The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 72

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72

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

I was surprised at his acknowledgment of his
sinfulness and the need of grace. This is hardly the
viewpoint of a Hindu. I later learned that he had
attended an American Christian college at Madura,
and this, no doubt, was something he had learned
there, an admixture of Christianity into his pagan
religion. But I continued: “How are we to obtain
this grace?”

He: “Pray to God; He will be gracious to you.”

I: “But how can God be gracious to sinners?
He has said that, if we sin, we must suffer eternal
damnation. As long as God is God, this must stand,
and He must fufil His threat. If He simply over-
looks sin without any atonement, He will no longer
be God, but a liar, condemned by His own words.”

He: “I do not know much about such things.
But we are told to pray to God and believe that He
will forgive our sins.”

I: “But how can God forgive sins unless they
are atoned for? - The penalty of our sins must be
paid. And since all men are sinners, no man can
atone for our sins. Who, according to your Hindu
religion, has atoned for your sins?”.

He (after much hesitation and much talking be-
side the point) : “We are told that there was a cer-
tain manifestation of the Deity who told us to be-
lieve in Him, and then we should be saved.”

I: “But what did this manifestation do to atone
for your sins ?”

JTe (after some more vain talk) : “He has saved
us by giving us many good doctrines; and, if a man
does what they teach, he shall live thereby.”

I: “Please answer my question. Who is your
Savior, and what has he done for you? If you have
a debt, you must pay for it. You have a debt of sin,
for you admit that you are a sinner. You yourself,
being a sinner, cannot pay it. Who, then, has paid
your debt — and how?” J

No satisfactory answer was forthcoming.

I: “You see, here is one point, and the main
point at that, in which the Hindu religion knows no
parallel. ‘The doctrines of Hinduism regarding
morality, although not identical with the doctrines
of Christ, still are more than what any man can live
up to. The Hindu religion itself makes people sin-
ners, but it shows no way out of sin. It knows of
no Savior from sin. In this respect the Christian
teligion i is unique; there is no parallel between it

_ and any other religion. The Christian religion does

not only show that all men are sinners, but also con-
ieey yinces men that Christ Jesus died for sinners and
; suffered the enaent of hell for them, i in their

: tians.

stead, thus atoning for their sins and purchasing for
them the grace of God. Because of this sacrifice of
Christ, God is gracious to sinners and forgives them
their trespasses. It is this singularness of the Chris-
tian religion which brings Christian missionaries to
India; for we love the people of India and feel
sorry for them because they worship a trinity which
knows no Savior, but does know a destroyer. This
is what India needs most — a savior from sin.”
Trivandrum, Travancore, S. India.

G. OBERHEU.
ee

Help for the Sightless.

At the invitation of President Hoover, delegates
from thirty-five nations met last month in New
York City to study the problems of the blind and
to exchange ideas, regarding the means to be
adopted for promoting the welfare of the sightless.

Every one should be in hearty sympathy with
this humanitarian work; for it alleviates the bur-
dens of afflicted humanity. Public charities and
other community agencies give the sightless many
opportunities for intellectual enjoyments and mate-
rial comforts.

This temporal assistance deserves our recogni-
tion and cooperation. But sincere Christians know
that the blind, like all other human beings, are
also in need of spiritual guidance. Material assis-
tance cannot remove sin, sorrow, and death from
the lives of the afflicted. Jesus utters the thoughts
of the eternal mind of God when He asks: “What
is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul?” Matt. 16,26. Moreover,
He tells us: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the
Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me,”
John 14, 6. It is the business of the Christian
Church to lead lost sinners, also among the blind,
to the only Savior, Jesus Christ. Many roads lead
to ruin, but only one leads to eternal salvation,
peace, and true happiness. The farther material or
intellectual interests take us off the path of the true
faith, the farther we shall be from the only way
which leads man safely through the desert of sin
and the wilderness of sorrow, death, and eternal
regrets to heaven.

Our Mission among the Blind, like all Christian
missions, is in need of the prayers and the financial
support of all true believers. It is also our firm
conviction that information will remove indifference
to this cause from the hearts of all sincere Chris-
For this reason we are sending out infor-