The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1920, Page 66

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66

The Lutheran Pioneer.

of bondage again to fear; but we have received the
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that
we are the children of God.” We were “sealed with
that Holy Spirit of promise.” Believers are quite
sure of the truth. God is united with them; He
dwells in them as His temple; He spiritually guides
and protects, strengthens and cheers them. He im-
parts to them the certainty that they are walking
in the right way. Although they do not always feel
and behold these paternal gifts of His, they are
nevertheless mightily and constantly upheld by them
in the trials of life. We ought to praise God daily
for these invaluable tokens of His kindness.

“He that believeth not God hath made Him a
liar, because he believeth not the record thal God
gave of His Son,” v.10b. Behold, of what blas-
phemy he becomes guilty who does not believe the
divine testimony; for he assails, questions, denies
God’s veracity. He makes Him a liar. By means

‘of’ unbelief, he declares the good God to be an evil
being, represents the Mouth of Truth as a deceiver.
Such unbelievers, of course, as do not care for
morality coarsely dishonor God by their licentious
lives. On the other hand, there are many unbe-
lievers that would be very moral, but deem faith in
Christ of little importance, aye, unnecessary. They
do not know or consider that it is impossible to
perform good works without faith. But even if it
were possible, the fact would remain that absence
of faith, unbelief, is in itself a contradiction of
~God’s truthfulness, hence a gross, shameful dishonor
. shown our Maker, Benefactor, and Lord, who re-

deemed the world by the blood of His Son and wills ©

that all should be saved.- Then, too, unbelief con-
tinually brings forth carnal-mindedness and so
profanes God. — By faith, on the other hand, our
Father in heaven is honored as well-as by the good
works that follow faith. “He that abideth in Me”
(by faith), says the Savior, “the same bringeth forth
much fruit [good works]; for without Me ye can
do nothing. ... Herein is My Father glorified,
that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My dis-
ciples.” H. Osternus.

Report of the Board for Colored
Missions. eee

_ The twentieth report of our Board, submitted to
the Synodical Conference at its convention in Mil-
. .waukee last month, was most interesting and en-
couraging to every friend of Colored-Missions. In

the report attention was called to the fact that de-
spite great hindrances the work among the Negroes
made fine progress. ‘The World War threatened
seriously to affect the progress of our work. Not
only did it take away members and workers, but
enemies of the Gospel, in their endeavor to ruin our
work, spread slanderous reports concerning our
white laborers and claimed that they were agents
of the German government. The two epidemics of
influenza likewise did much to retard the good work.
A third hindrance, mentioned by Superintendent of
Missions, Rev. C. F. Drewes, in the report, is the
migration of the Negro to the North. Among the
thousands that left the Southland in the past four
years were many of the younger members of our
mission congregations.

Despite these obstacles, the work in some re-
spects has made greater forward strides than ever
before. During the past four years there has been
a net increase of five congregations, 910 baptized
members, 580 communicants, and 115 voting mem-
bers. Instead of 31 we now have 88 schools, which
are attended by almost a thousand pupils more than
four years ago, and in the Sunday-schools there has
been in increase of 25 per cent. Tive years ago our
colored members contributed $5,528, in 1919 the
contributions amounted to $14,325, an increase of
almost 150 per cent. ‘These facts must encourage
us to continue in the work with increased vigor, since
they so plainly show that God’s Word does not return
void when preached to the Freedmen of the South.

Our Colored Mission laborers at present are
carrying on their work in eleven different States
and in the City of Washington. But most of the
work is done in three States, Louisiana, North
Carolina, and Alabama. Besides the six congrega-
tions in New Orleans, there are a number of promis-
ing missions in the country parishes of Louisiana.
The work begun in Plaquemine only last year looks
very promising. Our Christian day-school in that
town is attended by 150 pupils, despite the fact that
our school is an old shack, while the publi¢ school
is a large, modern building. Calls have come to

_Missionary Thompson from White Chapel and

Goula to open up missions there. From Baton
Rouge came the offer of a high school as a, present,
but the Board was not able to accept the liberal
offer, because it had not the necessary teaching force
nor the funds to carry on the work of the institu-
tion! The work in Louisiana sustained a very great
loss in the death of Mr. Eugene R. Vix, who had been
in the uninterrupted service of the Mission as 4 -