The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1919, Page 3

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The Lutheran Pioneer. — 3

not yet learned to know Him as Christians know
Him. While he may know Him with his intellect,
his heart is far from Him, is not yet in touch with
Him, but dead, spiritually lifeless. If such a person
claims that he knows the Savior, believes in Him,
this is mere verbiage. He may aver his knowledge
of, and adherence to, Christ in a very elaborate, sen-
sational manner, employing extravagant language ;
but he only disgraces himself all the more by such
a procedure. He may fool men, but God he cannot
deceive.

Let us now apply the truth set forth in our
yerse to daily life. If a person is not willing in
the hour of need, which sometimes comes quite un-
awares, to put his shoulder to the wheel, to work
hard and bear hardships in Christ’s service, he is

but a foul hypocrite, notwithstanding His fine prot-.

estations and solemn declarations to the contrary.

V.5. But whoso keepeth His Word, in him,
verily, is the love of God perfected. Hereby know
we that we are in Him. The more actively and
whole-heartedly a man busies himself, keeping
Christ’s Word, His commandments, performing the
various duties of a Christian’s life with care and
diligence, the more perfect his love to God will be-
come that dwells within him as a fruit of his spir-
itual knowledge of Christ. As a matter of course,
his love to the neighbor will also increase thereby in
like manner. This: growth of love to God which
makes itself felt within us Christians is to us a
mighty proof that we are in Christ, that we are
His by faith. “Hereby we know that we are in
Him.” At the same time we may be painfully
conscious of the fact that we have not yet by far
reached our measure of the stature of the fulness
of Christ, as far as it can be attained in this mortal
life. Note: If contrition and humility do not ac-
company a believer’s good works, there is something
vitally wrong. There is a strong possibility in this
case that what he self-flatteringly regards as splen-
did Christian works are really only very weak,
shamefully weak, works, or perhaps no good deeds
at all, but works of the flesh.

V.6. He that saith he abideth in Him ought
himself also so to walk even as He walked. Wack
of space forces us to consider these words very
briefly. If we say that we abide in Christ, we
should show our faith by walking like Him, should
pattern our lives after His, as it is depicted in the
four Gospels.

Every true Christian confesses with the poet:
“TI long to be like Jesus.” H. OsterHus.

A Fine Batch of News from Alabama.

The report comes from Tilden that Sam Young,
the teacher of our school at that place, has “gone
over the top.” He leads the field in the number of
pupils he has enrolled. At the present time he has
no less than 150 children on his roll, and he feels
confident that he will have no less than 200 pupils
in his school by Christmas. .Isn’t that a record?
We are sure that this teacher has a great amount
of enthusiasm for his work, to be able to gather up
such a large number of children. But even more
wonderful than his large enrolment is his phenom-
enal suecess in gathering tuition from his pupils.
The fact that Mr. Young collected no less than
$110 tuition-fees from his pupils in the month of
November, 1918, shows that the good people of
Tilden are appreciating the good work of our
school, and are willing to do all they can to sup-
port it financially. Of course, our readers realize
that Mr. Young is not teaching this great number
alone, but that he has competent assistance. Should
the enrolment reach the mark Mr. Young has set
as his goal,-and we hope it may, additional assist-
ance will have to be furnished him.

The Sunday-school at Tilden is also making a
record for itself, and everything seems to indicate
that Tilden will soon be a Lutheran stronghold, if
God continues to bless our workers’ faithful efforts.

In order to arouse the interest of the parents in
the school and the progress of their children, the
workers in Alabama have set aside a certain day
which bears the designation of Parents’ Day, and
strenuous efforts are made by the whole missionary
force to have all the fathers and mothers visit the
school on that day to learn how their boys and
girls are getting along in their school-work. This
is, without a doubt, a very fine thing, and might be
imitated in other localities with great profit; for
unless the parents show some interest in the prog-
ress of their children, it will be a difficult thing
for the teachers to accomplish all they wish. On
these Parents’ Days collections are also lifted, and
the proceeds of these collections are used to beautify
the school-rooms, and to provide them with the nec-
essary teaching apparatus. Tilden had such a Par-
ents’ Day the first Tuesday of December. Over 200
attended the school-sessions on that day, among
them many parents who had come to see how their
offspring were getting on with their lessons. —

Our mission-schools, notwithstanding the in-
fluenza, are doing very successful work. The en-