Hauge Lutheran Innermission Federation, Joel Zeltinger, 8916 White Spruce Road, Dilworth, MN (2026)

10/20/2026

THE HAUGE MOVEMENT
Living Water, By Edward Nelson 1941,

The name, Hans Nielsen Hauge, is a cherished name among believers, both in Norway and America. With a limited education, but with a burning love for the lost, and filled with the Spirit of God, he ventured out alone to speak to individuals and to preach repentance. Because of dividing the Word rightly he was despised and persecuted by religious leaders and had to suffer more than any other Christian in Norway. He went to his heavenly reward, but his life is still speaking to us. The Haugeans, his followers, are Bible searchers. They are not taking all that they hear for granted, but like the believers in Berea, who "searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things be so." Acts 17:11.

The Haugeans have never been popular among those of high-churchly attitude, and that is to be expected, for Christ Himself was hated by the same class of people. When the Hauge Federation was organized and the (Indremissionsvennen) "Inner Mission Friend" was launched, people of the Haugean spirit were happy, and these projects became objects of prayer and support. The Norwegian Inner Mission in Chicago at that time, Brother P. E. Ericksen, as foreman, took active part in securing subscriptions for the Norwegian paper. Some of us paid for twenty-five subscriptions each, and our interest and cooperation have continued to the present day.

Brother Peder Fostervold, who had a large part in organizing the
Hauge Federation is greatly missed, but our loss is his gain. We need many more such energetic workers to carry this work forward. A greater effort should be made to reach the youth of our churches. Many of our young people do not know anything about the Federation and what it stands for. God alone knows what a blessed contribution it has made to the spiritual life in our country. May it always be blest with fearless leadership as it has been in the past.

10/19/2026

"If Thy Brother Shall Trespass"
A Firm Footing, Peder Fostervold, Copyright 1939

“Moreover if your brother shall sin against you,” said Jesus—then
pointing us over to the royal highway in such a case. Read about it in Matt. 18.

A brother who sins! It is sad that this shall ever happen. Sin is the destruction of any people. It is sin that sends people to perdition.

Then, when even a brother might sin.
Yes, Jesus knew that even this would take place—and He wills that someone shall help this brother, that he may be saved. First and last he wants you to do it—you whom he has sinned against.
You are also willing. If he only would come, humble himself and acknowledge his guilt and ask your pardon. Then nothing should hinder it from your side. Here you have gone for weeks and months and waited and waited for him to come, but he has not come. He is too stiff to humble himself.

But listen now: Is this the way to help the sinning brother? Do you help him by going about irritated, because he does not humble himself?

No, this was not the way Jesus said it.
He said, you shall go to him. Yes, but it is he who has done the sinning—not I, I hear you say, and then he certainly ought to come to me first and settle up.

This sounds very reasonable. But listen to what Jesus said: “Moreover, if your brother sin against you, you shall go and tell him his fault between you and him alone! If he shall hear you, you have won your brother.”

This is the way Jesus spoke.
It does not say that you shall go and humiliate your brother, but you shall win him.

And it is easier for you to go to him than it is for him who has done the sinning, to come to you.

When you have won your brother, he will also humble himself. But you have been waiting and wondering and perhaps been a little bitter because your poor brother did not humble himself and come to you first.

Then you have gone stiff and proud and thought evil thoughts and overlooked what Jesus said to you—that you should go to him to win your brother.

Perhaps you also might have reason to humble yourself. Then you will receive grace. For God gives grace to the humble—even grace to be tender and meek toward a falling brother, and to help him out on the way.

The stronger shall the weaker
With help and strength supply
To aid to bear the burden
In loving fellowship.

10/16/2026

Why Speak Like This?

Isaiah 40:27–31
Sin and Atonement (Synd og Soning) , R.P. Haakonson 1920s?

People say, “God doesn’t care about my life or my cause.”
Then come the complaints and the lamenting. I met an old, blind man the other day who said he still was not saved. And it was almost as if he believed it was God’s fault that he had not yet found peace in his soul. Many who suffer greatly think that God does not really care about them—otherwise they would not suffer so much, since God is good. Others feel that everything seems to go against them, and so they conclude that God must not care much about them either.

Yes, people talk this way. But it is easy talk, even though there is very little sense in it. And just because we feel compelled to speak so foolishly does not mean that God is as we imagine Him to be. If that were true, God would often be made very small.
Let us stop talking like this!

