# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1889_S41 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Lutheran Pioneer. A MISSIONARY MONTHILY. PusuisHep BY THE EVANGELICAL LuTHeRAN SyNopIcAL ConFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA. R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter. Vol. XI. St. Louis, Mo., November, 1889. No. 11. The Name Above Every Name. There is a name I love to hear, I love to speak its worth; It sounds like music in mine ear, The sweetest name on earth. It tells me of a Saviour’s love, Who died to set me free; It tells me of His precious blood— The sinner’s perfect plea. It tells of one whose loving heart Can feel my deepest woe, Who in my sorrow bears a part That none can bear below. Jesus! the name I love so well, The name I love to hear! No saint on earth its worth can tell, No heart conceive how dear. This name shall shed its fragrance still Along this thorny road; Shall sweetly smooth the rugged hill That leads me up to God. And there, with all the blood-bought throng, From sin and sorrow free, I'll sing the new eternal song Of Jesus’ love to me. Selected. 4 oo pt Good Works or Christ—Which? ‘What shall I say when I come to the judg- ment seat?’ anxiously asked a dying sister whose life had been devoted to scrubbing floors and washing children’s faces in one of the hos- pitals in Philadelphia. ‘‘What shall I say?’’ she repeated. A little girl who happened to be present replied, ‘‘Say nothing, but show your hands.’” We cut the above from one of our exchanges, who evidently thinks that the little girl gave a very smart answer. But any one who knows the Word of God and is loyal to God’s Truth will easily see that the little girl had been brought up on the very worst of Sunday school teaching, which tells children that they ‘‘must be good’? in order to be saved. How foolish this is! Why not tell them the truth—that they are dead in sin, and must have life through Christ, or they will perish forever? Why not tell them that ‘‘the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’’? Had the little girl told the dying sister to point at the pierced hands of Jesus and cry out, ‘nothing in my hands I bring,” she would have shown that she under- stood the Gospel of the grace of God. Not our good works, but Christ only is the way to heaven. He Himself says, ‘‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” (John 14, 6). ‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him,” (John 8, 36). Clearly there is no salvation apart from faith in Christ. ‘‘Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved,” (Acts 4, 12). ‘‘By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of your- selves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast,”” (Eph. 2, 8.9). ‘‘Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us,” (Tit. 3, 5). “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin,’ (1 John 1, 7). Surely no man will ever be in heaven, unless he can join in the song, ‘Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood,” (Rev. 5, 9). Itis either the blood of Christ, and faith in that blood, or everlasting damnation. For not our good works, but Christ only is the way for heaven. We recently read of another little girl, who had well learned the Gospel plan of salvation. One day her teacher said to her: “Annie, what will you do when you die and are called upon to stand before the judgment seat of God to answer for all the sins done here upon earth??? Her face glowed with emotion as she an- swered : “Christ died for sinners. J will hide behind Him. God will not look at me. at Christ.”’ Beautiful thought, to hide behind Christ, to lose ourselves in Him, and casting aside our own impure works to rest solely and entirely upon His finished work for salvation! ————»> +a om Porycarr LEYSER, the great Lutheran theo- logian, was accustomed to say. that he had never listened to an Evangelical minister even in the smallest village, from whom he had not received some special benefit. God?”’ He will look | Martin Luther and the Roll. After a time of great trial, Luther tells us he was seeking rest in sleep; and he saw, as sleep came to him,—in his dream he saw, —Satan standing at the foot of his bed. And Satan jeer- ingly said to him: ‘Martin, thou art a pretty Christian! Hast thou got the impudence to as- sume that thou arta Christian?’’ ‘‘Yes,’’ said Martin, ‘‘[ama Christian, Satan; because Christ has allowed me, as any sinner may, to come to Him.” ‘‘What!” eaid Satan, “thoua Christian? Thou art @ pretty Christian, Martin! See what thou hast done!’’ And Satan took a roll and be- gan to unroll it; and there at its head, Martin Luther saw some sins set down that had passed away into the dim distance of. childhood. He had forgotten them. Martin shrank as it struck his sight: but the roll was unrolled leaf after. leaf, foot after foot; and, to his horror, he saw sin after sin, he never knew any thing about at all, written down there, complete in every de- tail,—an awful list; and in his dream, he says, the sweat of mortal agony stood on his brow. He thought, ‘‘In truth, Satan has got right on his side. Can such a sinner as this be just with He said, ‘‘Unroll it! unroll it!’’ and Satan jeeringly unrolled it and Luther thought it would never end.—At last he came nearly to the end; and, in desperation, he cried, ‘‘Let us see the end!’’ But, as the last foot of the paper rolled out, he caught sight of some writ- ing, red as blood, at the foot; and his eye caught the words, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” And the vision of Satan floated away, and Luther says he went-to sleep. Ah, yes, dear friends, that is it. ‘‘The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth from all sin.’’ — oo oe “Sons of the Word.” John Williams, the well known missionary and martyr of Erromanga, so thoroughly drilled the converts in the knowledge of the Bible, and filled them with the love of the Bible, that in after years when a vessel was coming near their island, and the officers called to some of them in a boat to ask who they were, they replied with united voices, ‘‘Sons of Word.”