The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1906, Page 58

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

A Most Important Mission Work.

“A friend of missions” writes: The mission
among the colored people in our land I consider
most important. It is a work which for several
reasons appeals to me in a special sense.

The colored people are in this country by no
choice of their own. They were brought here against
their will. They constitute about one-ninth of the
population of the Republic. They are in a land
which they would never have sought of their own

. accord. They are here by compulsion. They have
received benefits. Yes. But these are due to Prov-
idence, not to those who brought them here. Under
such circumstances, it seems to me, they have a
claim upon us which other classes that come to our
shores have not.

Mission work among the colored people is most
important for us, because it belongs exclusively to
the American people. Foreign missions are under-
taken also by others. In many lands we find not
only America, but also England and Germany ac-
tive in the mission field. But neither Great Brit-
ain nor Germany will do anything for the millions
of colored people on our shores. We cannot ex-
pect it. It is our mission field, and God has laid
those people at our doors. }

The great majority of the colored people are
as much in need of Christian missions as any in
Africa or on the islands of the southern seas to
whom missionaries are sent. They have been

‘crushed down by slavery, and then rights have been
given them for which they were not prepared. Thus
a false independence has grown up within many of
them and an abuse of liberty. The vices of hea-
thenism may be found in the “Black Belt” as well
as in Africa. Large numbers of these people are
superstitious and vicious in the extreme. Of course,
I am speaking only of the mass and not of the
splendid exceptions among the colored people.
There are bright examples of true Christian char-
acter, but these are few compared with the mass of
ignorance and depravity. This mass is at our own
doors, and was brought here by our fathers. It is

an example of foreign missions in the heart of the

American Republic.

Christian missions only can do the work which
is needed among the colored people. Secular and
industrial education alone will not do. Such an

education without Christianity does not promote
morality in any one, least of all can it take care
of the interest of immortal souls. It is claimed

that more criminals are now found among the edu-
cated colored people than among the ignorant ones.
The cause of this is the lack of Christian training,
and it seems to me that Booker Washington and
others that try to help the colored people do not-
realize the necessity of Christian education and
training with the Word of God. They are blind
leaders, although well-meaning. What the colored
people need are churches and schools in which God’s
Word rules, which alone can change the sinful
hearts of men and promote true morality among
a people. This need cansbe supplied by the Church
only. May she never grow weary, but become more
active in this most important and most imperative
mission .work —the mission work among the col-
ored people.

—E—————— ee

“Come!”’

It is said that in the deserts, when the caravans
are in want of water, they are accustomed to send
on a.camel with its rider some distance in advance;
then, after a little space, follows another, and then,
at a short interval, another. As soon as the first
man finds water, almost before he stoops down to
drink, he shouts aloud, “Come!’ The next, hear-
ing his voice, repeats the word, “Come!” while the
nearest again takes up the cry, “Come!” until the
whole wilderness echoes with the word “Come!”
So in that verse of the Scripture the Spirit and
the bride say, first to all, “Come!” and then let
him that heareth say, “Come!” and whosoever is
athirst let him take of the water of life freely.

C. S.

The Power of Faith.

Faith, wherever it lives in the heart, must show
its power. This we find in the fruit, that the heart,
being filled with heavenly comfort and assurance
of God’s love and grace, is moved to be kind, gentle,
forbearing, and patient towards the fellowman, not
envying or hating any one, but willingly minister-
ing to every one. — Luther.

Traitors.

The soldier who lays down his arms and. goes
over to the side of the party attacking the army to
which he belongs, is a traitor to the cause he has
swormm to maintain. The same holds true of the
Christian — the soldier in Christ’s army.