For we ought to know who the Lord is. He is eternal—not like you and me, who are like grass in the field, standing today and thrown into the fire tomorrow. This temporary body and life, which cause you so much trouble, are not permanent. They last only a short time. But strive to share in your God, and you will receive something eternal. Remember that you are God’s own creation. He never grows tired of you; He does not faint, and His understanding cannot be measured.

To know this is to share in it. Does it make a difference? Yes—try the Lord and you will experience the truth of His word for yourself. How?

By waiting on the Lord. Waiting takes patience, but this patience is richly rewarded. For as you wait, you learn obedience—and then something happens. You receive new strength. Have you experienced it? You rise up on wings like an eagle. There are many such wings, but let me mention just two: faith and hope. And now the darkness begins to lift, doesn’t it—you who are carried by the promises? You no longer speak in doubt about whether God cares for you or not. Now you know that He does. Now you run and do not grow weary; you walk and do not faint.

“But,” you say, “I often feel so tired.” God Himself acknowledges this: even the strongest among us—even the young—grow weary. Who does not become exhausted by all the busyness and hypocrisy of the world? What sincere child of God has not felt the devil’s fiery arrows aimed at the heart? Who has not stumbled into the dangerous traps of the flesh?

You weary child of God, may God give you strength—great strength. You need it. Then you will fly like a bird to your rock, you who are tired of sin. The eagle flies high, where there is less danger. The hunter—the evil one—cannot reach his prey so easily there. And the eagle has sharp sight; it sees far from its height. In the warm and glorious fellowship with Jesus, the poor sinner sees farther than the greatest scholar who lives without God.

So once again we wait on the Lord and lift up our wings. Then our speech is renewed and made good. Praise be to the name of the Lord!

“Let my blind eyes weep;
if only my soul still has its wings,
I will again find the way
to the bright home of my youth.
When I walk forward with head held high,
singing even in the darkness,
I know that even in the land of death
spring will break forth again.”

10/15/2026

Select Readings and Recitations, Collected by Olaf Lysnes
Augsburg Publishing House, 1920

"THE MOST DANGEROUS HERESY OF OUR DAY"
Putting what we do ahead of what we believe—that is the most dangerous heresy of our day. Men are cheating themselves and others out of eternal life, condemning themselves to hell, by believing and spreading the lie that a man's works are the most important thing in God's sight. Service as the condition of salvation—that is the death-dealing heresy of today, as it has been thru all preceding centuries. Satan says, and man believes it: "Never mind about creed or belief; what you do, not what you believe, is the only thing God really cares about." Work instead of faith—and every man who believes this heresy goes down to eternal death.

Man says: "I'll do the best I can, and that is all that is needed to make me acceptable to God." God says: "You are so hopelessly corrupted by sin that 'the best you can' will never bridge the gulf between your sinfulness and my holiness. Therefore, not the best you can do for me, but the best I can do for you, is your only hope. You must let me do it all for you; and I have done it all in the sacrifice and death of my Son Jesus Christ in your stead. By His shed blood He has finished the work of redeeming you. Will you accept this gift of salvation from me?" Man's answer determines his eternal life or eternal death.

Man says, as to the work of his redemption, "I'll do it for myself." That is the heresy of death.

God says, "You must let me do it for you." That is the Gospel of Life.
"What must we do, that we may work the works of God?" they asked Jesus. "This is the work of God," was his reply, "that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent" (John 6:28–29).

It is an interesting fact that most of the popular false religions of today break down at exactly this point. Christian Science, Unitarianism, New Thought, Spiritualism, the Higher Criticism, the New Theology, the "liberalizing" and "rationalizing" and "modernizing" of "old-fashioned" Christianity—all of these point to what man can do for himself, and deny or tend to deny man's desperate need of what God has done for him thru the shed blood of Christ as man's Substitute and Savior. They are bloodless beliefs, and therefore hopeless unbeliefs. The "most dangerous heresy of our day" is the root poison of them all.

For the most dangerous heresy of our day is man's making God a liar when God says:
(Rom. 4:5) But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.
SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES, 1917

10/13/2026

And the Heavens Departed
O.F. Ljunghammer, Morning Glory, January 1970

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond man, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

—Revelation 6:14-17
Many will be at that prayer meeting, but it will be too late to pray at that time. PRAY NOW!

WHO ARE GOING TO HELL?
DID JESUS PREACH HELL?
A man said the other day, "If you were more like Jesus you would preach more about heaven and less about hell."
You would think by the way some people talk that they had more love for their fellowmen than God has. Is it a mark of love to hide the truth from men because it is awful?

