The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1899, Page 22

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22

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Indian Lutheran Congregation.

Our picture represents a number of the
members of an Indian Lutheran congregation
in front of the house in which they meet for
the worship of God. These people have their
home 200 miles north of Milwaukee, Wis.
They live on a little reservation four miles long
and three wide, and are a part of 100 families
that occupy it. The Rev. Nickel, pastor of
a German Lutheran church not far from the
reservation, has for some time preached to
these people the pure Gospel of Christ as
taught in the Lutheran church and has com-
forted the sick and the dying. They greatly
rejoiced to hear the Word of God and to learn
from it the way of salvation. As the pastor
can be pres-
ent only every
other Sunday,
one of the old
membersreads
a sermon from

Luther’s
Church Postil,

when the
preacher is ab-
sent.

At its recent
meeting in St.
Louis the Lu-
theran Mis-
souriSynod re-
solved to take
up the work
among these
Indians and to
send them a
pastor. May

God richly
bless the mis-
sion work
among the In-

dians.
0 0 eo

Bible Reading.

_ Ayoung lady, asked by her friend to ex-
plain what is meant by devotional reading of
the Bible, made answer as follows: ‘‘Yester-
day morning I received a letter from one to
whom I have given my heart and deyoted my
life. I freely confess to you that I have read
that letter five times, not because I did not
understand it at the first reading, nor because
LT expected to commend myself to the author
by frequent reading of his epistle. It was not
with me a question of duty, but simply one of
pleasure. I read it because I am devoted to
the one who wrote it. ‘To read the Bible with
the same motiye, is to read it devotionally,
and to one who reads it in that spirit, it is,
indeed, a love letter.’’

———. cao om

ne “Fara makes the Christian rich when he
has lost everything else.””

On Persecuting the Pious.

Bite as you will, you do me no harm.

You hate and persecute a pious soul. I do
not blame you. You are the wolf, the pious
one is the amb; can a wolf kiss alamb? The
pious one is Abel, you are Cain, you are
governed by Cain’s spirit and the spirit of-
murder; how can you love, who do not have
the spirit of love? It is to no purpose that
one seeks figs on thistles or sweetness in the
sea, or love in him who is set on fire of hell
and burns with hate and malice.

But tell me, whom do you injure? Your-
self or the pious one? You have hardly ap-
proached his body and possessions to weaken

Indian Lutheran Congregation.

him before you have wounded your own soul.
He who throws fire or rock upon himself is a
fool and harms none but himself; the righteous
is surrounded by a wall of fire and founded
upon arock. He who would extinguish a light
with his hand, makes it indeed a little dark;
but soon it shines forth brighter than before
and he only blackens his own hand.

You do not harm the pious one with your
persecutions, but simply benefit him ; his vir-
tues, humility, gentleness, patience, shine
brighter; his renown is spread, his heavenly
crown becomes more glorious. You harm
yourself, you make yourself restless, gnaw
the life out of your heart; in the end you
are put to shame, —just as a dog who bites a
stone; the stone remains stone, but the teeth
wear and break off. We should love the
pious; they are God’s children; they talk
with God very confidentially as a friend to
friend; they are mighty with God and stand
in the breech.

When God comes and would destroy a coun-
try, the pious hasten in confidence before Him
and fall into His arms and appease Him. If
man persecutes the pious, God conducts them
away.

This then is a sure testimony of complete
destruction. Sodom persecuted Lot. Lot was
led away. Sodom must go to destruction.

|Israel left Egypt, since it could no‘ longer
bear the oppression; but: Pharaoh must perish
with his army in the Red Sea. Ah, what a
blessing and treasure is a pious person in
the land! Did not Joseph keep the whole
of Egypt* during a famine? Did not Moses
alone stand in the breech when God, in His
wrath, would have destroyed all of Israel
for worshiping the golden calf? ‘The pious
one is a treas-
ure hid in the
field, whom no
one notices
since no one
knows him;
every one
tramps upon
him with his
feet. It is with
great blind-
ness that man
persecutes the
pious who are
honored, pro-
tected and
feared hy the
irrational.
The Red Sea
divided and let
the children of
Israel pass
whom Pharaoh,
with his army,
terrorized ; the
lions spared
Daniel, whom
men in their
anger wanted to destroy; the ravens spread
the table for Elijah, whom Jezebel would
have let perish with hunger; the great fish
harbored Jonah, whom the sailors cast into
the sea; the fire preserved the young men
alive whom Nebuchadnezzar would destroy.
I will be careful that I do not persecute the
pious, for he who persecutes them perse-
cutes whole States, countries and God Him-
self. If I am persecuted, I will be patient.
The harder Pharaoh oppressed the Israelites,
the more they grew and multiplied. Joseph
was persecuted by his brothers and passed
through it to honor. Persecution brought
David such blessed illumination that with
prophetic spirit he sang Psalms. What evil
Can the malice of the world do to me if my
heart is right before God? Can the thorns
hurt the rose, or the fire the gold? No one is
hurt except through his own sin.

From the German.