The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1914, Page 3

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‘The Lutheran Pioneer. . 3

wicked. He would have all men to be saved and
to come to the knowledge of the truth. ‘The first
truth which God teaches man is the truth about sin
and its consequences. Like a good surgeon He pene-
trates to the very root of our moral trouble, and
exposes a condition in our hearts which is positively
appalling. He sums up what He has found: “The
imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
He shows the visible evidences of this condition:
“Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murder,
adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blas-
phemy.” He points to the results: “They have all
gone aside, they have all together become filthy;
there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” He
draws the inevitable conclusion: “The soul that
sinneth, it shall die. Cursed be he that confirmeth
not all the words of the Law to do them.”

It is the truth, but a humiliating truth, a damn-
ing truth.

However, when through the efforts of the Spirit
in the Word a sinner realizes his desperate plight
and in anxious distress asks the question, “What
must I do to be saved?” then the time has come
for God to show His healing power, to proclaim
His saving truth. He produces the soothing oint-
ment of His grace. He offers the blood of the
Savior, which cleanseth from all sins. He points
to the cross where Christ paid the price for the
redemption of all. He offers complete spiritual
health and life to him who will believe and accept

it. Te does even more than that. He puts that.

very faith into the sinner’s heart. ‘He turns his
eyes to the cross. He lifts up his hands and places
them into the wounds of the Savior. He seals and
confirms to the repentant and believing sinner the
glorious truth that his soul is restored, and that
he shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The
sinner is saved.

Never, by the help of God, so-the saved sinner
resolves, will he permit himself to relapse into his
former indifference; never again carelessly ignore
the offer of help from the Father who has loved
. him; never again reject the services of “the Lord
that healeth” him. His eyes are open. He has
learned his. lesson, and, God helping him, he will
never forget it.

The case was desperate, but not hopeless after all.

Kr.

Ir will not help your garden any to count the
weeds in your neighbor’s truck patch.”

Beginning the New Year Right.

Dr. James Hamilton, a noted preacher, once
made the following appropriate and beautiful re-
mark on the right way of beginning a new year: —

“Mr. Hardcastle, when dying, said, ‘My last act
of faith shall be to take the blood of Jesus, as the
high priest did when he entered behind the veil
of the temple; and when I have passed the veil
that separates me from eternity, I shall appear with
that blood before the throne of the Lamb.’ So, in
making the transit from one year to another this
is our most ‘appropriate exercise. We see much sin
in looking back; we see many a broken purpose,
many a misspent hour, many a rash and unadvised
word; we see much pride and anger and worldli-
ness and unbelief; we see a long track of incon-
sistency. There is nothing for us but the blood
of the great atonement. With that atonement let
us, like believing Israel, end, and begin anew.
Bearing its precious blood, let us pass within the
veil of a solemn and eventful future. Let a visit
to the fountain that issued from the wounds of the
dying Savior be the last act of the closing year; and
let the new year still find us there.”

The American Indian and Christian Missions.

The present Indian population of the United
States is about 300,000. While the government is
doing much in the way of giving the Indian a
secular education, and a number of voluntary organi-

zations are seeking to protect his natural and polit-.

ical rights, the most important work to be done for
him is to be done by the Christian Church, the work
of evangelizing him and bringing him to Christ.
To bring the American Indian under the power of
the Gospel of Christ is our main duty towards him.
The white man has robbed him of his rich earthly
heritage; let him now do what he can to make
good the great wrong he has done the Red Man by
telling him of the richer heavenly heritage and by
leading him on the path that leads there.
Doubtless, many people have an idea that all
the Indians in our country are evangelized already.
But such is by no means the case, for there are
probably about 55,000 Indians among whom no
mission work is being done. These so-called
“pagan” Indians are found in no less than 15 dif-
ferent states. In some cases there are whole tribes,
in other cases separated parts of tribes. Thus, for