Listen dear reader, to these words from the Son of God, who came all the way from heaven, and died on the cruel tree to save you from hell.

OF THE WICKED HE SAID:
"Them which do iniquity, He shall cast into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:41, 42).

TO THE CARELESS AND INDIFFERENT HE SAID:
"Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And these shall go away into everlasting
punishment" (Matt. 25:41, 46).

TO THE UNSAVED-PROFESSORS HE SAID:
"Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 25:30).

TO RELIGIOUS HYPOCRITES HE SAID:
"Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Matthew 23:33).

TO THOSE WHO PERMIT THE AFFAIRS OF THIS LIFE TO HINDER THEM HE SAID:
"It is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched, where their worm dieth nut, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:43, 44).

OF THE RICH MAN WHO FORGOT GOD HE SAID:
"In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and cried, I am tormented in this flame" (Luke 16:22, 24).

Would I be faithful to you, dear reader, knowing of the awful hell that awaits every unsaved soul, if I neglected or refused to warn you? Listen to what God says to such: "When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thy hand" (Ezek. 3:18).

A GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION
Suppose an excursion train was going out from this town, and that I was on the track and as I walked I came to a bridge and found it broken. I knew the train with its hundreds on board was about due; in fact, I could hear it coming. I think for a moment that I will warn them of their danger and stop them. But then I think again, it would be a pity to spoil their holiday by such terrible news. Some people might get scared, and perhaps some of them would faint, some who are sickly might get very much worse. I love them very much and want them to have a good time, so I wave them farewell with best wishes.

The train rushes on and all on board are killed or wounded. The whole town is deluged in sorrow. I come among them and tell them I knew the bridge was down, but I loved the people so much that I could not think of warning them and spoiling their pleasure. And besides that, I feared that some of them would not believe my report and would make light of me.

WOULD YOU CALL THAT LOVE?
How long would they let me live in that town, or even live at all? What are we to say then of men who stand before their fellow men, whom they know are rushing down to hell, unsaved, without Christ,
and yet never warn them of their danger?

GOD SAYS:
"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (Psalm 9:17).

"But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whore-mongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone" (Rev. 21:8).

"Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:15).

HOW TO JOIN GOD'S CHURCH
Jesus told us how to join it. He said: "You must be born again." — (St. John 3:1-21). The new birth is a real change from death in sin to life in God. Only God has power to give us this new life through His Son, Jesus Christ. But God cannot give any man or woman this new life in Christ until he or she repents of all sins. In other words, you must have a real sorrow for sin; you must pray to God to forgive all your past iniquity, and ask Him to wash you in JESUS' BLOOD. (St. Luke 24:46-49, I Peter 1:18-19, St. Luke 15:10, Jeremiah 29:12-13, Romans 5:9, and St. John 17:1-26).

You will know when your sins are forgiven because at that moment you will EXPERIENCE A HEAVENLY PEACE IN YOUR SOUL. This is how God adds blood-washed people to His true church. Amen!
Jesus said: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11:28).

10/12/2026

The Mote and the Beam

Peder Fostervold
On Solid Ground, 1919

“But why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye,
but do not notice the beam in your own eye?”
—Jesus

I. The Speck in Your Brother’s Eye
It is not so easy to see a splinter or a speck in another person’s eye. Such a tiny thing is not usually displayed for public inspection—at least not as long as it remains in the eye.

But Jesus speaks of someone who has seen that speck. And He asks why one sees it.

We answer: Because one is looking for such things.

Unless someone were watching for it, he would never notice a speck in another’s eye. And when someone watches for such things, it is because he likes to find them. If he did not like that, he would hardly go about spying in such a way. There could surely be another way of meeting one’s brother.

But to take pleasure in discovering faults in another person’s soul—this is a sign that something is lacking in one’s own love.
If love were in order—if it were sincere and heartfelt—then it would cover a multitude of sins. That is the way of love.
But if a breach has come into love, then the cold gusts from the spirit of this world can easily enter. And such gusts are dangerous.

They can give birth to bitterness and death in the soul.
II. The Beam in Your Own Eye
It is certainly not some small and innocent thing that has entered one’s eye when a beam is there.

But not noticing a beam in one’s own eye—there must be something sadly wrong.

1. Something must be wrong with one’s sense of feeling.
A healthy sense would immediately warn that something terribly large had come into the eye.

