Ex

Christ. This is the center of our theology. The burden of our message. The command, "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded." It is life. ample: The Old Testament believer had a mystery, "the serpent in the wilderness." How that could save the dying Israelite in the camp no one dared to answer, but it did. That serpent pointed to Christ. The Christ is the fulfillment of the Serpent on the Cross. It was this Christ that Nicodemus had lost, "The Son of Man be lifted up." The Saviour rightly said. "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." Dear Luther Leaguers, we need to lift up this Christ. Our topics must be more spiritual. Our Reading Course should have one book, "The Life of Christ." We must find our soul.

II. The Hour Calls Upon Us Christians (Luther Leaguers) to Find the Soul of Man.

Christ's crucial hour is the manifestation of His human nature. Nowhere is there such an exhibition of thoughtfulness for His disciples, for His Church, for the world. He seeks companionship, He craves sympathy, He feels for the disciples whom He must leave in the world. He does everything in His power to provide for and comfort them. The very soul of His human nature is revealed.

Our recent world war overthrew a great monster-sin. Unconsciously we had driftcd into a sort of caste system. There was a great gulf fixed between the rich and the poor; between capital and labor; between the mistress and maid; between white and black, etc. There was more or less of a class hatred. We had lost our fine feelings of human brotherhood. and true welfare and sympathy for one another.

But how soon were these destroyed when we united to overthrow a common enemy of our ideals. The sons of the rich could not be distinguished from the sons of the poor; capital and labor vied with one another, and most every one was 100 per cent. efficient. Mistress and maid worked side by side in the work of the Red Cross and on the battlefield; the white and the black, the Italian and the American, fought side by side. Each was interested in the welfare of the other. They knew no wall of separation. In order to help one another the laws of physical health were enforced; the evil of the drink traffic removed; men parted with their wealth and recognized their stewardship as never before. We rested on God, but we also were interested in the environment of man.

Dear fellow Christians and Luther Leaguers, we must again find the Christian common brotherhood; that ideal that was set up in the early Church. That ideal

for which Luther strove in the priesthood of believers. That, being redeemed of God, we are saved to save our fellow men. That when washed in the blood of the Lamb, we are tied to one another by a blood government which stops not in its sacrifice when it has preached, but that serves to change the environment as well as to care for all the ills of life. Man is a social, economic, industrial, ethical, moral as well as a spiritual being, and we must manifest in this new age that brotherhood in the affairs of the world, so when He exercises His faith in the arena of life, He may find you and me, and all other Christians, striving to assist him, as truly as when on the Lord's Day we teach from the revealed page.

For in the warfare against sin we are in the spiritual trenches, and we need the sympathetic heart and the helpful hand. III. The Hour Calls Upon Us Christians (Luther Leaguers) to Return to the Word of God.

Nowhere is sin so manifest as in that crucial hour of the Son of God. It is pressing Him on every hand. He can trust no one. It seems as if the very powers of hell were weighing down upon Him. He turns to His Father for strength, and to find again what is His perfect and good will. Finding this he goes forth to conquer.

When in 1914 the Great War broke forth we all stood aghast. We could not at first believe that such frightfulness in human atrocities were possible in a so-called intelligent and scientific people. We could not believe that the home of the Reformation could have fallen in such awful disrepute. It was then that we drew down our books, and philosophies, and literature, and sociology, and socialism, and scanned anew the writings of Kant, Fichte, Spinoza, Schelling, Schiller and Goethe; then we saw anew the evils of the day. We ob. served how they had left "the good old paths of God" to wander in the fields of rationalism; to plow with the heifers of unbelief; to assume their own righteousness, instead of that offered by a merciful Father through His beloved Son on Calvary. Everywhere we saw displayed the might of man instead of the right of God. Cæsar was held in honor, more than the King of Kings. Secretary Lansing uttered a great truth when he said: "Materialism was largely responsible for this war. We must not sink back to the same level. A strong and vital spirituality ought to dominate mankind, so that we may rise above the greed and selfishness which have corrupted mankind and distorted the ideals and purposes of life."

We must seek to vitalize the world anew with a strong and dominant personality, and this can only be accomplished by a re

CRUCIAL HOUR OF THE CHURCH

newed study in the Scriptures. This is the source of our strength. The Church faces each new epoch with new problems, new tasks, new duties, but she comes to the new epoch with the same mission, with the same unchanging power of truth. The truth is the only remedy for the dying world. "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." "Ye must be born again." "The children of the truth" are the ones who are "born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

The Church aided the State in 1917 in the right manner. She placed a New Testament in the hands of each soldier. She followed him with her pastors, camp pastors, chaplains in navy and army. She saw that his environment was good by placing in the field the workers of the Y. M. C. A. She urged the pastor to keep in touch with Prayers the spiritual son with letters. were uttered with every service. We did not forget the men at the front with the Word and Means of Grace.

Shall we betray our trust now? Shall we do less for him at home where he is near the domestic altar and the Church, than we did when he was in a strange land and amid strange people?

