issachar," by Rev. F. W. E,

Perchau, D. D., Miamisburg, Ohio, was admirable and enjoyed by an audience testing the capacity of the church.

Three days were spent in Detroit. Intitial steps were taken toward organizing the Michigan State Luther League. On Sunday afternoon there was a Lutheran mass meeting. On Monday evening and Tuesday morning there was a preliminary convention. Committees were appointed, and measures taken contemplating the organization of a State Luther League. These meetings were most encouraging.

The seventeenth annual convention of the Luther League of Ohio-the largest we can remember in ten years-was held in Findlay, Rev. J. O. Simon, pastor. Delegates and visitors were handsomely entertained. The convention sermon by Dr. L. S. Keyser, Springfield, Ohio, pitched the keynote of this convention very high, and it is commendable it was sustained throughout. The redistricting of the State has proven beneficial. It was an aggressive body of young people. Enterprise was written large. The program was unusually strong and must have proven helpful.

A day in passing was spent in Toledo, where we had the opportunity of seeing the fine new church of which Rev. William Brenner is pastor. Besides this a number of other points were visited as locals. At this writing the General Secretary is preparing to start for five other State Luther League conventions.

The National Convention in Albany deserves your attention. Albany is the splendid capital of a great State. There are found footprints of historic Lutheranism in America. It has large commercial interests worth seeing. The National Convention at Albany will be worth going far to attend. Keep your eyes on Albany. LUTHER M. KUHNS.

THE

HE thirteenth annual convention of the Luther League of Minnesota was held in Albert Lea, June 26 and 27. The theme of the convention was "Work for Christ."

Rev. G. H. Schnur, of St. Paul, conducted the devotional service of opening session. Dr. A. J. D. Haupt, local pastor, greeted the delegates. He said that it was possible for him to look back to the beginning of the State League when it was organized in St. John Church, Minneapolis, and hoped that the day would soon come when every young people's

becoming more and more critical, and it is hard to adjust a due proportion of seriousness and amusement, of the Puritanical and the Cavalier.

The number of doubtful amusements and of places of amusement offered by the outside world is constantly growing. But before they are considered it seems that there is a fault rooted deep in the homes. The habit of family prayers, of grace at meals and of religious conversations in the home seems to be waning, and along with it the strict observance of Sunday has fallen away, and also many parents have ceased to read the Bible with their children, or to set them the example of a truly religious life. If the parents do not teach their children the elements of Christian history, can we suppose that they teach them to pray? The literature of the times is of a questionable character, but a far greater and more evil influence is held by the moving-picture and vaudeville shows. The story writer may try his best

organization in the State would be united in one Luther League.

Otto Johnson, of St. Paul, president of State League, responded.

The president appointed a committee on credentials.

President Johnson presented a detailed report of his work and the progress of the State organization during the year, which was referred to a committee of three.

The statistical secretary reported one district League and sixteen local Leagues, with a membership of 549. Offerings for local purposes, $473.47, and for benevolence, $150.

The first paper on the program was a diagnosis on the "Spirit of the Times," by Miss Genevieve Stott. The writer said in part:

There is no more serious problem before the Church bodies today than how to assert and maintain influence over the young people. No class seems to need spiritual guidance more, for they are ardent, easily impressed and liable to fall into a state of moral delinquency. The leading spirit today is a desire for pleasure. The question of amusement is

to describe and explain, but he can never make the impression that the actual picture will make. The playhouse is also considered here. The majority of modern plays seem to make light of home life and cast disparagement on the sacraments of our Church. The list of other attractions is longthe bowling alleys, billiard and pool rooms, and the public dance halls all attract large numbers. The athletic attractions are not objectionable, but they must not be carried to excess or engaged in at the wrong time. The Church, as many seem to think, does not object to simple pleasures-far from banishing all pleasure, it welcomes and organizes it. Let us live one existence at a time-in the world. need not mean of the world.

This was followed by a paper on "How to Regulate or Counteract it-the Remedy," by Miss Malinda Skoglund. She said:

The world was going pleasure mad and was drawing the youth with it. This could be remedied by proper home training and by proper legislation for Sunday observance. Young people want amusement and we must give them the right kind. It is a good plan to have Luther League rooms fitted for the use of the young people.

An interesting discussion, led by Rev. L. F. Gruber, followed the presentation of these papers. Committees on nomination and resolutions were appointed and convention was closed with a hymn.