2. One does not use the mirror.
If one looked in a mirror, it would not take long to reveal the
condition of the eye.

3. And finally: one is careless about keeping oneself clean.
If a person washed his face, it would be nearly impossible not to strike that beam with his hands and thus become aware of it.
So it is also in the soul’s life with God.

It is possible to lose the sensitive heart. Once the reminders of the Spirit in your soul were so living and noticeable. You were watchful lest you should act against the will of the Spirit.

But then you began to be less careful and less obedient—in order to spare yourself. Then the holy fear of sin diminished, and the desire for fellowship with God’s friends grew dull.

And the concern that once burned in your soul—the concern for those who stagger toward death—that fire was not nourished by the heart of Jesus Christ, and so it went out.

Something dreadful had happened in the soul.
The wakeful, sensitive heart had been injured, and the new life of the Spirit had lost its power.

And so the path went downward—along the road to the place where a person might have a beam in his eye without knowing it himself.

--

This story has been written in many lives. But it must not be written again upon the pages of your soul.

Therefore you must use the mirror—the mirror of God’s Word. It does not deceive.

“Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith; test yourselves,” exhorts the Book of God (2 Corinthians 13:5).
And if you truly test yourself—test your heart, test your daily walk, test your love in the light of that mirror—then it will tell you whether you are in the faith.

For in that wonderful book you will find all the marks of true faith.
Do you have peace with God, a full assurance that your sins are forgiven? Do you love God’s Word and God’s friends? Not only that you can endure the Lord’s little ones on earth—but do you love them? Do you hate sin, and do you deny yourself in order to live in God’s will? Are you happy in faith in God’s promises? These are some of the marks of a life of faith.

Do not stop at the thought that you were converted “back then.” It may well have become a matter of habit with you—that your whole Christian life is form without content, ritual without life, that it is the beam in your eye, without your even noticing it. Test yourself—see whether you live in the secret of faith. Stand before the mirror.

*
It is not only about testing whether you possess the life of faith. Even the works of our life must be brought to the mirror, to see whether they were done in God. But everyone should test his own work, the apostle of God tells us (Galatians 6:4). Even the way one seeks to solve life’s tasks can introduce a beam into the eye—and thus the fine organism of the soul is harmed, and the joy and success of one’s work are blocked.

There is a little story about a pastor who pondered what might be wrong with his congregation. “Let me know,” he prayed. Then he dreamed that a man came into his room. He held a balance in one hand, with weights, and a large ball in the other.

"This is your life’s work," said the stranger. “I will weigh it and see what it contains.”

The ball weighed 100 pounds. But then he threw it into the fire, and it broke into many smaller pieces.

"See, it is made up of many things," said the strange guest. “Now we will see what the individual parts contain.”
And then he weighed them again, with the following results:
• 10 pounds of fleshly zeal
• 23 pounds of ambition
• 19 pounds of desire for praise
• 15 pounds of rivalry with other church groups
• 14 pounds of pride in one’s own talent
• 12 pounds of desire to dominate
Now only two small pieces remained, which turned out to consist of:
• 3 pounds of love for people
• 4 pounds of pure love for God
But everyone should test his own work. And how each person’s work really is, the fire will test.

Once again, we must stand before the divine mirror to find the Lord’s way with us. It is strangely peculiar with us and God’s will. It often happens that we want God to agree with us, that what we want is also God’s will. That is the way of the flesh. But the sincere person is not satisfied with that path.
So we will listen to the call of the Gospel:
“…proving what is acceptable to the Lord.”
Ephesians 5:10

If you want to test where God’s way for your life lies, pay attention to three things:
1. The God-given, written Word
2. The witness of the Spirit in your own spirit
3. How life’s circumstances are arranged
If that is your mirror, see whether you receive guidance from God’s eye, and listen to whether a voice whispers in your ear: “This is the way, walk in it.”
--

A watchful and repentant soul knows that he needs to cleanse himself. And God’s Word knows it too:

“Sanctify your souls in obedience to the truth. Since you have these promises, my beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
1 Peter 1:22; 2 Corinthians 7:1

Thus speaks the Book of God’s salvation. And the sincere one will, in the course of life, learn to understand some of this speech. But when one lives under the light and purifying power of the Spirit and the Word, one also learns something of bumping into many a beam in one’s own eye.