We need to make our topics spiritual. We need to interpret them in a spiritual manner. We need to make our devotional meetings filled with the spirit of Christ.

Our League had fallen into an evil habit. We were drifting into the social, educational and entertainment realm, instead of the spiritual. We need to take heed to our ways. I like that picture of the Apostle in Ephesians 6:10-18, when he closes his exhortation on our duty to the Church when he says: "Finally, brethren, what remains for you to do, surrounded by principalities, powers, rulers of the world's darkness, and spiritual wickedness in high places," is "to put on the whole armor of God; to be strong in the Lord," etc.

IV. The Hour Calls Upon Us Christians (Luther Leaguers) to Enlarge Our

Vision.

Notice Christ here. He is not consider.. ing Himself. He is thinking of heaven, the Father's will, then the earth and the sin. Then the disciples, the Church, and the world that shall believe.

The war gave us so many ideals to intensify our missionary ideals and principles. What were they?

1. To rid ourselves of war. It was a curse. To hate sin.

2. To assume human freedom vs. autocratic governments.

3. To establish international righteous

ness.

4. To use our strength for service. 5. To prepare the way for a new order of truth, justice and righteousness. Translated for the Church:

1. Vision of sin.

2. To free mankind.

3. That there is a standard of right. 4. That we are our brother's keeper. 5. To this end I must spend my strength, my purse, my talents, my life.

V. The Hour Calls for Service and Sacrifice.

In Christ's Crucial Hour. He does not choose the easy way. It is the Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering, the way of the Valley of Sorrows. But this led him to the Mount of Triumph. The garden of suffering touched the Mount of Olives. Hence the end of humiliation was the birth hour of His exaltation.

Was not that our attitude in the hour of the struggle in the state to attain our ideal? There was no choosing of the easy way. He was considered a slacker who dared to hold back talent, gift or service. It was that great ideal of freedom, coupled with a self-surrender to do all in our strength, that won for us the ideal of our liberty among the nations of the world.

The Church faces a new day, with new opportunities. Thank God that we have the "Dum opportunity to live and to live now. vivimus vivamus." While we live let us live. See Paul, Rom. 12:1, 2.

There is danger that we relax. We have borne a heavy load. Already some say, I must now let up. There is a letting up in some quarters. No, in God's name, we are just beginning to go to battle as a Church. To the Christian, "the morrow of victory is more perilous than its eve."

Luther Leaguers, will you choose the easy road? Will you refuse to serve in the trenches, or in the second line of defense? Shall we offer ourselves on the altar of God for service in His Church?

The whole scheme of our Christian faith implies this: The purpose of God in sending His Son was to make Him a Saviour and Lord; to destroy His enemies, sin and death, which threaten us. He dies to win for us a righteousness, a righteousness by faith and by sanctification. That war is still on. It is on now, and we are to rear on the sin-scarred battle grounds of the nations of the world His Kingdom of truth and redemption. Let us go forth and put a new meaning in the "Battle Hymn of the Republic":

"In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;

As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free."

C.

TH

HIS is an inner mission institution in your Capital through which most Lutheran churches of Washington do their local social service. Twenty-four young women, mostly from my Bible class, teach in the Gospel Mission Chinese Sunday School. Fourteen other young women help after the government service for the day is over in the orphanage and in the day nursery. They see that the children have a good supper, that they are taught manners, then after a few kindergarten songs, exercises, and plays the day pupils are dressed in the home clothing and are taught how to deport conventionally. Then the home babies are bathed and prepared for the night and taught a verse of Scripture and their prayers. I am never quite sure who is most benefited, our little children or the young women who act as foster mothers.

The Babe of Bethlehem Society is composed of matrons from several Lutheran churches, their chief business is preparing clothing for unborn babies whose mothers work and have no time to sew, but chiefly for foreign mothers who think if baby has a bandage on, then wrapped in an old shawl for three months it will do very well. This real service gives an opportunity to present facts to the mother to teach her how to dress her children, and above all to show her how to train them for Christ and how to be good citizens.

At the Gospel Mission we have two Ford trucks. When the weather is very hot, boys quarreling, girls scrapping, mothers scolding, Mr. Kline, the superintendent of the Mission, loads up over 100 kiddies and takes them to Rock Creek Park, where they paddle in the creek, make mud pies, visit the Zoo, get all the bread and milk their starved little bodies will hold, and are taken home, tired, refreshed, clean and happy to sleep in spite of heat and mosquitoes. They are of forty-seven different nationalities so we think we are Americanizing the entire bunch.

Who furnishes the money? Why God's people, so far as the writer is concerned mostly Lutherans. It costs a lot for gasoline, teachers, nurses, driver and food. Then from these same little people we have three Boy Scout troops and one Girl Scout troop. You see by children learning to play together, to take instruction, secular and religious, from the same teachers, they are taught to live in harmony and to become good Americans. Of course they attend the public schools, which is a great help.

