# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1882_S38
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

© harvest of the Lord, and that this also was

38 The Lutheran Pioneer.

bidding him good-bye: And don’t you forget |set up against Christ, and to confirm his own
it!—Now you know what I meant,” my friend | infernal abomination and profanation. God
concluded, ‘‘and therefore I would ask you|forbid! O the great, terrible, frightful dark-
also whether you do not feel inclined to do|ness! O the horrible, unspeakable wrath of
something for this mission and for the support | God !”’— ‘

of these students.”” My old friend had become} Dear Reader! The brightness of the sun of
quite warm, and I could not but promise to | the pure Gospel is shining over us in the Church
do so. of the Reformation. Are we thankful to God

On coming home I thought it would be of | for His merciful kindness?—Do jwe think of
no harm to write a few words about this affair}it how utterly insignificant and unavailing,
to our little Pioneer, who is a missionary him-|in point of justification, even our best deeds
self and very warmly advocates mission work.|}of the law are? Do we jfreely part with
May be he can make some use of it, and in-|the best things and account them lost and
duce others to join in this good work of Eng-|dung, that we may be found in Christ alone,
lish mission. Hoping this might be the case,|}not having our own righteousness, but that
let me close with the remark of my friend: | which is through faith of Christ, the righteous-
“And don’t you forget it!”’ c.L. J. |ness which is of God by faith? (Phil. 3, 8. 9.)

04 oe May God grant through His good Spirit that

(For the “Lutheran Pioneer.’*) | We diligently mark, and firmly stand upon, the

Grace Alone. Gospel-truth, that by grace alone and through
—_ faith alone we are justified and saved! G.R.

It is not a mere phrase or a favorite human —_—> +o
notion with the Lutheran Church that the pure A “Loving” D
doctrine concerning the sinner’s justification is oving ay.
the chief article of al] Christian doctrine, and
that, consequently, the continual teaching and
repetition of this article of faith is most nec-
essary. The Scriptures teach, and experience
proves, that he is in the clear, bright light who
faithfully adheres to the purity of this doctrine
and that, on the other hand, those who de-
viate therefrom, are in miserable darkness.
The Bible-truth concerning man’s justification
must, therefore, be taught and preached chiefly
and above all things, and Christians must not
grow weary in hearing or reading, in studying
and meditating on that precious message from
above, that by grace alone we have remission
of sins and peace with God.

Touching this fact, that this doctrine must
be taught and contemplated with all diligence,
Martin Luther expresses himself in the follow-
ing words: ‘‘We must with all diligence set
forth the article of justification that it may
shine over them (the Papists) as the brightness} The Independent notices recent attempts on
of the sun and bring to light out from the| the part of Baptists to find evidence in ancient
darkness all their wickedness, so that their|history that immersion was the true mode of \
shame and hypocrisy may be exposed and dis-| baptism. It says:
covered before all men. And for this cause‘we| ‘It is singular that these gentlemen all alike
take the more delight in treating this article | ignore the circumstance that the verdict of an-
of justification, and set it forth earnestly, that | tiquity among the Baptists is in favor of sprinkling
the Papists, together with all sectarians, may | or pouring as the true mode of baptism. It is
be confounded and that this article may be the | strange if they are not all aware of the fact,
more established and, confirmed in our’hearts, | which no respectable authority has yet had the
of which we stand in need; for if we lose this | temerity to call in question, that prior to the
sun, we shall surely fall again into the dark-| comparatively recent date of 1641 none of the
ness in which we have been heretofore. Verily, | people who are known as Baptists were im-
a most abominable and horrible thing it is that | mersed. John Smith was baptized by sprink-
the wicked, cursed pope should ever be able to|ling; as also were John Spillsbury, William
bring this to pass in the Church and Christen-| Kiffin, Roger Williams and the First Baptist
dom, that Christ should be denied, trodden|church of Providence, and John Clarke and
under foot and moreover, be spit upon and|his church in Newport. The English Baptist
blasphemed, and that all this should be done] never dreamed of the possibility of immersing
even by the dear Gospel and the holy sacra-| an adult person as a religious ceremony before
ments, which he has darkened in such a man-| the year 1641, and there is good ground to con-
ner, and turned into such detestable, horrible | clude that the American Baptists never thought
abuse, that he has made them to serve him, to|of such a thing before the year 1644.

(For the ‘‘Lutheran Pioncer’’.)

“And Don’t You Forget It.”

These words were overheard by me while
coming down the street a few days ago. They
were uttered by my friend Henry and ad-
dressed to his friend Martin. While passing
on, I was overtaken by Henry, and we walked
on together for a distance, speaking about the
latest news. At length, moved by something
like curiosity, I asked Henry about the mean-

_ ing of his last words to Martin: “And don’t
you forget it.” ‘‘Well,’” said he, ‘‘I intended
to remind him of what he had promised me to
do.’’? ‘Promised you to do,’’ said I, ‘‘and,
pray, may I not know what this was? Or do
you wish to keep it a secret?’”’ ‘‘Oh, no, not
at all! You certainly may know it,” was the
answer, ‘“‘and I am really glad you are
anxious to know it; for it was my intention to
speak to you on the same subject. You know,
Martin always takes a great interest in all
affairs concerning the Church. Well, Martin
and myself had been speaking about the prog-
ress of mission work in general, and thinking
this a good opportunity, I called his attention
to the English Lutheran mission which was
recently opened by the Missouri Synod in the
southern part of Missouri and in Arkansas.
I also called his attention to the fact that this
mission needed some material aid in order to be
maintained, and that by supporting the same
the kingdom of our dear Lord Jesus would be
spread and established. Now, Martin always
is anxious to do something for the cause of our
Lord wherever he can, and so he declared that
he was willing to support this mission also as
far as he would be able to do so, and wanted
to know to whom moneys given for this pur-
pose must be sent; to which request I replied
by giving him the address of the treasurer of
this mission, Mr. C. F. Lange, No. 509 Frank-
lin Ave., St. Louis, Mo. Made bold by the
generosity of Martin, I went on telling him
that two young men had gone to Springfield,
Tll., to prepare themselves for the ministry,
and that they intended to work in the English
Lutheran Church after having finished their
studies, but that they were not able to carry
out their plan, if they would have to rely on
their own means; they needed support also, for
they were in very limited circumstances; what
a@ good mission work it would be to assist
them, &c. Martin and I had a good talk about
supporting young men preparing themselves
for the ministry, and about the importance of
this work. He agreed with me that, as it is
our duty to pray the Lord of the harvest that
He will send forth laborers into His harvest,
it also is our Christian duty to support poor
students who desire to become laborers in the

“Mother, I suppose one reason why they
call Sunday a holy day is because it’s such a
loving day,” said a little boy as he stood by his
father’s side, and looked up into his mother’s
face.

“Why, is not every day a loving day?’’
asked his mother. ‘I love father, and father
loves me, and we both love you and baby,
every day as well as Sunday.”

‘Well, but you’ve no time to fell us so on
week days,” said the little boy. ‘You have
to work, and father has to go off early to his
work, and he is so tired when he comes home.
But Sunday he takes me on his knee and tells
me Bible stories, and we go to church together ;
and oh, ’tis such a loving day!’

—___~2- oo

Ancient Baptism.

mission work. Again and again Martin ex-
imed: ‘Well, I ought to do something for
them; I think, I can spare a little for those
young men; I will certainly do something!’
Having these words of his in view, I said, when