The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 91

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER 91

invited to worship with us, and that with gratify-
ing results.

“Three years have passed since Mr. Lieben and
I first met. It is to be the last time I am to be in
their midst. Our paths in life must now part. We
speak of the past. But Mr. Lieben does not speak
of ‘not binding himself in any way.’ Is he bound
in any way? He seems to know and feel that he is
indeed free, freer than he was at the time when
that utterance was made. And his conception of
the doctrine of faith? Here is his earnest resolve
by which he is guided in all matters pertaining to
faith: ‘Any doctrine that does not harmonize with
the doctrine of the verbal inspiration. of Holy Writ
as the infallible Word of God is to be rejected as
false and not of God.’ He may, of late, have been
warned to beware of the ‘tricky business men of
North America, called missionaries.’ But, to men-
tion only one item of the many improvements made
along religious lines, his free-will offering for ser-
vices rendered, which have greatly increased with-
out any direct reminder, —let alone any compul-
sion on the part of the missionary, — would plainly
indicate that any such overanxious, but misinformed
busybody has received his just dues in unmistakable
terms.

“During our last heart-to-heart talk and shortly
before we parted, this man, who once told me,
‘I shall not bind myself in any way,’ opens his lips,
while his head is deeply bowed and his eyes fixed
upon the floor, and in a voice full of meaning says:
‘Ach, wenn nur alle es wuessten!’ (Oh, if only all
knew!) and then suddenly stops in the middle of
the unfinished sentence to ponder.” CC. WorF.

The Only Preaching that will Extend
Christ’s Kingdom.

Recently a man in Hastings, Nebr., addressed
the following letter to the Omaha World-Herald: —

“To the Editor of the World-Herald: ‘Why
don’t more people go to church?’ is a question that
ministers and laymen often ask. I am not able to
answer the question with authority, but I have my
own ideas about it. I have frequently noted, in the
Public Pulse department, letters from an Omaha
minister who invites men and women to his ‘forum’
on Sunday evenings for the purpose of discussing
various topics. To my mind this thing of ignoring
the ‘old Jerusalem Gospel’ in order to discuss police
snooping, prohibition enforcement, and the ‘situa-

tion in India, together with taking up collections
for the Anti-Saloon League, may have some bearing
on the fact that so many ministers are talking to
empty pews. JI am something of a Bible student
and more or less familiar with the ministry of the
apostles. Paul was a fairly successful preacher, and
perhaps his success was due to the fact that he was
‘determined not to know anything among you, save
Christ and Him crucified’ So far as I am able to
find in a fairly close study of his life and works,
Paul did not have to resort to any spectacular meth-
ods in order to command respectful attention and
sympathetic hearing. Paul was a preacher of the
Word, not a disputationist nor a seeker after sensa-
tionalism.

“One of my pet diversions is to look over the
Sunday church announcements in the numerous
newspapers that come to my desk. Always I am
struck by the absence of real Scriptural texts and
the number of subjects that have little or no bearing
on the subject of the soul’s salvation. Being some-
what old-fashioned in my religious views and be-
lieving that the pulpit is the place to give the mes-
sage of the Master, I make bold to suggest to my
numerous ministerial friends that they preach
Scripture, leaving politics, and slumming, and the
situation in India, and Sorensen, and the Russian
outlook, and _ soldiers’ compensation to other
agencies.

“JT believe that thousands of men and women
would rather hear ministers preach on ‘Blessed are
they that hunger and thirst after righteousness,’
and tell them how to develop spiritually than to
hear them discuss secular topics.

“Nowhere do I read that the Master demanded
the enactment of sumptuary laws to aid the build-
ing of His kingdom. Nowhere do I read that He
called upon the strong arm of the law to drive men
to repentance. Ezra read from the book, not from
the daily newspapers. ‘Go ye into all the world and
preach the Gospel to every creature’ was the divine
commission, not: Go ye into all the world and dis-
cuss prohibition and birth control and police regu-
lations, not: Go ye into all the world and spend the
major portion of your time lobbying with legis-
latures for the enactment of laws to compel men to
conform to your own views.

“In short, I believe that if the ministers of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ would preach ‘Christ and
Him crucified’ and not isms and creeds and dogmas
and personal opinions, there would be fewer com-
plaints about empty pews.”

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