The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1927, Page 121

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

121

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wandering in ignorance and superstition, relying on
our emotions, roaming from God, walking in sin,
and exposed to everlasting danger to our souls. She
took us in her tender arms when we were weak and
erring and is still nursing us. Many are they whose
outlook into the future was dark indeed, but whose
hearts now overflow with joy and gratitude because
God in His mercy brought them in childhood to the
Lutheran Church and laid them in her arms. Now,
as men and women, they exert a beneficial influence
in the communities in which they live and are a
blessing in their homes as a result of their early
Lutheran Christian training. And many of our
daughters are now sitting in the midst of our little
children, telling them the old, old story that is ever
new, thus leading the lambs into the fold. Our
Mother Church has given many of our sons a place
among those who stand as watchmen on the walls of
Zion. She has given us such as she had and made
us joint heirs with her in her hopes. When we shall
reach the end of our journey, as soon we all shall,
and must go the way of all the living, we know she
will stand by us and hold the cross before our fad-
ing eyes and thus afford us true consolation, as she
has done for so many of our loved ones.

Recounting all these blessings we have received
from her and noting our expectations, why should
we be blamed if our expressions of gratitude sound
boastful, or censured for confessing that we honor
and love her? We love her, and our hearts swell
with thanks to God who gave her birth. And
every one in our mission who has been made a child
of God through her message of salvation feels the
prayer raising to his lips that He who has blessed
her in times past may continue to be her Protector.

We are a direct fruit of her missionary endeavor,
and we feel that we must try to pay the debt of
gratitude we owe her not merely by lengthy ex-
pressions of appreciation or singing her praises,
but rather by carrying on in her spirit. Having
freely received of her, we will turn to the less for-
tunate around us and let them share the good things
we have received.

O Lutheran Zion,. our mother, thou art blessed
of men and honored of God! In gratitude — God
grant it! we will ever abide with thee.

F. D. Aston.

Eprror’s Note.— The above article was written by
Superintendent F.D. Alston, a faithful and efficient worker
in our Colored Missions. It is a straightforward and con-
vincing expression of 2 colored Lutheran Christian and
pastor and’ shows how greatly the work of our Church is
appreciated by those among whom we are working. We
are convinced that an expression like the above must

——— Se

prove a strong incentive to all our readers to continue
and increase the work we are doing among the freedmen.
We are also of the opinion that the reading of Pastor
‘Alston’s words will induce us all to praise God with
greater heartiness as we look back upon the work which
God has permitted us to do among the Negroes of our
country during the past fifty years, and with even greater
whole-heartedness to thank Him for all the blessings He
has permitted us to experience in this enterprise.

A Dangerous, But Curable Disease.

Of all blemishes and weaknesses of Christian
character the one most often met with is indif-
ference to missions, especially foreign missions. Itis
one of the marks of spiritual lack of nourishment
and is often found in connection with indifference
to other good and desirable things. The disease
is preventable, but slightly contagious. It has a
strong,tendency to become chronic, yet is curable in
all its stages. It is very seldom that, where a cure
has been effected, a relapse occurs. We recently
read a brief discussion of this disease written by a
physician who himself had been a victim of the
malady for a period of thirty years. Naturally,
these circumstances ought to make his testimony in
the matter worthy of consideration.

This is the way in which we may outline the
estimate of missions taken by most church people:
that it is not an essential, but rather only an
incidental part of church-life ; that, while it may

- be well enough in a way and for this reason should

not be opposed, as being a fine hobby for those at-
tracted to it, it yet remains an affair entirely of
one’s personal choice whether to support the enter-
prise or not. While not a few church-members
know that this view is wrong, such as hold it are
seldom challenged. The writer, for one, has never
heard of any one’s ever having been obliged to
endure church discipline because he held this view,
nor has he ever noticed that those who held this
view lost caste with their fellow-members because
they were so indifferent to the chief interest of
church-life. However, in passing, we cannot forego
the opportunity of saying that we are of the opinion
that the indications are that the time will come
when church-members will not “get away with”
their missionary indifference so easily.

The Church is an Extension Society. That is
the real purpose of its existence. Yet the vast
majority of its members shows but little concern for
the expansion of the Kingdom. The writer has
always noticed that with human organizations there