The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1922, Page 36

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

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that shows the ravages of spiritual disease; a trem-
bling and exceeding bony hand; a dying hand that
is clutching after stable support. Will you grasp
that hand in this year of Jubilee, or will you draw
back in disgusted horror and, like the Levite, “pass
by on the other side”?
by no means clean; a hand that is stained with
blood and smeared over with disgusting vileness,
but “the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses
from all sin.” And that hand is sinking, friend,
sinking down to hell and everlasting damnation.
The eternal welfare of an immortal soul is at stake;
that soul is even now dangling over the flames of
the yawning pit. Ethiopia stretches forth her hand;
will you grasp it? R.O.L.1.

“Come Again Soon, Please!’’

On a plantation in the State of Alabama stands
a little cabin of two rooms rapidly falling into ruin.
This home is occupied by a family of eleven. The
father, a man about fifty-five years old, has been sick
for some time and never expects to recover his
health. God led our Lutheran Church into the com-
munity in which this family lives, and we have been
conducting services there for about two months, hold-
ing up before those who attend Jesus the Redeemer.

The undersigned visited the home referred to
above last week, telling the patient the old, old
story: “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners.”

On a previous occasion we had spoken to this
sick man about the dying thief, showing that Jesus
is the City of Refuge for all sinners. We pointed
out how He had received the woman taken in adul-
tery, and Zacchaeus, and Saul, and others. -That
the message which we brought was received with. joy
we Jearned from his earnest appeal to us when we
were- about to leave him. As we were going, this
man, who apparently. for the first time in his life
had heard the Gospel in all its sweetness, VE of
uSs,, “Come again soon, please !”

“‘We:shall visit’this man as often as we can and
continue to tell him“of Jesus and His love. —

In Alabama we stand in dire need of chapels in
which we can tell those who flock to us — before
they get sick and are to leave this world — about
the compassionate Savior. Hundreds, yes, thou-
sands, of precious, blood-bought souls are dying
without the saving knowledge of their Savior and
are begging us, “Come over and help us!” We need

True, it is a hand that is .

buildings, and need them badly, buildings where
people can come together and sit at the feet of
Jesus and listen to His Word without continual
disturbance.

Recently appeals were made in these columns for

chapels at 'Tinela, Ingomar, and Buena Vista, Will
you not kindly, in this year of Jubilee, remember
these places and send in an- offering, so that we can
erect modest buildings at these places?

That they are really needed you may learn fro om
the fact that at one place here in Alabama we are
conducting services in one of two small rooms be-
longing to an elderly couple. Those that attend
our services held in this place must sit on the floor,
many can find no seats at all, while some who come
to hear cannot even get into the room and so are
compelled to go away empty.

Wherever we go, the plea is, “Come again soon,
please!” We want to answer these calls. As.we
intend to visit the sick man of whom we spoke above
and prepare him with the help of God for a blessed
end, so do we intend to go and preach wherever we
are called and wherever we have opportunity, be it
in a chureh, a school,’a house, a cabin, a stable, or
under the great vault of heaven. But while we are
ready to do this, the thought often comes to us,
“Will not our friends help us in our work and give
the Gospel-preaching a better opportunity by sup-
plying us with chapels in which we shall be able to
gather the people and more conveniently tell them
of Him who came to seek and to save that which
was lost ?”

To those who give for the work among the
Negroes of the Southland the Savior says: “Inas-
much as ye have done it unto the least of these My
brethren, ye have done it unto Me.”

G. A. Scratiptr.

Norr. — Will the kind reader in connection
with this touching appeal for Alabama also remem-
ber the erying need of a chapel and school for
Napoleonville, La.? You will perhaps remember
that. our building in Napoleonville was almost
wrecked by a storm several years ago. However,
because of a chronic lack of funds the building has
been made to serve as church and school despite its
dangerous condition. Now, though, the time has
come when something will have to be done. The
slightest wind causes so much swaying of the build-
ing that the plastering of the walls and even the
boards of the ceiling are being loosened and caused
to fall. ‘The Board intended to postpone building
operations in Napoleonville till after the Jubilee

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