The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1928, Page 21

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. 21

marched onward, not deterred by the fiery darts of
slander nor the poisoned arrows of false accusations.
Onward they went, through honor and dishonor,
through evil report and good report, wielding the
Sword of the Spirit and battling for Christ against
the powers of sin.

And glorious was their success; for through
their instrumentality thousands were freed from the
shackles of sin, delivered from the thraldom of
Satan, rescued from the slavery of infidelity, and
redeemed from the bondage of indifference. Aye,
forth they went, these divinely appointed sowers,
sowing with tears the living seed of the Gospel.
And the seed grew and prospered. It grew where
the snow-laden winds sweep howling through the
dark pines of Canadian forests, as well as where
the sweet magnolia breezes blow and scent the air.
This blessed seed has grown and prospered from
bleak New England’s craggy shores to California’s
fruitful vales.

And is it not just such men that are the greatest
need of our country to-day, — men who possess as
their controlling purpose that purpose which con-
trolled the noble band of pioneer heroes of the
Cross, that is, the desire to make Christ known
throughout the length and breadth of this fair land?
They sealed their confession of Christ by action,
by sacrifice, by the endurance of grim hardship, by
carrying on unceasingly in obedience to their Mas-
ter’s will. They left home and ease; they suffered
threats and malignings; they withstood intimida-
tions and endured persecutions. In spite of all
hindering powers they pressed forward with pas-
sionate enthusiasm and force in order that the
Gospel of Christ might be made known to men.
Christ? command was plain to them, His teaching
so clear that.they had no doubt as to His wish. Had
not Jesus said when yet visible on earth: “As My
Father hath sent Me, even so send I you”? Had He
not declared: “The Son of Man is come to seek and
to save that which was lost”? They felt that the
measure of their devotion to the Lord Jesus would
be the measure of their response to this call of the
Savior to make Him known to men.

And strong are the incentives to make Christ
known to men aside from the wish to carry out His
command; for He alone can meet the world’s need.
Unless men come into the right relation to Him,
their life will be a failure and their future too sad
to contemplate. Christ alone can free men from
the shackles of sin; He alone can liberate them
from the bondage of Satan. Christ alone can lead
men forth from the slavery of the fear of death

and make them partakers of the joy of the saints
in light. The deep conviction of the essentialness
of Christ to every man impelled the pioneers to be
continually aggressive in their efforts to bring
Christ to the people of our country. This thorough
conviction made them wise, constant, prayerful
evangelists for Christ.

Should our zeal be less intense than theirs?
Should we be less ready to say: “I am ready to do
my utmost to give all men in America an oppor-
tunity to hear the Gospel of Jesus”? Should we
be less willing to make the Savior known in our
community both by life and voice? Should we not
be filled with an earnest desire faithfully to use
the money we possess to make it possible for others
to preach and teach Christ where we cannot go in
person ?

That the pioneers were thus impelled a study
of their lives will soon reveal. Craemer, Miessler,
and Baierlein, in their heroic ministry among the
crude savages of Michigan, were upheld by the
sense of the priceless value of the Gospel to the
human soul. Wyneken had the zeal of the first
disciples and regardless of the cost to himself went
everywhere in his large frontier parish, preaching
the Gospel of Jesus. Sievers, Cloeter, and Hilgen-
dorf conducted their home mission crusades by put-
ting themselves and all they had into the work and
thus dedicated themselves to the sublime task of
gaining souls for Christ. But who can name all
those loyal men who endured the severity and isola-
tion of the backwoods and the long, wearisome
journeys, fraught with constant danger and hard-
ships, that their fellow-men might have the Gospel-
message! Never should we forget their, ceaseless
activity for the salvation of souls, the innumerable
sacrifices they so cheerfully made, and the unnum-
bered dangers they fearlessly endured that Christ,
the Savior of all men, might be made known.

Many of the home mission pastors, in their
efforts to meet their widening opportunities, trav-
eled thirty and even forty miles on Sunday and
regularly served three and four congregations.
Notable unselfishness marked their labors. They
toiled in a happy, hopeful, and enthusiastic spirit.
They fought fierce battles within and without.
They met and fought and conquered the temptations
that come with isolation and from daily contact
with untutored minds. Many of them sowed the
seed and then were compelled to move on without
that encouragement which comes from seeing the
springing up of the sown seed. But in spite of all
these adverse conditions they steadily and faithfully