This leads one into humility and self-discipline, and often into the pain of temptation. And there are many a terrified soul who, in such times, has asked in anguish:

"Ah, will I ever reach the happy land, stumbling again and again?"
But one turns to Jesus with that question. And it is the soul’s happiness to turn there—to find that one cannot do without Jesus. The light from God reveals how sin and corruption have taken deep root in the heart. It is not a pleasant discovery. But the sincere soul desires truth.

And the one who belongs to the truth hears God’s voice. Then the way is opened for the truth to set one free, and the beams are removed.

"He must increase, but I must decrease."
This is the confession of all humble souls. And the humble receive God’s grace. There is much of God’s grace, and many kinds of God’s grace; and it is slow work for us to experience the fullness of God’s riches.

But one grace a distressed and struggling soul—one under the influence of God’s purifying fire—will fight to attain in such times: to believe without seeing. When it seems that everything is falling apart, to hold fast to God’s Word—that is the way of faith, and thus the way of victory. And on the way of faith, we have access to the
springs of life in God.

So purify yourself in obedience to the truth, and God will cleanse you for the praise of His grace, to bless the work of your life, and for the eternal happiness of your soul.

10/11/2026

The Lutheran Forum
How Is Your Revival Going?
By Sarah Hinlicky Wilson
From Lutheran Forum, Summer 2016

A while back I spent some time in Madagascar, teaching a course with my husband at the Lutheran seminary in Fianarantsoa. They had a number of questions for us right away. One of the questions they asked was, “How is your revival going?”

Caught off guard the first time, I stumbled and finally managed to say, “Well, actually, we don’t have a revival.”

“None? Not at all?” the student pressed.

“No. None.”

“How can you have a church without a revival?” the student wondered aloud in astonishment.

After just a few days experiencing the vibrancy of the Malagasy church—its rapid growth and its powerful spiritual and healing ministries—I began to think: you can’t.

“Revival” is not a word to warm the cockles of a northern Lutheran’s heart. Revivals aren’t totally foreign to the Lutheran experience, but nowadays they have a bad reputation. It’s rare to hear a good word said about revivalist Hans Nielsen Hauge, despite his almost single-handed transformation of Norway’s society. Finland has seen two major revivals, led by Paavo Ruotsalainen and Lars Levi Laestadius, but their heirs today are often regarded as reactionary and sectarian, hanging on to membership in the folk church by a thread.

How is your revival going?

The question haunts me—not because I have a personal predilection for emotional excitement in worship or anxiety about numbers. I feel more at home amidst ambiguity, nuance, and careful qualification than in the enthusiasms of ecstatic prayer. But the irony is that the study of church history and ecclesiology has convinced me that revival is needed.

We Lutherans may excel in theology and in the complexities of the theology of the cross, but we continually—and mistakenly—address this wisdom to those not yet ready to hear it. We expect people to be Christians before they are Christian, Lutherans before they are Lutheran. True, revival will spoil without good theology to catechize the revived. But we have little notion of how to create in people a longing for catechesis—a desire to know the Lord they have actually encountered in a meaningful way.

What is the real presence of Christ in the Supper to someone who has never noticed His absence? What is the joy of forgiveness to someone who has never seen the need to repent?
It is not only our failure toward those who have not yet heard and believed the gospel that troubles me. Madagascar’s revivals certainly draw in new believers, but they are primarily for long-term Christians. Even those who attend church every Sunday may be committed to attendance rather than to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even the infant-baptized, raised in the faith, must grow, deepen, mature, experience, serve, and become passionate about the gospel.

I am not seeing much passion for the gospel among us. The passions that run high are often angry ones, directed toward the failures—real or perceived—of the church as an institution. My entire life has been marked by ongoing power struggles over the direction and shape of our denominations, with little result beyond membership loss and pyrrhic victories. We are intensely anxious about our institutions and nearly apathetic about the gospel. It is as if we have been engaged in an anti-revival.

I am increasingly persuaded that this has been the wrong battle to fight. That conviction does not arise merely from the visible failures of our denominations, which often mirror the surrounding culture with only a thin Christian veneer. It comes from the wreckage at the congregational level.

I have heard many stories of pastors destroyed by congregations—and just as many of congregations destroyed by pastors. There is abundant guilt on both sides.

At times it seems our operating assumption is that “Jesus is Lord” can be taken for granted, so we can get on with what we really care about: preserving the building, maintaining a preferred worship style, securing finances, serving the poor (while assuming they are not among us), making a public witness (often in contrast to others), or even steering society in the “right” direction—as though God required our help.

Even these assume the congregation is focused on substantive matters rather than being consumed by toxic personality conflicts—which, I suspect, often dominate far more than we admit.

