# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1884_S45 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) Che Lutheran Pioneer. A MISSIONARY MONTHLY. PuBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LuTHERAN SyNODICAL CONFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA. R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter. Vol. VI. St. Louis, Mo., December, 1884. No. 12. Christmas. O mamma, what is Christmas? I’m sure I wish I knew! What makes it such a lovely time? Now mamma, tell me true! What makes the dear, dear Christ-Child Come just on this one day, In the cold and dark December? Mamma, what makes Him—say? And baby looked at mamma With tender, wistful eyes That all day long had brighter grown, With every sweet surprise. Then mamma told her darling That tale of long ago— Of shepherd, star, and angel-song, And of the manger low; And how the blessed C! 3tma Repeats the news t- .en _ That Jesus Christ, the Saviour, Was born in Bethlehem. O mamma, hosts of children Would like to know it, too! That Christmas is Christ’s birthday! I am so glad you knew. —The Myrtle. —— ~~ oo Tidings of Great Joy. The Christmas tidings are tidings of great joy to all sinners. The angel who brought those tidings to the shepherds in the holy Christmas night said to them: ‘‘Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.’’ And what tidings did he bring? He said: ‘‘Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.’’ Angels’ voices were raised in joyful song when these tidings of the birth of'a Saviour were brought to our sinful world. And should not these tidings be tidings of great joy to us for whom that Saviour came? It is ow: Saviour that was born; it is to us that salvation came in the birth of that Babe of Bethlehem. We are full of sin by nature and practice. Hence God’s wrath and condemnation are upon us. There is no help for us in our own sinful selves: No creature in heaven or on earth could rescue us from everlasting death and damnation. If God had not come to the rescue we would be lost eternally. But God did come to the rescue. |day of joy, yes. But the joy of Christmas day ‘and soul and thus desecrate the day which has He did pity us and gave usa Saviour. ‘‘God so loved the world that He gave His only be- gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,’ John 3, 16. ‘‘When the fulness of the time was come, 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. God’s Son became man and took all our sins and all the punishment of our sins upon Himself. Thus He redeemed us from wrath and eternal dam- nation. The Christmas tidings make known the birth of this Saviour, and therefore they are tidings of great joy to all sinners. Yes, to all sinners. ‘The heavenly messenger said: ‘‘I ‘ring you good tidings of great joy, which shall to all people.”? These tidings are for you, my dear reader; and you need them for your salvation. The Saviour whose birth the glad Christmas tidings announce, has come for your sake; and there is no hope for you and no help except in that dear Saviour who was born into the world that He might deliver you from eternal woe. Rejoice therefore at the tidings of great joy: ‘‘Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord,” Luke 2, 11. Accept these tidings with a believing heart, that you may have a happy Christmas! is joy in the Lord who has come to save us. Only by hearing and believing the good Christ- mas tidings of the Saviour’s birth can the true Christmas joy be experienced. As surely as these tidings are good, so surely will faith in them bring joy to the heart. Let the dear Christ Child be received as the great gift of heaven on Christmas day, and every earthly joy that is not of the flesh will be sanctified, and Christmas day will be made a day of re- joicing in the Lord. A Wise Answer. A little colored girl, eight years old, was setting the table, when a boy in the room said to her— “Mollie, do you pray?”’ The suddenness of the question confused her a little; but she answered— “Yes, sir; every night.’’ “Do you think God hears you?” the boy asked. And she answered promptly— “T know He does.’’ “But do you think,” said he, trying to puzzle her, ‘‘that He hears your prayer as those of white children?” For full three minutes the child kept on with her work without speaking; then she slowly said— “Master George, I pray into God’s ear, and not His eyes. My voice is just like any other little girl’s; and if I say what I ought to say, God does not stop to look at my skin.”’ George did not question her any further. The answer he felt to be a wiser one than he could have given. Christmas Day. Christmas day is a holiday; but many forget that it is also a holy-day. They make it a day of worldly amusement and of carnal pleasures which are an abomination in the sight of God. They engage in carousals which injure body 2 to been set apart for the commemoration of the “Did He Get In?” Saviour’s birth. There is no room in their hearts and in their homes for the Babe of Beth- lehem. They have a Christmas with the thought of Christ left out. Others may not make Christmas day a day of carnal pleasures, but they devote it so entirely to gifts and games and parties that they are in danger of also having 2 Christmas with the thought of Christ left out. Christmas day is a Little Charlie listened as his father read the third chapter of Revelation; but when he came to the twentieth verse—‘Behold I stand at the door and knock’’—he could not wait, but ran up to his father, eagerly asking, ‘‘Father, did he get in?” I ask this question now: Has Christ got into your heart? ‘Let Him in, give him your heart's love, and this will be the hap- piest day of your life—a real Christmas day.