# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1880_S58 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 42 The Lutheran Pioneer. richer, healthier, more respected than we; were we always patient, forgiving our neighbor all the wrongs he did against us and quickly forgetting them? No, indeed. We all have a heart that is inclined to all evil, hence also to all evil thoughts against our neighbor; a heart that is unwilling to think kindly of our neigh- bor, a murderous heart surely.—But when there is murder in the heart, it must and will show it- self in fierce, hateful looks, threatening or mock- ing motions; or in spiteful, angry, stinging, abusing words. Such looks, motions, words are also murder before God. Read Jeremiah 18, 18. and Psalm 57, 4. Were we never guilty of them? Did we in every look, motion and word show to our neighbor that we loved him as ourselves? Did we always encourage him by our kind words, comfort him when he was sick or in distress, advice him when he needed advice or was going wrong?—If we do anything to damage the health or the limbs of our neigh- bor, itis murder. Fighting is-murder. Care- less attention to the sick by doctors and nurses is murder. Not giving to the poor that suffer for want of clothing, food, or medicine is mur- der. Have we instead done everything to keep our neighbor in good health, to keep him from sickness, hunger and want? Have we always helped and befriended him in every bodily need and danger? No, no. Let us confess our great wickedness to the Lord, fly to Jesus for relief and pardon, and then with God’s help do better. F. B, (For the ,, Lutheran Pioneer’’.) The Fifth Commandment. “Thou shalt not kill. What does this mean? We should fear and love God, that we may not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in ” every bodily need. (Luther's Small Catechism.) What a terrible sin is murder! Take a man’s money, property, cattle, servants, chil- dren, wife, good name, everything that is near and dear to him, he may live and get along without it still. Take his life, however, and you have stolen the greatest of all earthly gifts that God gave to man, something that cannot be replaced, if once taken. A murderer is a brute, considering his neighbor to be only an animal which he may kill at pleasure. A man staining his hands with the blood of a fellowman is capable of doing all other wicked things. His crime profits him no more than a rope around his neck. ‘‘Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.’” Our courts and juries should hang everyone that takes the life of a fellowman, if the killing was not done in real self-defence or by accident. And eternal woe will come upon every mur- derer, unless he repent and obtain forgiveness by trusting in Him that was innocently mur- dered and diedthe death of a murderer on the cross. His blood and death satisfy for murder also, and remove the punishment for which the blood of the murdered man cries to God. I hope, my dear reader, that you have not loaded the crime of murder on your conscience. Nevertheless let me tell you that if we look at the commandment, forbidding murder, in the right way, I, you, and all men are murderers according to that commandment. ur state laws call me a murderer if I willfully and with- out necessity take the life of another. Before God, however, it takes much less to make one a murderer. According to God’s idea of mur- der, one may even commit murder with his heart. Jesus says: ‘‘Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murder.’”’ Now, what is not in the heart cannot come out, therefore murder must be in man’s heart. And there is murder in the hearts of all men. From the day of their birth they are murderers before God. The murder that is committed in the heart is not only the intention to kill or the wish to see a certain one dead. Every angry ‘thought, all spite, hate, envy, every intention to have re- venge, in short, every thought of the heart with which we do not wish our neighbor well, is murder before God. Read Matthew 5, 21. 22. and 1 John 38, 15., also James 5, 9., and ‘see for yourself that it is true. Now, who of us was never angry with any one; never had any spite or grudge against any one; never envied his neighbor, when he was successful in business; never thought of getting revenge? Did we always think kindly of our neighbor; were we always the friends of all men and the enemies of none; were we always glad when our neighbor succeeded better than we, was ———~>_~ o> o> Our Church. From her earliest history our dear Lutheran Church has shown herself watchful and careful to have her people instructed in the pure truths of God’s holy Word, so that their faith should not stand in ‘‘wisdom of men, but in the power of God’’, 1 Cor. 2, 5. In fact, it was just be- cause men had forsaken the Word of God and were building their hopes of heaven upon some human device, that the man of God, Martin Luther, so vigorously protested, and so earnestly labored to restore. the glorious Gospel, and to have it taught to men in all its simplicity and purity. Our Church instructs her members, carefully catechises them, in order that they may be able to give a reason for the faith that is in them; a reason, too, founded not upon their notions and feelings, but upon a more sure word of prophecy, even the doctrines of prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone. We are not asked by our Catechism or Confession to believe anything for which a “‘thus saith the Lord’”’ cannot be given; but when it is given, we have no choice left— hold on to it we must. And thus having God’s Word as the source whence all our distinctive doctrines emanate, and in which they are taught, we certainly do well to take heed to them. We dare not leave our Church for some other where these truths are not taught. We believe and teach that ‘Jesus is the saviour of all men, especially of them that believe’, 1 Tim. 4, 10. We believe and teach that holy Baptism is not merely a sign of God’s great and boundless grace, but that by it we put on Christ, and are made the children of God; for ‘tye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ’’, Gal. 3, 26. 27. We be- lieve and teach that each participant of the holy Lord’s Supper has given to him and receives the body and blood of Jesus, not only because the bread is the Communion of his blood (1 Cor. 10, 16.), but also because ‘‘He that eateth this bread, and drinketh this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord’’, 1 Cor. 11, 27.—Chureh Messenger. For the ‘‘Lutheran Pioneer’’. Positive Men. The world is full of negative men. They are creatures of very tender feclings. They are extremely liberal. But they are timid. They shrink back from their own shadows. They would sooner sacrifice a principle than to wound the feelings of any man. They are always in astormy sea, and always afraid of being dashed to pieces on the rocks which lie on cither hand. They have a well marked chart, and know just where the rocks lie, but they live in mortal dread of them. They are cowards. Such men are of little value to the world. They skulk away from the battle, and leave others to meet the tempest of wrath and to gain victory. They carry no swords, and so bear no palms in their hands, and wear no crowns. Their aspirations do not rise above their heads. They are miserable dwarfs. This age needs positive men; men bold enough to take their stand on the right side of every great question—men of courage. A few such men are still living. They are not popular. Men hate them. They call them extremists. They withhold from them their love and fellowship; withhold honors and the praises of men. They try to put them down and crush them. Luther’s record tells the history of their fierce hostility. Paul Gerhard could tell how the world hates positive men. But positive men have value. They do not live in vain. They make their impression on the race. And grateful men will perpetuate their memory in the world. There is a disposition to float with the current; a men-pleasing disposition. Whatever is pop- ular passes as orthodox. Very few men have the courage to call in question generally ac- cepted theories, or the popular opinions of the day. But these few men are the evangelists of heaven. They save the religious world from universal stagnation. Positive men, full of the spirit of Christ, are just now the need of the world. (Adapted from ‘‘ Voice of the people.’’) IF infidelity succeeds in teaching a man that he will die like a beast, it will soon succeed in leading him to live like one.