The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1924, Page 22

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22 The Lutheran Pioneer.

The morals of animistic peoples are very, very
low; sensuality is unbridled, woman is despised
and degraded, conscience seems utterly dead, and
such virtues’ as truth, honesty, thrift, and purity
are almost unknown. And yet, though practising
almost every imaginable vice, they seem to be ut-
terly devoid of all consciousness that they are doing
wrong !

Here and there, however, at least among the
more intelligent Animists, there is a growing feel-
ing of dissatisfaction with their religion. ‘They are
beginning to see that it is failing them even in the
bodily blessings which they seck. As one South
American Indian said: “We bring sacrifices all the
time; we do what the gods tell us to do; but the
number of our sick does not grow less, and the
same number dies.” ‘These people are looking for
something better. Shall we bring them the Gospel,
the message that alone can make them truly happy ?

Missionaries report of wonderful conquests made
by the Gospel among animistic peoples. Ispecially
are they filled with astonishment and joy when they
are told that God is their Father, and that He is
personally interested in each one of His children.
It is a most welcome message to them to hear that
God will bless His people, care for them and protect
them against evil spirits. As one missionary puts
it: “That Christ is mightier than the devil; that
demons have to obey His commands; that He is
the Deliverer from evil powers; that He is a Helper
in time of need, is the truth of Christianity that
possesses the greatest power of appeal.”

“The Animist,” says a writer, “is waiting for
a better faith and a surer hope.... The best of
the converts on the soil of uncivilized heathenism
... represent a beautiful type of piety. They repro-
duce many of the notes of Christianity —a child-
like trust in God, habitual. prayerfulness, zeal in
God’s cause... . And just as many a parent has
relearned religious lessons by coming in touch with
the piety of childhood, so it may well happen that
the Christianity of Europe [and America] is des-
tined to be recalled, if not to forgotten truths, at
least to neglected graces, by the infant churches
that are just beginning to live their lives on the
basis of the mercy, the commandments, and the
promises of God.” F. J. L.

tice .

You can never know the sweetness of the word

‘Savior as you might if you could tell it to the

heathen for the first time.

how could I keep it to myself?”

A Few Sad Facts About India.

There are so many boys and gitls in India who
have never heard of Christ that, if they stood in

a line, shoulder to shoulder, and great bridges were | —

made across the seas for them to stand on, they
would reach all around the world ! —

In India there are vast districts with millions
of people without a single Christian. It is estimated
that. there are to-day in India as many people as
there are in the whole United States who nol even
once have heard the name of Jesus Christ. They
have never heard that “God is Love”; they have
never heard that there is a place like heaven, nor
have they been warned against hell.

In India there are to-day millions of people who
torture their bodies in many ways, striving to “make
merit,” trying to earn salvation by penance, sacri-
ficing their ‘all, in deadly earnest, lest somewhere
and somehow they will have to suffer throughout
eternity. They are in complete spiritual darkness,
yet they are blindly groping for light. Think you
not that these millions ought to have a chance to
hear the news of God’s redeeming love before
they die?

Don’t you think the native Christian was right
when he said to a missionary: “If I saw some friend
suffering and had a sure cure for him in my hand,
what sort of person would I be if I did not go to
him and offer it to him? And here the Gospel of
Jesus is something to save a soul, not just a life;
F.J.1.

2

Missions and Industry.

I do not think it is the function of a Christian ,
mission to build up a city or develop a great com-
mercial enterprise. One of the temptations which
always appeals to the missionary is to turn aside his
energies into lines which will provide industry for
a people who are sorely in need of this world’s goods.
He recognizes how their poverty handicaps his work
at every turn, and prevents the growth of that com-
fortable civilization which should mark the progress
of the Gospel. Yet I believe that almost every mits-
sion which ‘has attempted to. develop a commercially
successful industry laments to-day cither the confin-
ing circumstances which must be respected if in-
dustry is to be commercially successful, or the
limitations which their business necessarily puts on
thetr spiritual service. For example, they must pay