The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1922, Sheet 43

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

Puspiisuep BY THE EvancenicaL LutTiueran Synopical ConrerENcE oF NortH AMERICA.

REV. F. J. LANKENAU, EDITOR.
Published monthly by Concordia Publishing House, St. Louls, Mo. Subscription price, 60 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,

ST. LOUIS, | Sa » UNE, 1922.

Vol. HIN No. 6.

OUR MONTHLY MISSIONARY MOTTO.
‘‘Consecration to God means service to man.’’

Come, Holy Spirit, Flame Divine!

Come, Holy Spirit, Flame Divine,
Our dross consume, our gold refine,
True missionary zeal inspire

Within us. Come, Thou living Fire!
Our Church’s mission-fields are vast,
For Thou wast with her in the past;
Stand by us in the future, too,

Our fathers’ zeal in us renew.

Arouse us that, one heart and soul,
We may help spread from pole to pole
The Word of Christ the Crucified,
And evermore with us abide!

In these last days of trouble great,
Of haughty unbelief and hate,
Be with us till we'll end our fight
And enter heaven with delight.
Amen. H. Osteruvs.

Help Alabama!

The Black Belt of Alabama is made up of large
plantations, many of which consist of thousands of
acres of land. ‘Tens of thousands of Negroes, living
here in the Southland in the tumble-down. cabins
which dot these plantations, eke out a scanty exist-
ence by working on the large farms. If we could
take you in our Gospel-Ford and let you ride
through this country to view these homes, there
would be impressed upon your mind an indelible
picture of poverty and destitution! ‘The pitiful

temporal and spiritual condition of this section
baflles and mocks description.

Said the prophet: “Darkness shall cover the
earth and gross darkness the people.” ‘This holds
true in a particular sense of the Black Belt with its
large population. Steeped in sin and iniquity, hun-
dreds upon hundreds of men, women, and children
are groaning under the burden of sins unforgiven.
Upon them have shined no Gospel-rays! They are
sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death!
Like a blind man grasping after an object in the
dark, so these people are seeking after God and the
way to heaven, but have found neither! From
countless numbers of lips of people living in these
dreary and desolate homes has the ery been sent
heavenward: “What, oh, what shall we do to be
saved?” “What must we — we and our children —
do to go to that land of bliss and happiness which
lies beyond the grave?” There comes back to them
no reply but the hollow echo of their unanswered
cry. ‘True it is that preachers infest these planta-
tions. ‘They are, however, blind leaders of the blind
and altogether unable to lead their followers to truth
and light! And so these thousands of poor, de-
spised, and sinful people continue to grope and
stumble about in darkness — in the darkness of
superstition and error, in the darkness of sin and
shame, and unless the light of God’s eternal Word
is brought to them, they will soon plunge into the
abyss of hell, where they will be engulfed by outer
darkness eternally !

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