The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1931, Page 92

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92

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

This letter makes truly refreshing reading. Of
course, the writer is wrong when he finds fault with
preachers for denouncing birth control and de-
mands that no time be spent in preaching “creeds
and dogmas.” Birth control is a sin that must be
condemned by every faithful pastor, and a truly
Christian preacher must preach Christian doctrine.
But aside from these two things we cannot refrain
from giving our hearty consent to all the writer of
this letter has to say.

Luther in his day said that there is nothing that
will so hold the people with the Church as a good
Gospel-sermon, and the people of the present cen-
tury have the same needs and fundamentally the
same longings to be satisfied that they had in Lu-
ther’s day. The child of God wants to hear God’s
Word because it is the voice of His heavenly Father,
and he that is not a child of God cannot be reborn
unto divine sonship except by this Word of Life, the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. F. J. L.

“Then Cometh the Devil —.’’

We read the following a while ago. It is from
the pen of a missionary in Alaska who had been
compelled to be absent from his station a short time
to attend to some important matters in the States.
After completing his business in the homeland, he
and his wife returned to their field of labor, happy
in the thought that during their brief absence all
had gone well. But hear what the missionary has to
say : —

“Before we reached Klawock on our return in
the late summer, rumors reached us of what had
been going on during our absence.

“The first was the liquor business. After more
than five years’ freedom from the curse, liquor had
been brought in by the whites and given or sold to
whomsoever they could tempt. Quite a number of
our poor native Eskimos fell in the struggle.

“The second was the dance. The cannery people
inaugurated a dance in one of their buildings. To
these gatherings all our young people were invited,
and the band was requested to play. Our young
women were especially invited. “i

“Third, out of these two conditions came im-
morality. Nearly all the girls who attended the
dances were led astray. Our young men got to

drinking and gambling.

_ “Scarcely any of our people were coming to the
_ Services, and a general indifference was manifested
toward all religions life and influence. Such were

the conditions that came with the canning season
and the visits of steamers and government boats
during our few months’ absence.

“From the human side one reason for the fall of
so many has been the lack of an efficient leader
among the natives themselves. We had hoped that
our elders and the interpreter would look after the
people; for the people are but children and need
a shepherd. Our elders, while they have proved
themselves to be good men, are not aggressive.
When trouble came, they simply withdrew from the
trouble instead of encouraging the others to resist
the temptations. Our interpreter allowed his work
for the Master to take second place, and, naturally,
the others became indifferent to His house and
service.

Our church-membership and village population
are made up from four or more tribes or clans of
natives. Among these there has always been a great
rivalry and much jealousy. Only those acquainted
with the natives from personal contact will realize
how much this condition would augment the diffi-
culties in the village.

At first, when some of the people were going into
temptation, our interpreter spoke kindly to them
and tried to lead them in the right way. The reply
was that he mind his own business and look after
his own tribe and the like.

You can see from this that it was difficult to
know just what was left of our church when we re-
turned. One thing we knew: that we must so teach
that hereafter there would be more leaning on Him
and less on the missionary. Perhaps they have
trusted too much in our leadership and oversight
and have not seen Him.

We ignored all stories about the “other fellow”
and commenced again at the beginning and
preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Little by
little our people have been coming back to His wor-
ship and are confessing their sin and leading a
new life.

At Christmas time an old-fashioned dance was
inaugurated by some of the people at one of the
native socials. In fact, it was sprung as a surprise
by some of the daring spirits who had been leaders
in the summer’s sin. Another dance was planned
for New Year, the dance to be entirely old-fash-
ioned. Some of our people could not stand this,
and though they had allowed all of the summer’s
work to pass unnoticed, their eyes were opened as to
where they were drifting. These joined with me to
forestall any more old-fashioned festivities. The