Second Session The evening vesper service was in charge of Rev. Beates, of St. Paul. Rev. W. F. Bacher was the first speaker. His subject

was "Some Tendencies of Modern Education." He said in part:

Tendencies of modern education are not agreeable to us as Christians. Public school education not as satisfactory as it should be. Word of God is forbidden in our schools. Education should include the training of the intellect and the building of character. Anyone may teach as far as religion is concerned and some express their beliefs and implant them in the young. In high schools they teach Bible as only a collection of good literature and not inspired.

After the rendering of an anthem by the local choir Rev. C. J. Rockey, of Minneapolis, delivered an address on "The Luther League as an Educational and Spiritual Factor in Our Church."

He characterized the modern educational tendencies as "the most insidious, destructive agencies begotten by the adversary for the destruction of the Kingdom of God. They are so because they beget and increase unbelief, and unbelief is the crowning sin and all-enveloping destroyer." To offset and counteract the influence of these tendencies the speaker emphasized first the need of a positive Christianity, and gave the Luther League Topics a hearty recommendation. This positive Christianity should then be known by the Luther Leaguers that they might be intelligent Christians. He said in part:

1.

In the first place, the Luther League shall teach a positive Christianity. This it always has done and we pray that it always will. The Luther League of America uses a set of topics which are edited from year to year dealing with the various doctrinal, practical and historical departments of the Church's activity, also with the festivals of the Church year and with the missionary operations of the Church. These topics are edited by men within the Lutheran Church and up to the present time the Lutheran Church in America has not been infected with any of the negative tendencies of modern education or modern scientific research. These topics are not colorless, indefinite, dealing with generalities and pious platitudes that are unavailing before the positive assaults of skeptics. These topics do not teach anything not found in Scripture or contrary to it. No one reads in this set of topics that man descended from, a monkey instead of being created as he now is. No man reads in these topics that the Books of the Old Testament are not true or that a man may believe as much or as little of them as he pleases. No man reads in these topics that the Scriptures are only so much literature and halt of them not fit to read even then. No man reads in these topics that man wrote the Ten Commandments from his own growing sense of right and that God had nothing to do with it at all. No man ever reads in these topics that one can learn as much from a heathen philosopher as he can from Christ. No man has ever yet read in these topics that man is the real God of the universe and that all the salvation he needs or will ever get is what he can lay his lands upon here and now. There is no weakness in the orthodoxy of the topics. They teach a positive Christianity.

2. But how then shall the Luther League become or be an educational factor to offset the teachings of the modern educational tendencies? She has the topics for a cure. But a cure is never really a cure until it is taken into the body and effects a cure. A man

may be ill. IIe may know precisely what medicine is needed to cure the sickness. He may know also that in the corner drugstore he can get precisely the medicine needed. But as long as that medicine is in the store instead of in the man's body it effects no cure. And until the medicine supplied by the topics of the Luther League, and by its reading courses, get into the head of the Luther Leaguer there is nothing in him yet to withstand the onslaughts of the modern educational tendencies. The topics and literature and reading courses teach a positive Christianity, but it must be known by the Luther Leaguer in order that it may become and be an intelligent Christianity. The necessity of being well posted in a positive Christianity is the second factor in counteracting the influence of the modern tendencies in secular education. Because if a man does not know the weaknesses in the facts presented in some of our schools at the present day he is at the mercy of everyone who had some new heresy to set forth.

So it is apparent that the Luther League shall be a training school. Luther Leaguers shall read their Church papers to strengthen their faith and broaden their vision. There is no reason that the Lutheran Church in these days shall rear a g-neration who, in the words of the farmer, are unable "to see across the fence of their own churchyard." And Luther Leaguers shall read solid matter for their own enlightenment. In these strenuous days many of us do not read at all; if we read we read current fiction, which is the flimsiest of nonsensical stuff. The average Christian is not intelligent enough in his Chris tianity; and he is so, not because he needs to be, but because he will not be otherwise. Too much of our religious knowledge is knowledge gained incidentally rather than intentionally.

In a discourse of such short scope as this it is impossible to show the fallacies in all the various things that some of our schools and universities teach contrary to the Christian religion. But though it is impossible to show the weaknesses in the theories advanced it might be well to say a few words concerning the attitude against the Bible so prevalent in America now. Let us look at the teachings and the facts.

