# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1883_S5 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Lutheran Pioneer. A MISSIONARY MONTHLY. PuBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LurnerRAN SynopicaL CoNFERENCE oF Norto AMERICA. R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., 25 second-class matter. Vol. Y. St. Louis, Mo.,: February, 1883. No. 2. (For the ‘*Lutheran Pioncer.’?) St. Luke 2, 25—32. ation’ O dearest Jesus, Thee I pray: Within my heart do make Thy stay, That I, like Simeon of old, Thee, Lord, may joyfully infold. Thou art my life and happiness, With whom our God mankind did bless; O cleanse and purify my heart, That from Thy paths I ne’er depart. Lord, with Thy light show me the way, That never I may go astray; Ward off all sorrow and despair, And let me be Thine own fore’er. + Lift up Thy face upon me, Lord, In life and death Thine help afford; Then I will leave most cheerfully This world, whene’er it pleaseth Thee. (Bartholomew Hilder, +1635. Tr. by A. Crull, 1883.) -——~> + oe- Under the Law. WE ARE UNDER THE Law. We are under the demands of the Law. God’s law is His holy, eternal, and unchangeable will which he planted in the heart of man, and which He declared from Mount Sinai amid thundering and lightening. All men are under the demands of this law, the sum of which is given in these words of Christ: ‘‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’’ The law demands of every man that he, with a perfectly | pure and undefiled heart, love God above all things and his neighbor as himself. We are under the curse of the Law. The law of God has its penalty. ‘‘ The soul that sin- neth, it shall die,’’ (Ezek. 18, £). It curses every one that breaks its commandments. ‘¢ Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them,”’ (Gal. 3, 10). All men are by nature under this terrible curse of the law. ‘‘Wor all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,’’ (Rom. 3, 28). ‘“There is none righteous, no, not one,” (Rom. 3,10). Every commandment of the law pertains, not only to the outward conduct,: but to the heart of man. Take for example the fifth commandment. It says, “Thou shalt not kill.’ Now, from the Scriptures we learn that we may break this commandment without taking human life; for “‘whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer,” (i John 3, 15). If, then, you have ever hated your fellow-man, although you may not have expressed the bitter feeling, it is clear that in the sight of God you are a murderer. And so it is with the other commandments. The rotten, corrupt nature of man is not obedient to them ; neither can it be. Every commandment, there- fore, cries out: Guilty! Guilty! And man’s own conscience re-echoes the cry: Guilty! Guilty! And the law of God thunders forth its curse and condemns man to eternal damna- tion. Is there no help? Yes, thanks be to God! CHRIST WAS MADE UNDER THE Law. Christ was made under the demands of the Law. “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons,’ (Gal. 4, 4.5). The de- mands of the law must be fulfilled, and since we could not do this, the Son of God took our place. He, in His great love to sinners, be- came man and was made under the law, in order to fulfil all its demands in our stead. In the book of Psalms He, the promised Messiah, says, ‘‘Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea thy law is within my heart,” (Psa. 40, 7. 8). And when He had come He said, ‘Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to de- stroy, but to fulfil,’? (Matth. 5,17). In the second chapter of St. Luke we read that Christ went with His parents to Nazareth and was ‘“subject unto them.” He thus fulfilled the fourth commandment. And so it is with all the commandments. Christ was free from sin in His nature and was not subject to the law of God, but He took our place under the law and fulfilled its demands perfectly for all sinners. Christ was made under the curse of the Law. Not only the demands of the law must be ful- filled, but its curse must be borne if sinners are to be saved. Christ therefore took that curse upon Himself and, in the stead of-all sinners, bore it in His sufferings and in His death. ‘Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us,’ (Gal. 3, 13). “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities,” (Isa. 53). Thus He, the Lamb of God, took away the curse and perfectly satisfied the eternal justice of God. And now remember, dear reader, that Christ’s perfect obedience to the demands of the law and the redemption from the curse of the law are freely offered to every sinner in the Gospel. Blessed are they who accept it with true faith. There is ‘‘no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,’ (Rom. 8,1). ‘Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,’’ (Rom. 10, 4). OE © a “Jesus!” A Christian Hindoo was dying, and his heathen comrades came around him and tried to comfort him by reading some of the pages of their theology; but he waved his hand, as much as to say, ‘‘I don’t want to hear it.’” Then they called in a heathen priest, and he said, ‘“‘If you will only recite the Numtra it will deliver you from hell.”” He waved his ~ hand, as much as to say, ‘‘I don’t want to hear that.”? Then they said, ‘‘ Call on Juggernaut.’” He shook his head, as much as to say, ‘“‘I can’t do that.’? Then they thought perhaps he was too weary to speak, and they said, ‘‘Now, if you can’t say ‘Juggernaut,’ think of that god.’’ He shook his head again, as much as to say, “No, no.”? Then they bent down to his pil- low, and they said, ‘‘In what will you trust?” His face lighted up with the very glories of the celestial sphere as he cried out, rallying all his dying energies, “‘Jesus!” ——= oboe a Wun I say, one “ought not to bear malice,’ and then do all manner of evils to mine ad- versary, how shall I be able by words to win’ him, while by my deeds I am frightening him’ away? Let us catch them then by our mode’ of life; and by their souls let us build up the Church, and of these let us amass our wealth. There is nothing to weigh against a soul, not even the whole world.—Chrysostom.