# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1891_S21 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) —6Ghe Lutheran Pioneer. A MISSIONARY MONTHLY. Posuisnep BY THE EvANGELICAL LurHeRAN SyNODICAL CONFERENCE OF NorTH AMERICA. R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter. Vol. XIII. St. Louis, Mo., June, 1891. No. 6. God so Loved the World. John 3, 16. God loved the world: God gave His Son. What more than this could love have done To save lost men! See here the height! The only Son From highest heaven, The Mighty One, The Prince of Peace. See here the depth! To sinful earth The Lord came down, and here had birth, And lived and died. Behold the length! Life evermore For dying souls, a boundless store— Unending bliss! Behold the breadth! Whoever will, Of Mercy’s draught may take his fill: And without price. Oh, precious Gift! Oh, wondrous love! Join all below and all above To sing His praise. Selected. —> - oe - Trust only in Christ's Righteousness. Suppose it is needful for you to cross a river, over which two planks are laid. One of the planks is perfectly sound, and the other com- pletely rotten. If you walk upon the rotten plank, you are sure to fall into the river. If you put one foot on the rotten plank and the other on the sound plank, it will be the same; you will certainly fall through‘and perish. So he that trusts partly in the righteousness of Christ, and partly in his own righteousness, will surely fail of eternal life. Christ is the only Way to heaven. ‘Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be Saved,’ Acts4,12. It is not the work of Christ ware mething added that saves us, but the ath Recast alone, apart from anything and cma nae we can do or feel. The finished ne, Christ is the only sound plank on which enter ~i cross the dark river of death and s eae life. Don’t try to walk at the Tighteousne on the rotten plank of your om Your p. ah of your own good conduct, 0 Your ow. feelings, or of anything you find in 1 sinful self. In whatever you trust outside of Christ’s righteousness is a rotten plank. And if a man tries to walk on a sound and a rotten plank at the same time, he will as certainly fall into the water, as if neither were strong enough to bear his weight. Trust only in the righteousness of Christ and you shall be saved. A minister was making a pastoral visit to an old Scotch woman, who for a long time had been trying to be saved, and who could find no peace and rest in all her efforts. Her cottage could be reached only by passing over a rapid brook that was bridged by a single plank. At first he feared to step upon the plank, but the woman seeing his hesitation hurried from the door with the cry, ‘Just trust it!”” He did trust the plank and soon stood by her side. “Woman,” he said, ‘“‘the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin; just trust it.’’ She did give up trying to walk on the rotten plank of her own righteousness. She simply trusted in the blood of Jesus and thus found peace, and rest, and salvation in the righteousness of Christ. “Jesus, thy blood and righteousness My beauty are—my glorious dress; ’Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, With joy shall I lift up my head.” —>-- <0 ‘‘And have you no doubt about it?” “None whatever,’’ she returned, unhesitat- ingly; and, holding up her hand, added, “I have known I was Mrs. B—— ever since that ring was put on my hand.’’ “That is just how it is with me,’’ the visitor said. ‘I do not try to be a Christian, but I know I am one, and that I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ ever since I put out an empty hand, and received Him as my Saviour. It is by nothing that I have ever done, or ever could do, that I have gained everlasting life, but simply by believing God’s record that ‘while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’—just receiving Jesus as my substitute, and believing that now, ‘being justified by His blood, we shall be eaved from wrath through Him,’’’ Rom. 5, 8. 9. It was a new light to the poor soul, who was struggling on in darkness and doubt, seeking by her own endeavors to earn that everlasting life which God will sell to no man, but which He bestows as a free gift upon ‘‘whosoever be- lieveth.’’—Selected. _— oP oo Come to Jesus. How can a man trust in his own righteous- ness? It is like seeking shelter under one’s own shadow. A man may stoop to the very ground, and the lower he bends he still finds that his shadow is beneath him. But if a man flee to the shadow of a great rock or of a wide- spreading tree, he will find shelter from the rays of the noon-day sun. So human merits can not give salvation, and Christ alone is able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him. ——__2 <2 ee “Since the Marriage-Day.” “How long have you been lying here, Mrs. 1B tae This question was addressed to a bed-ridden old woman, whose worn and troubled face told a tale of years of suffering. “Oh! a long while now,’ she reqlied, wea- rily; ‘‘and I don’t suppose I shall ever get about again.” Ve “Are you a Christian?’” returned the visitor. “]’m trying to be one,’’ she answered, almost hopelessly. a fiend was silent for a moment, and then, as if a new thought struck him, he in: quired, ‘‘Do you ever try to be Mrs. Ba ? «Nol? she replied, “I am Mrs. B—. . “How long have you been Mrs. B—,,’’ he ursued. ‘ : («ever since the marriage-day, she answered, in some surprise. Our true knowledge is to know our own ignorance. Our true strength is to know our own weakness. Our true dignity is to confeas that we have no dignity, and are nobody and nothing in ourselves, and to cast ourselves down before the dignity of God under the shadow of whose wings, and in the smile of whose counte- nance alone, is any created being safe. Let us cling to our Father in heaven, as achild, walk- ing in the night, clings to his father’s hand.