The Bible tells the modern educator that God created the heavens and the earth. He laughs at it. But the wisest philosophers the earth ever contained have never told us, neither is he able to tell us, where this earth came from. The Bible tells us that on successive days God divided land from sea, created trees, reptiles of sea and land, land animals, the stars of the heavens, sun and moon and made them to give light. and to separate seasons and act as divisions of time. He denies these statements, but neither he nor any other man with all the wisdom they have ever possessed, have ever been able to tell us where these things came from, how the stars and planets revolve so regularly and unceasingly through space in such unvarying order, why the earth should incline on its axis as it revolves in its orbit, giving us spring and summer, autumn and winter; what nas caused it to turn on its axis, giving us days and nights with regularity. The Good Book tells us that God created man in His own image. This he scorns as the climax of foolishness; but with all the scientific investigation that he or any other man has made, his mind, hiş thinking, his longings, his determinations, the secret of his personality, these things summed up in himself the man, yet remain the greatest, the most perplexing problem that has ever engaged these thoughts that are so great a problem in themselves. He scoffs and scorns the story that man and woman fell into sin, bringing misery upon the race; but he is totally unable to explain the misery of the world, man's selfishness, hatred and sinfulness with all the attendant and consequent phases of sinful activity when he denies that man is by nature sinful or that it all had its origin in the Garden of Eden. He laughs at the story of Jonah, not thinking that every miracle in Scripture is either creative or redemptive, that this as a miraclę with a purpose of saving Assyria was reasonable, and that that fact that the Assyrians had a fish-god named Dagon made it a most expedient thing that Jonah should have some such experience in order to have a better ground of appeal to the Assyrians. He denies that Christ was divine, maintaining that He was simply a human teacher of more than ordinary ability; but he is unable to explain the wondrous growth and working of the Christian Church for 1900 years if he says that it is the product of a Galillean peasant in

stead of an incarnate God. He repudiates the Bible because he cannot understand how many of its teachings are possible; but he does not deny the pussibility of many things taught in text-books of medicine or astronomy, in steam or electric appliances, even though he is as little able to understand them as he is to understand how God could create a world out of nothing, how Jesus Christ could be man and God at the same time, or how Christ could atone for the sins of the world.

The

And he condemns the Book in which these things are written; but he cannot explain the miracle of its preservation. It has been saved through nineteen centuries against incalculable difficulties. It has been burned and destroyed; it has been condemned by Emperors who decreed that the person in whose house a Bible would be found would have to die; and yet the good old Book is here today, printed and more widely circulated than any other book in Christendom. old books on mathematics, astronomy, medicine, philosophy and history, written by some of the wisest men of the earth, have been protected and housed and cared for to be sure to preserve their contents; but with all the care exercised for their preservation they have passed away. The great libraries of Athens and Alexandria perished and their precious contents are lost. This Book has been condemned and persecuted, hunt d and destroyed with fiendish zeal, but despite all the persecution and destruction it is here complete today, working with as great a power as it ever had before. If it is such an unreasonable, unnatural, unscientific piece of tradition as the modern educator tells us it is, why is it that this Book has been preserved through such unfavorable conditions and circumstances when man's greatest recorded wisdom was lost despite all the care expended upon it? If this Book is such an outworn, antique, fossilized old thing as we are made to believe by the modern educator. why is it so true to human nature at the present day and why does it possess such solace for the soul? If it is full of misrepresentations, and fairy tales, and untruths, and idle traditions, and fabrications of the imagination, why is it so true to history as it has proven itself to be? If it is such a filthy, defiling volume, unfit to read as the refined gentlemen of the present day tell us it is, how shall we account for the fact that it has always producd and yet produces the highest ideals and the highest types of character that this world has ever seen?

After the evening services a reception was given to the delegates and visitors at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Haupt. An excellent program was rendered and refreshments were served.

Third Session

The third session of the convention began on Thursday morning at 9 o'clock with devotional services conducted by Rev. Deck, ɔf Minneapolis.

The first paper, on "Practical Hints for Effective League Work," was read by Miss Gertrude Wohlers.

Some of the hints she gave are as follows: The attendance of the pastor at all business and devotional meetings should be secured, as he needs the League and the League needs him.

The League should make due recognition of new members when received.

Pay particular attention to indifferent members and also to people who do not attend any church.

Work should be done in the heart, the home, the church, and after these the great outside.

League meetings should begin promptly. Encourage questions, they are marks of interest. Have Luther League bulletin board and keep notices of Luther League events posted on it.

Have no formality, no stiffness, no reserve and no neglected ones at social meetings.

Two dangers which lie in the path of the League business meetings are that if it degenerates into a listless performance, without life or interest, it will decrease the attendance, and that the interest in the

various plans and enterprises of the League will be so intense that feelings of rivalry may creep in and cause discord instead of harmony.

A lively discussion followed, led by Rev. Schnur.

A paper on "The Leaguer's Work Outside the League" was read by Miss Bertha John

son.

