The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1922, Sheet 35

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusiisHEep BY THE EvANGELICAL LuTHERAN SyNopIcAL CoNFERENCE OF NorTH AMERICA.

REV. F. J. LANKENAU, EDITOR.

Published monthly by Concordia Publishing House, St. Louls, Mo. Subscription price, 50 cts. per annum, payable strictly In advance.
Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at St. Louls, Mo., under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for In section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 5, 1918,

Vol. XLIV.

ST. LOUIS, MO., MAY, 1922. No. 5.

OUR MONTHLY MISSIONARY MOTTO.
““A man may give without loving, but he cannot love without giving.’’

The Church and the Lodge.

VII.

The Bible approvingly mentions three fraternal
relationships: the natural relationship existing be-
tween persons born of the same parents, the racial
brotherhood existing among people more or less
related to one another by ties of blood, and the
spiritual brotherhood existing among those who are
God’s children through faith in Christ Jesus. Any
other spiritual brotherhood outside of Christ the
Bible always refers to in a disapproving manner.
Again and again it warns the Christian not to enter
into any spiritual relationship with any one that is
not a child of God. ‘To be spiritually associated
with unbelievers is an “unequal yoking together,”
it is “fellowshiping righteousness with unright-
eousness,” it is trying to bring “light into com-
munion with darkness,” it is an endeavor to
bring Christ into concord with Belial. He that be-
lieves has no part with an infidel, and the temple of
God can have no agreement with idols. Therefore
Paul exhorts all Christians: “Ye are the temple of
the living God; as God hath said, I will- dwell in
them, and walk in them; and I will be their God,
and they shall be My people. Wherefore come out
from among them, and be ye separate, saith the
Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will
receive you, and will be a. Father unto you, and
ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord
Almighty.” 2 Cor. 6, 14—18.

One cannot be constantly mixed in secular so-
ciety and be on intimate terms with the people of
the world and share their sympathies without un-
knowingly losing some of his interest in the society
of God and Tis people. As new-born children of
God our inheritance is in heaven, and our citizen-
ship is in heaven, and wé ought to be careful where
we are living and refuse to be attracted by society
whose spirit is not in sympathy with the Holy
Spirit. It is a sad sight indeed to see one who
professes to belong to the Church of God having the
most intimate intercourse and apparently feeling
fully at home with those who are the avowed enemies
of the Cross. It cuts an earnest Christian to the
quick and causes him to fear and tremble when he
hears one who is a professed Christian say, as the
writer has had some say to him: “I belong to the
lodge for the social pleasure I find in it.” Surely,
things are far from being as they should be when
the child of light seeks the company of those whom
he knows to be the children of darkness, and when
he openly declares that he prefers the company of
those who make no pretensions of being Christians
to the society of those who are his fellow-believers.
“Birds of a feather flock together.” So goes the
proverb. Work and business may often compel men
to have companions and associates whose sympathies
and spiritual preferences are very unlike, but when
men are at liberty to choose their society, they will
choose the company of those who have kindred likes
and dislikes. When, therefore, those who profess