# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1886_S22 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 22 earth to construct a system of religion, which can meet our present need, and tell us anything of the future state of being. The Bible. This marvellous volume consists of many dif- ferent books, occupying about sixteen hundred years in their production, and composed by about forty different persons embracing every variety -of intellect, culture and social con- dition; and yet we find a perfect and sublime unity of testimony. Open at any part of the volume you please, and you will find its state- ments in perfect harmony with all other parts, whether they relate to God or man. The Bible is precisely adapted to the wants of all, high and low, rich and poor, Jearned and unlearned; and as a fact persons of every con- dition and in every Jand and of every race have found in it a message suited to their necessities and a rule of life they can safely follow in all circumstances unto death. 4 e The Bible’s commission to its disciples re- quires them to go into all the world, preaching the Gospel to every creature, carrying its en- treaties and warnings unto the ends of the earth, and thus it aspires to universal dominion but without a whisper of violence. There are many important truths which the Bible alone reveals, important as bearing upon the question of our present and everlasting happiness, which confessedly lie beyond the discovery of man’s intellect, as shown by the fact that they were not dreamed of by the wisest and best of men of ancient or modern _ times who reject its testimony. The Bible alone reveals the existence of one God, who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, . goodness, and truth; ‘and this in the light of all human history is shown to be entirely above the knowledge of human nature. The Bible makes known the only way of sal- vation, by which God manifests at the same} time His love for the sinner and His hatred of sin, by which not a spot sullies His righteous-. ness; while His grace is untrammeled in its merciful errand to a guilty and ruined world. This revelation of divine love is made in such manner as to uphold the strict purity of the doctrines, duties, and precepts of the entire Bible, for you can not discover from first to -last the least allowance for sin, nor any excuse for the evils incident to fallen human nature. The Ascension of Christ. The Bible's exaltation of God and stern con- demnation of man, always vindicating the for- mer, always telling of some evil in the latter, shows that it did not have a human origin. Wherever the Bible has been proclaimed, multitudes of the most thoughtful have by God’s grace become convinced that it is from God, nor have they been inferior in intellect, in intelligence, in good behavior, nor in any other respect to those who have refused to heed its claims. The Old Testament contains an almost un- broken record of the unbelief, ingratitude, idol- atry, and meanness of the Jews, both leaders and people, and it is unnatural to suppose that this shameful record was made by Jewish writ- ers, unless they were moved by a power higher than their own. : The New Testament also brings its stern ac- cusation against the entire human race, repre- _ senting all alike as depraved, as at enmity with God, as by nature the children of wrath, the whole world lying in the wicked one; and it is Jity composed such a book of their own will. The Bible has shown a marvellous power, which no other religion has exhibited, and which irreligion does not even pretend to wield, to arouse the conscience, to enlighten the un- derstanding, to renew the will, to give another heart, to refine the life, to make the moral desert blossom as the rose, and to set free the prisoners of vice. The Bible reveals man to himself precisely as he is, and knows himself to be; and it is not surprising that a native Chinaman, engaged by Dr. Morrison to assist in the translation of the Scriptures, came rushing one day into the presence of the Missionary with tle exclama- tion, *‘“Whoever made this book made me.’ The Lutheran Pioneer. “Thy Will Be Done.” Several years ago a pastor in New York city stated in the public prints, that soon after he had entered the ministry, a lady sent for him to pray for the recovery of her little son, who was dangerously ill. He kneeled beside the distressed mother and the cradle of the child, and asked God to arrest the disease, and spare the loved one, if consistent with his will. The lady caught him by the arm, and exclaimed, “TI did not send for you to pray in that manner. I do not wish you to say, if it is God’s will. No matter what His will may be, it is my will that my child shall recover. I will not give him up: God must spare him to me.’’ God did spare him, and that same mother lived to know that the same boy was swung by the neck from the gallows for murder. There is something better than health, and that is God's approving smile; there is something worse than sickness, and that is God’s displeasure. It must not be forgotten that in praying for things pertaining to this life we must submit to the will of our Father! ‘This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us,’’ (1 John 5, 14). It may not be His will, it may not be best for us, or for those near to our hearts, to be exempt from sickness, or to continue on the earth ; and altough we may cry in our agony as our Lord cried in Gethsemane, ‘‘O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,’ yet we must also learn to say with Him, ‘‘neverthe- less, not as I will, but as thou wilt.’’ — -— + °o-