The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1911, Page 42

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42

tremble, James 2, 19. The joy and comfort lies
in that word “my.” Only the true believer, recon-
ciled to God in Christ Jesus, can say with a trust-
ing heart: “Jy God.”

o- ——---

From Webster's Confession of Faith.

Under date of August 8, 1807, Daniel Webster,
the great American statesman and jurist, wrote his
“Confession of Faith,’ in which he states his belief
in the Triune God, in the Bible as God’s Word,
and in salvation through the merits of the Divine
Savior. These are his statements: —

“T believe in the existence of Almighty God,
who created and governs the whole world. I am
taught this by the works of nature and the words
of revelation.

“T believe that God exists in three persons; this
I learn from revelation alone. Nor is it any ob-
jection to this belief that I cannot comprehend how
one.can be three, or three one. I hold it to be my
duty to believe, not what I can comprehend, or
account for, but what my Master teaches me.

“T believe the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments to be the will and word of God. I be-
lieve Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. And I
believe there is no other way of salvation than
through the merits of His atonement.”

Man’s Worst Enemy.

In a Sunday afternoon service, in which both
young and old were examined in the Catechism,
the pastor asked the question, “Which are man’s
worst and most powerful enemies?” ‘The answer
was, “Sin, death, and the devil.”

Turning to one of the children, the pastor
asked, “Which of these three is the worst?”

‘Death,’ answered the child; “I do want to
go to heaven, but I do not want to die.”

The pastor put the same question to one of the
young men, who answered, “The devil is our worst
enemy; for it makes me shudder when I think of
the terrors of hell.”

The pastor finally put the question to a wise
old man, who was well versed in the Scriptures.
The old Christian’s answer was, “Sin is man’s worst
enemy; for had this deadly enemy not bound us,
the other two would have no power over us.”

“Yes,” said the pastor, “it is by sin that we are
held in the bondage of death and the devil. ‘By
one man sin entered into the world, and death by

The Lutheran ‘Pioneer.

sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all
have sinned, says the Apostle Paul. And the
Apostle John writes: ‘He that committeth sin is
of the devil” And those who live in sin he calls
‘children of the devil.’ ”

Luther Conference.

As per previous announcement, Luther Con-
ference, consisting of the Louisiana workers of our
colored mission, met at Luther College, New Or-
leans, April 28 to May 1.

Sessions were opened with the singing of a
hymn by the assembly and the reading of a Scrip-
ture lesson and prayer by the Rev. G. M. Kramer.
The following brethren were present: Revs. Kramer
and Schmidt, of New Orleans; Rev. Peay, of Man-
sura, La.; Prof. R. Wilde, of Luther College;
Teachers Vix, Meibohm, N. Seeberry, W. Seeberry,
Palm, and Wiley, of New Orleans, W. Schrieber of
Napoleonville, La., and Student Geo. Demouy, of
Bay St. Louis, Miss.

Director N. J. Bakke, of Greensboro, N. C., the
newly elected Field Secretary of our colored mis-
sions, Mr. Robinson, representing the congregation
at Mansura, La., and several students of Luther
College appeared as guests.

The election of officers resulted as follows: Rev.
G. M. Kramer, President; Rev. C. Peay, Vice-
President; Teacher N. Seeberry, Secretary.

Teacher Eng. R. Vix, of our local Mount Zion
School, a veteran in our colored mission work, read
an elaborate paper on “Faithfulness in Office.” In
developing this theme, Mr. Vix set forth these
three chief points: I. We: must be faithful to God.
II. We must be faithful to those who have been
entrusted to our care. III. We must know our-
selves. Quite a lively discussion, participated in by

practically every brother present, followed the read-~ ~~

ing of each separate part, giving evidence of the
great amount of interest taken in the essay and in
our blessed calling. —

The closing moments of Friday’s session and all
of Saturday morning were devoted to the reading
and discussing of a lengthy and interesting paper
on “School Management,” by Teacher N. Seeberry.
Both papers were accepted with thanks by the Con-
ference. 4 :

An essay by Teacher Wiley and a catechisation
by Teacher N. Seeberry had to be reserved for our
next meeting, which is to take place in October of
this year.