The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 21

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

21

The Negro and His Needs —a Study.

By way of introduction I wish to state that the
series of articles to appear under the above heading
was prompted by a challenge flung at us some ten
years ago when one who was intensely interested in
the work our Synodical Conference was doing
among the Negroes said by way of friendly criti-
cism, “Why will you, who have worked among the
Negroes, so persistently refuse to tell us anything
about your work and the people among whom you
are working?” While we believed that it would not
be amiss to comply with the request of this friend,
still we felt that perhaps some one who was better
qualified and had had more experience, ought to
do this for the cause of our Savior. Since then
years have passed, and the conviction has grown
upon us that something should be written on this
subject, for we hoped that it would be the means of
arousing others to do still better. ‘This, together
with the conviction that, after all, all successful
mission endeavor is but the application of the Gospel
of our Savior Jesus Christ to an existing condition,
is responsible “for this study. It is our sincere
prayer that our Savior, whose cause these ‘articles
desire to serve, will bless the reading of them to the
glory of His blessed name and the eternal welfare
of thousands of our Negro fellow-citizens.

If successful mission endeavor is the application
of the Gospel to an existing condition, then it must

New Chapel and School
in Alabama.

Former Chapel and
School in Alabama.

certainly be of the greatest importance to have an
intelligent conception of that condition. Let us
illustrate. When we are doing mission-work among
the Hindus of India, our missionaries study the
Tamil language in order to preach the Gospel to
the Hindu because they have learned that they

would not be understood by the natives if they
were to employ either the German or the English
language. Were a missionary to decide to ignore
existing conditions and resolve to preach to the
native East Indian in the English language, it

One of our Preaching-Places in the Black Belt.
A Sunday-School and Class of Catechumens in the Black Belt.

would soon become sadly evident that his preaching
of the Gospel in India would not be attended by
any success until he were willing to meet existing
conditions. ‘Thus we, too, must never lose sight of
that great fact in our mission endeavors to save
the Negro. We have conditions which demand an
application of the Word of God different from our
manner of gathering in the masses of unchurched
Lutherans in the, great Northwest. Let us not be
misunderstood. By all means, let us bear in mind
that if men are to be saved, the Church has but
one means given her by the Savior, and that is His
almighty Word. However, this does not mean that
there is but one language in which to preach it or
one way to offer it. The Master’s explicit and clear
commission to His Church is: “Make disciples of
all nations.” And thus we shall do well always to
bear in mind, in connection with our missionary
enterprise among the Negroes, their past history,
their natural traits and characteristics, their living
conditions, etc. ‘To help us to a better understand-
ing of the Negro and a greater appreciation of the
problems and difficulties, the opportunities and pos-
sibilities which Lutheran Negro Missions offer, we
offer these papers.

Ours is a cosmopolitan people. There is no land
of the Old World which has failed to send some of
its people to America. Immigrants first came from
Britain, Ireland, Holland, and Germany, and then
from France, Portugal, and Sweden. IJater the
people of Eastern and Southern Europe landed at
our hospitable shores. There was the Italian, the