There is little room left for sustained, passionate attention to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There is so little actual church-going happening in our churches. Could our denominations have become so unchurchlike if our congregations had not first become so?

I do not hope for revival as a means to fix our denominations—though that would be a welcome result. Rather, what we desperately need is renewal at the congregational level, which entails renewal at the individual level. By any other name, this is revival.

Of course, the one thing I cannot do is offer a strategy to produce revival. That would only create the devilish imitation known as revivalism. The only recommendation I can make is prayer.

Pray that the heavenly Father would send the Spirit of His Son upon the church (Luke 11:13). And then wait.

Here is how we will know if we are experiencing God-given revival:

• A love of Holy Scripture, no longer used as a weapon or obstacle, but received as a source of life and a wellspring of living water.

• A love of prayer, no longer rote or performative, but a living conversation with the Lord.

• A love of holiness, no longer a means of self-justification, but a joyful conformity to the law of love in Christ.

• A love of serving others, no longer a strategy or hidden agenda, but a genuine encounter with persons made in God’s image.

• A life marked by the cross, neither chasing false triumph nor glorifying failure, but accepting suffering with hope in the resurrection.
True revival is not an addition to an established life. It makes the faith of Jesus Christ to be life itself. Everything else is blessed by extension.

Pray for it. Wait for it. And may God grant it.

10/09/2026

LET THE CHILDREN COME
By William E. Berg
Evangelize (LEM), February 1972

Jesus said, "Let the children come to me: do not try to stop them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these" (Mark 10:14).
History is replete with cruel rebukes to children. Child labor practices in the past exploited them as less than persons. The drug traffic of today centers on children and youth. Two thousand New York children between the ages of 7 and 15 years are hard narcotic addicts.

By mistake a two-year-old child was summoned for jury duty in Houston, Texas. Perhaps it was a divinely inspired mistake, for children constitute the final earthly jury before whom our civilization must be tried.

Children are rebuked by many today by being grudgingly accepted. They are often treated as a problem—as part of the population explosion. What a terrible rebuke—to bring a child into being and then to get rid of the child by abortion on demand!
"O God that bread should be so dear, and flesh and blood so cheap!"

• BUT FAR WORSE than the world's rebukes to children are the hindrances created by professed disciples of Jesus. They rebuked parents and children for coming to Jesus. For example, when the Church regards its church school as a sort of bothersome step-child which is grudgingly tolerated and which rates far below the importance of other adult concerns—this is a devastating rebuke to children. When the Church is blind to its greatest wealth or when adults teach children by their wrong example such things as prejudice, dishonesty and worship of material values—this draws the indignation of Jesus.

A man was invited to teach a Sunday school class. He was well-qualified and had the time. He declined with this statement: "I just don't want to be tied down to things like this." Finally the pastor said, "You know, we serve a Master who was tied down. He was nailed to a cross!"

• NOW WE SHIFT to the positive side. What an incredible offer our Lord makes! Bring the children to Jesus. They receive the Kingdom—His love and truth and power and purity. You receive Jesus! Jesus says, "Let the children come to me." To Me! It is not enough to bring them to Church, or to class or to ourselves and our human love. God, give us something of the indignation of Jesus for anything that would hinder children from getting to Jesus and to His touch of transforming love!

The story is told of England's Queen Victoria being honored by a large group of children singing for her. That night the manager of the celebration received a telegram from the palace. He thought it was a commendation for the success of the royal reception he had arranged for the queen. But the message was a simple one, straight from a motherly heart. "The queen wants to know if all the children got home safely."

The primary question regarding children is not, "Are they talented, do they have material things, can they make a living?" Our major concern should be, "Are they on the way Home—are they safely in the Kingdom—in the Family of God—are they on the Way?"
If we care enough to bring children to Jesus, we will care most deeply and meaningfully about their hunger pangs, the poverty of love and understanding in their lives, their educational opportunities and everything else that recognizes them as persons of whom Jesus says, "They are mine."

God help us to bring children to Jesus. How? By bringing ourselves, offering ourselves to Him. For in refusing to come ourselves, we rebuke the children and hinder them from coming.
Here is one of the most exciting statements in the Bible, the words of Jesus, "Whoever receives one such little child in my name receives me." A magnificent offer!

From Augustana Good News. Dr. Berg was evening speaker at the January Midwinter Conference, as well as one of the Youth Day teachers.

Hauge Lutheran Innermission Federation

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