# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1904_S53
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1904. 53

knowledge first of all; for only where God's name is hallowed can his kingdom come, his will be done, and the daily bread be recognized as a gift of God and received with thanksgiving.

Since now out of sheer grace and according to a wonderful eternal counsel the divine wisdom has in this last troubled time "enriched" our American Lutheran Church "in all doctrine and in all knowledge," so that it "comes behind in no gift," it has for that very reason in a quite special way received from the LORD the calling to the work of mission — also to the Negro Mission. We have also ample opportunity among the 9 to 10 millions of Negroes of our country, whose yoke of slavery is indeed broken, but who for the most part do not know the freedom with which Christ has set us free, to do mission work. In these Negroes God has laid the heathen, so to speak, at our door as our poor Lazarus.

Come then, let us go on confidently in the God-pleasing mission work — let us, who have been made so rich by God, bring to the poor Negroes the pure, alone saving Word of God in church and school; then the Negroes are helped temporally and eternally. Ah, that a true mission spirit might fill us also for the poor Negroes, that above all things we would pray for faithful and many laborers for this so rich mission field, and that on this great mission territory we would not let ourselves be put to shame by the activity of the church of the Antichrist, or by the zeal of the sects!

It is indeed true that Home Mission in our own country is and remains the chief task of our Lutheran Church; but for that reason other necessary missions must not be neglected. Here it holds also: do the one and not leave the other undone. Surely the more zealous we are in the work of Home Mission, the greater will be the gain for Foreign Mission precisely thereby. Precisely he who goes out into the streets and lanes of the city and brings in the lame, the poor, the maimed and the blind, precisely he is the one who says to the LORD: "It is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room," and who then with equally great joy, at the LORD's command, seeks out those who rove about on the highways and by the hedges, and compels them by the force of love to come in. Yes, and the more we bring above all our neglected fellow believers under churchly care, the more the Negro Mission too then gains praying hearts and willing hands among these and among us.

This our Negro Mission too has again been permitted to experience in the last two years. The Christians within the Synodical Conference have, namely, again proved by deed that they have not grown weary, despite the many other missions to which they have given gifts, also of supporting the Negro Mission. And God has richly blessed their gifts. Even if our Negro missionaries celebrate no such great victories as the Apostles in