The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1928, Page 22

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

continued to scatter the seed of the Gospel of Christ,
and to-day thousands of flourishing congregations
exist as monuments of their labors.

The world will never fully know what America
as a nation owes to the labors of these pioneer
heroes of the Cross. They went among the thou-
sands who poured into this country intent only on
establishing homes and showed them the importance
of building churches. They came to the isolated
agricultural settlements that were slipping into
barbarism and lifted them up by raising the Cross
of Jesus in their midst. They went to the mining-
camps, where men lived without the softening in-
fluence of home-life, and made known to them that
love of Christ which is able to soften the hardest
hearts. With a devotion that was not less than
sublime our home missionaries labored to supply
the spiritual needs of all classes. They had the firm
conviction that the Gospel of Christ is the power
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.
They were no drifters. They were not men of
expediency. They stood out against every form of
evil. They persistently preached the Gospel. Into
the cause of Christ they put themselves, their fam-
ilies, their possessions, to the end that Christ might
be magnified among men and men might be saved.

And through their labors thousands upon thou-
sands of souls were added to the Church. In
thousands of places, due to their faithfulness,
Christ’s Gospel is heard to-day by many thousands.
An overwhelming majority of our churches owe
their being to the nurture and care of home mis-
sions. It is due to our faithful home missionaries
that the number of communicants of Christian
churches has grown far more rapidly than has the
population of our country. One hundred years ago
one in fourteen of the inhabitants of America was
a member of a Protestant Christian church; to-day
the ratio is one to four. F.J.L.

Ackerville.

Ackerville is not a city. It is just a little spot
in Alabama’s Black Belt. A few homes in which
white people live, possibly ten in all, and two
stores —that’s Ackerville. Within a radius of
thirty miles there cannot be found a city or town
of over 1,000 inhabitants.

In November of 1925 the Lutheran Church was
asked to open a mission-station for the people living
a mile from Ackerville on a plantation. A colored
man, formerly a member of our Lutheran church

at Tilden, Ala., had moved to Ackervyille. He
missed his church. He felt unhappy without the
Word of God, which he had become accustomed to
hearing and which had become dear to him. He
talked to others about the Lutheran Church. He
showed the people the necessity of giving their
children a Christian education. He pointed out the
interest that Lutheran pastors and teachers take in
serving the people, a big contrast compared with
sectarian ministers who serve congregations in the
Black Belt. He spoke to others about the Savior
he had learned to know in the Lutheran Church.
People became interested in what he told them,
and the call came to open a church near Ackerville.

Pastor E. A. Westcott.

The undersigned made the first trip to Acker-
ville for a service in November, 1925. A large
crowd greeted him. We returned home — elated.
During the first week interest was keen, and the
work prospered. Then came trouble. Enemies of
the Church were stationed along the paths and roads
leading to the meetirg-place for the purpose of turn-
ing back all such as would attend the Lutheran ser-
vice. Imagine the feelings of the writer when, ar-
riving at the place of worship, he found not a soul
to meet him. Threatening letters, unsigned of
course, were sent us. Other circumstances seemed
to indicate that nothing further could be done at
Ackerville. So the work was discontinued.

In November, 1926, a committee of colored
people called on the undersigned, asking him to
come to Ackerville again and continue the work of
teaching them and their children the way to heayen.