St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-09-16
LUTHERAN COUNCIL.
The Proceedings of the Body Yes
terdaY

The Lutheran council spent the whole
of yesterday in the discussion of home
missions. Eighteen of these are now
under the control of the council, and Rev.
F. J. Schantz, who has been appointed
by the council to oversee the work,
made long report of their work. Be-
sides these there are 100 Missions not in
cluded IN the reports, under the control
Of the various synOdS. An interesting
discussion took place, in which lt.WaS
urged that there should be better or
ganiZatiOn. A proposition was made
that all the missionary work now car
ried on separately by the synOdS should
be placed in charge of committee
from the council. AS this committee,
by giving direction to the combined
work of the synOds. could make it a
great deal more effective.
The report of the committee con-
tanned some interesting data concern
ing the Minneapolis churches. OF
the eleven Swedish churches, four
are Lutheran, one Methodist, and
six of various denominations. Of the
nine Norwegian churches seven are
Lutheran and two of other denOmina-
tiOnS. The Danes and Firms each have
one church, both Lutheran. The Ger
mans have four churches and seven
missions. and the Scandinavians have
three missions. There is but one En-
glish Lutheran church, which was
organized in 1888 with a membership Of
seven, which has increased to 105
at the present time. There are eight
natiOnalities represented the congrega-
ton, viz: English, German. Swedish,
Norwegian. Danish. Bohemian. Scotch
onn American SpFUIRpG
Quoted in the evening at the Augustana
church. Rev. 5. p. \. Lindahl, of Al
tOna. H., opened the meeting with
Bible reading and prayer in the Swedish
language. Then the pastor of the Au
gustana church. Rev. c. j. RetiS, intro
duced Rev. Prof. A. Spaeth, d. D., of
Philadelphia. Pa. who spoke upon the
subject of deacOnesSes. His address was
confined to the history of the dea-
cOness. The deacOneSS is woman
engaged in the church service. The
deacOneSs is mentioned several times in
the Bible. but the best known passage
which refers to her is the LIST and I'd
verses of the sixteenth chapter of
Romans. Here Phoebe is spoken of as a
deacOness of the church. 1t was Phoebe
who carried to Rome Paul's epistle to
the Romans which teaches the doctrines
of faith. He spoke of the condition of
woman in Unchristian communities,
and of the high place which she occu-
pies in Christian communities. The
church of Christ has found special
work for her to do-to love,
to nurse, to do works of
mercy, to do a great many
things where the tenderness of woman
is required. This mission of woman
was lost during the Dark Ages, and it
was not restored to the evangelical
chamber until the present century, al
though it was clearly seen at the time
of the Reformation that woman could do
good work in the church service. This
order of deacOneSSes was founded by
Rev. Fliedner. at Kaisenwerth, on the
Rhine, fifty-twO years ago. At first
work, but it quickly spread
over all Central Europe, and at
present there are 5000 women en-
gagged in this work of the church.
1t was but recently that this order was
introduced into America through the
influence of DR.. PaSSavant.O of PittSburg.
This work has been greatly assisted by
John d. Lanhaman, of the firm of
DreXel IL Co., bankers, who has given
several hundred thousand dollars to the
German hospital and Deaconess home,
Philadelphia. This new DeacOness
home is the finest in the world. There
are twenty-seven engaged in the work
at Philadelphia, not simply as nurses at
servant pay, but as servants of the
church. This work has been ex-
tended to Omaha and will
soon be carried throughout the
entire county. Rev. Z. A. Foyelstorm,
of Omaha. made an address in the
Swedish language on the necessity and
blessing of a Swedish deaconesses' work
in America. These are materialistic
times. Many believe only what they
can see, and do not believe the Bible.
If they are TO be won for the gospel it
must be by the Christian life and labor
of love of believers. Visiting ministers
will occupy local pulpits to-day.