The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1915, Page 34

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34 The Lutheran Pioneer.

that sent His Spirit on the disciples has sent the
same Spirit by the Gospel into our hearts. And
the great command which He gave on that day on
Mount Olive, to preach the Gospel to every creature,
He also gave to us, to you and to me. Are we going
to obey it? Behold, it is the command of our
King, and the Spirit within us says, “Obey!” Will
we obey? And the Macedonian ery, “Come over
and help us!” comes also to us with insistent force,
— from Alaska’s snow-clad mountains, from India’s
shores, from Africa’s jungles, from Asia’s plains,
and from the islands of the great Pacific they call
us to deliver their land from error’s chains. Will
we heed the call? Will we free them from their
shackles and open their prison doors? Will we
hind their wounds, and heal their broken hearts?
Will we? God help us by His Holy Spirit and for
the sake of our triumphant King to answer, “Yes,
Lord, we will!” F. J. L.

Freedom.

At the time of this writing, April 12, it is
fifty-four years ago that the bombardment of Fort
Sumteér in Charleston Harbor began, and the first
shot was fired in that fearful struggle between the
North and the South. Just before dawn, on the
12th of April, 1861, a shell arose from one of the
mortars planted on the shore of the harbor, and, as
it flew screaming over the water and burst just
above the fort, it gave the signal to more than
fifty cannons to belch forth, and pour their shot
and shell upon the fort and its little garrison of
eighty men. On the following day President Lin-
coln called for 75,000 men to protect the Union.
His call was answered with enthusiasm. Soon the
beat of drum and the sound of bugle was heard in
every village and hamlet of the North. Men en-
listed by thousands in the army of freedom. Youths
parted from their sweethearts, sons from their
parents, husbands from their wives, and fathers
bent over cradles, and kissed their sleeping babes
farewell. Proudly they marched away under the
‘waving flags, along the country roads and through
the streets of cities. Soon we find them upon the
gory fields of battle. Some are wounded in battle,

and taken to the hospitals, many are carried away,
by disease, great numbers are captured, and taken ~

to the prison camps, and thousands upon thousands
of them die during the struggle. Four long years
the awful war lasted. Those were years that tried

men’s hearts. Finally, on April 9, 1865, fifty years
ago, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox;
a few days later Johnston capitulated to Sher-
man; and before the end of May all hostilities
had ceased. ‘This terrific struggle cost the lives
of 500,000 men, and the total cost of the war to
the country, exclusive of the expenditures by the
South, was probably not less than ten billion ~
dollars.

But terrible though it was, if brought freedom
to four millions of human beings; it freed four
millions of souls from the shackles of slavery; it
transformed four millions of slaves into free men,
women, and children. ‘Che auction block is now
gone, and babes are no longer sold from the
breasts of their mothers. ‘’he slave-pen and whip-
ping-post are now things of the past, and homes,
churches, and schools have replaced them. ‘The
four millions have in these fifty years increased
to ten millions, and the number of those who bore
the fetters of slavery is growing less from year
to year; but we hope that the sons and daughters,
enjoying the freedom so dearly bought, will, like
the children of Isracl of old, never forget at what
a tremendous cost their freedom was bought, and
never cease to shed tears of gratitude at the graves
of those who battled for their liberty under the
banner of the free. —

But while enjoying this priceless boon of free-
dom of the body, may they also never forget that
other and even more precious freedom, the free-
dom of the soul, which was gained for them at an
even greater sacrifice. Of our natural spiritual
state we all have to say: ' 3

Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay,
Death brooded darkly o’cr me,

My sin oppressed me night and day,
Therein my mother bore me;

Deeper and deeper still I fell,

Life had become a living hell,

So firmly sin possessed me.

May we, therefore, remember how God, behold-
ing our wretched state with deep commiseration,
gave His best and dearest to free us from our
awful slavery, His only-begotten Son. May: we
remember how our dear Lord Jesus Christ de-
scended from His throne of glory, came to this
earth, made Himself a sacrifice for us, took the
chastisement of our peace upon Himself, and
healed us by His stripes. To liberate us He
waged a bitter battle with sin and death and all
the powers of hell. With His holy, precious blood
and with His innocent suffering and death He re-