Our Child's Welfare Department is only

in part Gospel Mission Work. It is where the babies, 300 or 400, are weighed and measured on certain days of the week; they are registered by card. If a baby is losing weight the doctor and nurse must find out the reason, and go to the home and inspect conditions. It is to evangelize the mothers as well as save the babies that this branch of the work is kept up. We seldom lose a baby.

The Dispensary for two hours each morning has a stream of suffering human beings passing in and out. The best physicians in the entire city give of their best knowledge free of charge and seem glad to have this outlet for their unpaid-for kindness. They are also chemists, and only require us to provide the foundation medicines, from which they compound the tinctures and drugs.

OUR JAIL AND HOSPITAL COMMITTEES are composed of our most consecrated workers. Persons who have had the baptism for service, and have had experience in leading souls to Christ. They bring letters to relatives, interview lawyers to secure speedy trials for prisoners, get needed clothing, etc. Many people are converted in jail but probably far more are brought to Christ in the hospitals. It blesses not only those for whom service is intended, but it reacts and enlarges the souls who render this service.

EVANGELISM

is the chief work of the Mission. For the purpose of saving souls we hold meetings every night of the year. We have not omitted a night in eleven years. It would be a modest statement to say we average one convert a night, 365 a year or over 4,000 in the 11 years. Does that pay? What if your son enters the Mission a derelict and emerges a Christian efficient man. Would you think it paid?

How do we get money to do all this? We believe every person who helps furnish the means for our work will receive from God at least a large part of the blessing for souls saved. Will you be one of our co-workers and assist in enlarging our work along lines which are now crying out for help?

In many a country place there is not much opportunity to give even the cup of cold water in His name, but by sending part of the Lord's tenth intrusted to you to the writer for the Mission you win His "Inasmuch." A tree, a church or a Mission is judged by its fruits.

I wish you could see James Hall, one of (Continued on page 33)

Chairman of committee announces: "Gentlemen, we have met tonight to entertain the ladies. The cards that you have signed have all been put in this hat and the stunts the committee have prepared will be carried out by those whose names are drawn."

(The gentlemen selected are in the arena before they know what they are to do. From four to twelve names are called according to the event and the number of gentlemen present.)

First event-Blindfolded feeding contest.
Second event-Eating and whistling contest.

Third event-Four corner obstacle race.

First corner-Drinking glassful of salt water.
Second corner-Handless marshmallow eat.

Third corner-Thread needles.

Fifth event-Standing broad grin.

Thread Sketching. Pass out to each guest a piece of yellow muslin about six inches square and a needle threaded with coarse black thread. At the top of the piece of cloth is printed the name of some animal which each must sketch with the thread. No one is allowed to use pencil. The pictures are afterward displayed on a large strip of goods stretched along one side of the room.

Pin Contest. A large saucer and one row from a paper of new pins is supplied each contestant. At a signal each one must take out all the pins, and place them in the saucer, and then put them back again into the same holes. The pins must be picked up one at a time and put in place.

The Social with a Hundred Laughs
All plans secret.

Chief novelty: The ladies will have a rest and the gentlemen will do the entertaining.

Each gentleman signs his name on a card and receives a tag reading "Playing the Game."

Ten-foot arena marked off by chairs and cords.

Fourth corner-Handless gingerbread eat.

Fourth event-Hammer throw.

Sixth event-Prize avoirdupois contest.

Seventh event-Humorous recitations, "Ups and Downs of Married Life."

Eighth event-Hurdle race with sixteen chairs.
Ninth event-Chorus, lined in old style:

Boy-gun-joy-fun; Gun-bust-boy-dust.

Tenth event-Refreshments a la rapid transit. Every man with hands on shoulders of man ahead marches to the kitchen to the tune of Yankee Doodle, and returns with two glasses of fruit punch and a plate of cookies.-Ladies' Home Journal

The Latest Periodicals

The programs or invitations might be in the shape of a magazine with little pen and ink sketches on the cover. These questions may be written inside, the answers of which are the names of magazines:

One Hundred Years Old-Century.
Santa Claus-St. Nicholas.

One who sketches-Delineator.
A prospect-Outlook.

What we all cling to-Life.

Hash-Review of Reviews.

The persons whose money the. trust wants-Everybody's.

The Suburbs-Country Life in America. Pertaining to the largest city-Metropolitan. What influences politicians-Current Opinion. Intellectual Pepsin Tablets-The Literary Digest. The last mail of the week-Saturday Evening Post. An up-to-date Puritan-The Modern Priscilla. A citizen of the world-Cosmopolitan. The work that is underground-Collier's. What every Leaguer should read-The Luther League Review.

EASTER DAY

Once again we are privileged to hear the glad message of "He is risen." It is not a dead Christ whom we worship, but a living Redeemer. He who pins his faith on anything else has no real hope. It is the glad message of Easter Day that robs the grave of its sting. The Christian, like his Lord, must pass through this dark gateway that he might inherit all things. Since flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, death through the redeeming Christ becomes a blessing, not a curse. So, then, let our hymns of praise raised in worship to the risen Redeemer this day be the true expressions of a living faith, a vital hope.