Augsburg College - Augsburgian Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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♦ ♦ did not notice the wonderful beauty of nature. Years of feverish chasing after money had made him indifferent to spiritual life, lie could not have enjoyed the beauty of the day even if he had been fortunate enough to notice it. A few steps up the street he came upon a one-armed beggar seated on the curb. When the cripple saw him he withdrew his hand, which had been out- stretched to receive alms, lie would not allow this man to give him anything; this man who had been the cause of all his suffering; this man who, when he had lost his arm while at work at the mill, had refused to make any reimburse- ment and had carried the case to the higher courts, where poor men have not the means to follow. Lockwood saw the motion and passed on. The little children skulked away as he approached. Women passed him with malicious glances. Thoughtless young girls hushed their cheery laughter as he neared them. Men set their teeth and clenched their fists—in their pockets—when he passed their way. Even the respected and influential citizens merely recognized him with a formal nod. Sullen subservience and suppressed hatred met him everywhere. Slowly he mounted the steps to his palatial home. The footman at the door admitted him with a bow. He gave the maid his coat and hat and entered his private study. Here was the sanctuary of the god Wealth. I fere many great plans had been laid and many important contracts had been signed. I Ic dropped into a luxuriously upholstered chair and gave himself over to his thoughts. To- day he had been forced to meet the fact of the diminishing forests squarely. He had had premonitions of its coming for two years. Now it was a reality. The knowledge had brought him to himself as he had never been before during the fifteen years of his enterprise. The man in him was awakening to meet the slave. He had been Wealth's bondsman; he was beginning to realize his servility. He had expected to have become happy in his riches, happy and free. But where was now that happiness; where was that freedom! Lockwood raised his eyes from the floor. The afternoon was growing late. One long streaming ray of sunlight entered the room. It fell upon the rows of richly-bound books, books whose sole purpose was to fill the mahogany cases along the walls. Lockwood’s eyes moved unseeingly along the volumes until they rested upon one that caused him to start. It was an old book which he had brought with him from New England. In his youth it had been his companion, but now it had stood idle for more than fifteen years. Slowly he arose and walked over to the case. With a hand made unsteady by emotion he opened the glass doors and took the book from its shelf. As if by some innate force it fell open to a page which he had often read when he was a boy. Near the bottom of the page was an underlined verse. Instinctively his eyes sought it. His lips moved. “Where there is no vision, there people perish.” He laid the volume down. “Yes”, he said slowly, “and souls also—and souls also.” Bernhard Holland, '18. PAGE SIXTY-ONE

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♦ va ? Where There Is No Vision X the point of land formed by the Wawasso, and the Raven rivers, at the place where they join to form the larger De Raima, lies a small city. Years ago, before the octopus Greed spread his gold-seeking tentacles out over the fruitful country, a lonely trapper coming down the murky Raven had pitched his tent upon this lovely spot. It had become a trading-post for the woodsmen who dared to expose themselves to the dangers of the forests in their quest of From such small proportions it grew, in the course of half a century, into a town of several hundred hardy pioneers, who sustained themselves by cultivat- ing the few acres of tillable land round about. Very few had ever ventured more than twenty miles beyond the edge of the town. The trappers, who had ascended the Wawasso and the Raven to a distance of thirty miles, had reported an end- less tract of forest. The villagers, who had come to till the soil, did not receive these tidings with any manifestations of gladness. The forest was their enemy. It occupied the land which they coveted, and formed a formidable—tho ever- receding—barrier to their conquests. They had migrated from the East and South, where the soil had long been bearing abundant fruit. To them the tree- bedecked land seemed wasted. With wanton carelessness they destroyed the valuable timber and stretched their fields far into the woods. Such was the condition when John Lockwood came into the region. Lock- wood was from Maine, where the forests had already yielded up their wealth. He was a keen, aggressive man, whose greatest ambition lay no higher than that of the average selfish workman, but whose ability to attain that ambition was many times greater. Wealth—untold wealth, wealth acquired by any and all possible means—wealth was his aim. 1 lis shrewd eye perceived the millions lying waiting for the man who should be powerful enough to gather them. Sup- ported by bis influential friends back East, he commenced to harvest the enorm- ous crop of riches. With ruthless inattention to property rights he spread his giant hand over vast tracts of virgin forests. Soon the Wawasso and the Raven were filled with logs. The mighty De Raima kept the saws in his mills whirling. Great rafts of timber annually found their way to the greater cities by the sea. Lockwood was realizing his ambition. Meanwhile the village had grown into a small city. Industry had brought men; and men in return had brought more industry. From everywhere they flocked to this center of that potent attraction—Business. A few brought with them means enough to build homes; but by far the greater number had no material property. Financial derelicts, they had drifted, with the stream of humanity, into this whirlpool of activity. Lockwood had foreseen the necessity of supplying these men with quarters. For the single men he had built large, wealth. PAGE FIFTY-NINE

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van A Letter of Appeal from the Mission Field (Part of a personal letter from China.) K arc happy and thankful to the Lord for calling us to reap the harvest in China. We arc busy from early in the morning till late at night, but what a joy to know that we are in the Master’s service! We know that we are leading souls to Christ. People who have never heard about the one true God come to attend the meetings; they listen to the Gospel, their hearts are touched and once more their souls are brought into communion with their Creator. Oh what ought we not to be willing to give in return for the privilege of seeing people turn away from their idols to worship the true God. What ought we not be willing to sacrifice when we arc permitted to share in the joy of seeing a nation brought from centuries of gloom and darkness into the bright sunshine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.....There is something captivating in meeting the starving look of these people who so long have been in darkness and shadow of death. It makes your heart burn with desire to be of some help and comfort. “Meetings were conducted in the following way: Our evangelist read a pass- age from the Bible and then the meeting was open for personal testimonies. Ten of the catechumens arose and told how they found Christ. Their sentences were not very well formed and poorly connected, but it made me rejoice in my heart and surely there was also rejoicing in heaven, 'fell your school-mates their prayers have not been in vain. Tell others that their interest and sacrifices are resulting in precious souls being brought to the cross of Christ. It touches the heart to hear how they have to struggle against their old superstitions when turn- ing to God. They are often exposed to the ridicule and hatred of their relatives. They are not seldom cursed and persecuted by their relatives and neighbors. We foreigners do not realize fully what many here have to suffer for the sake of the Gospel. ’’The magnitude of the work here can not be fully realized at home, but the need for workers is great. 'Phis has been one of the greatest trials in the work. We plead for workers, but so few are coming. We fear that the Lord of mis- sions will take part of our field and give it to others who are willing to give men and money for the work. “Friends, are you willing to come out and help us in the work or will you want us to carry on the work alone with the feeling that our friends at home do not stand by us in the evangelization of these multitudes? “Yes, there arc disappointments and difficulties also on the mission field, and there are times when we feel like giving up in despair, still such thoughts are only temptations and we have to cling closer and closer to our Lord and Savior.” PAGE SIXTY-TWO