The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1920, Page 59

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

59

preaching of the Gospel and by the Christian train-
ing of the children in the schools it has made many
wise unto salvation by faith which is in Christ Jesus.

The Negroes begin to realize what a friend they
have in the Lutheran Church, and they love her for
the Gospel she has brought, for the Scriptural prac-
tise she has introduced, for the fear of God she has
instilled into the hearts of their children, for the
homes, humble though they be, she has Christian-
ized, and for the charity she has offered in times
of need. For this love they show their gratitude
by loyalty to the Church and by generous contribu-
tions to the support of the work.

‘To some extent the future of our Church among
the Negroes must be judged by the past. Looking
out upon the vast field which extends from New
York to New Orleans, and which is studded with
Christian school-houses, churches, chapels, and two
higher educational institutions, the future appears

> bright.

The Lutheran Church is now pretty. well known
in the Southern States, and to know her is to love
her. She is in demand on account of the sound and
solid educational work among the people.

The missionary material in the Gulf States and
in the large cities of the North to which the Negroes
flocked during the war period is still found in
abundance. ‘There are still millions of churchless,
Christless Negroes in our country, at our very doors,
who are ready material for the missionary harvest.
Owing to the increasing unpopularity of the revival
and the anxious-bench method of converting sin-
ners, these millions must be gathered in by such a
conservative educational Church as the Lutlieran
which brings to the sinner the Gospel of Christ, the
only converting and saving means, the power of
God unto salvation to every one that believeth.

As long as the Lutheran Church remains loyal
to her God and His Word—and God grant that
she may never depart from the old tried Jand-

-marks!— we have the assurance of God’s blessing.
He who has so signally blest. the labors of our hands
in the past, who, despite obstinate opposition, fa-

natic prejudices, the devil and the flesh, has given —

to the Sword of the Spirit victory upon victory, still
stands with outstretched arms ready and willing to
bless and to save. Through Him we shall be more
than conquerors. By His “wise providence the
Negroes were brought from darkest Africa in bond-
age to our Christian shores, were laid at our doors
for no other purpose than that we Christians, par-
ticularly we Lutheran Christians, should take the

black man by the hand, cut asunder the fetters with
which Satan held him bound, and lead him to the
Saving Truth which makes free.

That the love of the Lutheran Christians of the
Synodical Conference for the Negro Mission is
growing is evidenced by their generous contribu-
tions for missionary and educational purposes. As
the mission in the course of years has progressed,
the expenses in conducting it have proportionately
advanced. While at times it has been difficult to
make ends meet, we have never lacked the necessary
means. Producing results on the field creates and
opens the hearts and the pocketbooks of the Chris-
tian supporters. In the past, as in the future, we
bank on the never-failing promises of our ever
faithful God and on the missionary love and ac-
tivity of our generous Lutheran Christians. God
and the Lutheran Church, this is the Banking and
Trust Company in which we have more implicit
confidence than in all the Federal Reserve Banks.

But the progress of our mission in the future
depends largely upon an increased number of able,
active laborers. Our Negro higher educational in-
stitutions have not been able, and for years to come
will not be able, to provide our various fields with
the needed workers. They are,in demand as never
before in the history of our mission. Our semina-
ries for white students with approximately one
thousand students preparing for work in church
and school, owing to the increased demands, may
assign one or two of their graduates to the Negro
Mission, but what are they among so many? If the
mission is not to be crippled by a shortage of mis-
sionary workers, we must prepare more young men
and women at our own Negro institutions. With
this end in view the Alabama Luther Conference
a year ago resolved to petition the Synodical Con-
ference for a high school normal on the Alabama
field. This field, which is at present the most prom-
ising and on which, during the last four years,
twelve churches with a baptized membership of 600,
and eleven schools with an enrolment of 900 pupils
have been established, has been discouragingly
handicapped by lack of laborers. Hence the Negro
Lutheran churches unite with the Church at large
in the supplication: “The* harvest truly is great,
but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the
Lord of the harvest that He would send forth
laborers into His harvest.”— American Lutheran.

Norr.— To the above we add the following,
taken from the Stattstical Year-Book of the Mis-
souri Synod: At the end of 1919 the Negro Mis-