She said in part:

Few of us are called upon to become missionaries, pastors or deaconesses, but the silent and more reserved worker often gains as great results.

An unexpected word or smile often does the work and draws a friend closer to Christ and the Church. Can you sing? Then do not sulk because you cannot play also, but use your voice to the glory of God. If you cannot sing, perhaps you can play to the same

service.

If you cannot sing or play you can, no doubt, read well. A good reader is a comfort in the home for the aged, the sick or the blind.

Let us not keep our love and tenderness sealed up until our friends are gone, but let us fill their lives with love and happiness while they are with us

Dr. Lander, of Lindstrom, led the discussion on this topic.

Miss Arline Pieper read a paper on "Why I Am a Luther Leaguer."

Miss Pieper gave five reasons for being a Luther Leaguer.

First, because Luther League is a Christian organization; second, it is a society for young people; third, it encourages good fellowship; fourth, it develops unused talents, and fifth, it trains good church members.

Frederick Stott conducted the discussion and the session closed with prayer and the Benediction.

Fourth Session

Rev. Whitman, of Red Wing, conducted the opening service.

Reports of committees were heard and business transacted.

The nominating committee's report was made by Rev. Schnur.

The officers elected were as follows: President, Otto Johnson, St. Paul; recording secretary, Miss Edith Chaleen, Minneapolis; corresponding secretary, Miss Arline Pieper, St. Paul; statistical secretary, Miss Edith Haupt, Albert Lea; treasurer, Herman Turner, St. Peter.

Rev. A. J. D. Haupt then gave a very interesting and instructive chart talk on inner missions. Rev. Deck conducted the question box. At the close of the afternoon session a launch ride was given the delegates.

Fifth Session

Rev. Gruber, of Minneapolis, conducted the evening vesper service.

The first address of the evening was given (Continued on page 25.)

THREE

HREE powerful forces are working in regard to the nature of man. These are: Will power, intellectual power, and social power. My topic is, How to make Luther League Work Profitable, Intellectually.

I hope I will be more successful in making this clear to you than a certain minister was with his sermon. One beautiful Sunday morning, in his sermon, he was showing that shade and light are both necessary in different conditions. He said, "Roses, heliotropes and geraniums need lots of sunshine, while fuchsias thrive best in the shade."

"Oh, Doctor," said a good woman at the close, "I am so grateful to you for your sermon this morning. I never knew before what was the matter with my fuchsias."

Now, in other words, how can we bring our young people to a better understanding of their religious duty? By drawing to their minds what has been done in the past. We all learn by past experiences. Now, let us look back and see what the Church has done: The abolition of slavery. The value put on childhood. The education of the masses. The evolution of republics.

The movement against intoxicating drinks. The organization of missionary societies. The organization of Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations. The rise of young people's societies.

past, how much greater work we can do, for all the time we are studying intelligently how. we can be a help to our Church.

Of course, we must love our Church; we should love all churches, for do we not all have the same end in view? For did not Christ say, "All those who are not against us, are for us?"

The noble, the beautiful, appeals to the eye of the youth; show him Jesus as the mos beautiful of the children of men and he will love Him. Show him some trends of beauty of the Church and he will love her.

Has our Lutheran Church any trends of beauty? She would be poor if she had not. The present problems should be brought into attention. The finding of leaders to conduct the meetings will probably confront some Leagues. It is not necessary to have a large number of leaders or that every member should be asked to lead. The main thing is that the leader is capable of his task. He should prepare himself thoroughly beforehand. be able to handle the topic quite easily. He should know what he is talking about. If a League consisting of thirty members has a number of five or six among them able and willing to lead, it can consider itself fortunate, especially if the members have only a common school education; even high school graduates do not always find pleasure in leading. The selection of text books is of great

The establishment of hospitals and asylums for sick and dependent people by the State. The use of co-operative institutions in business trade unions.

Luther League to introduce the Luther League Topics into the meetings.

We have so much to do and we can be thankful that we have the privilege of working for the Master-the most important part

war.

Sunday School, Bible Study classes.

The printing press.

Reform associations to produce a cleaner dramatic life.

The gathering of the people in mass conventions to discuss great questions of common interests.

We Leaguers are the Church of the future, we are a part of it now. If all this great work has been accomplished by the Church in the

missionaries of tomorrow come.

In 1904 during the Presidential election an official of our United States lay sick in his cabin on a far-away island. He was very anxious to hear of the election; it meant all to him. The minute Roosevelt was elected a message was sent across our continent and from one island to another, practically around the world. Received on this island, carried to the sick man's bed, and he read: "Theodore (Continued on page 28.