# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1893_S9 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) \ Che Autheran Pioneer. : A MISSIONARY MONTHLY. . PusuisHeD By THE EvaNceLicaL Lutneran SynopicaL ConFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA. R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. Entered at the Post Office at St. Louls, Mo., as second-class matter. Vol. XV. St. Louis, Mo., March, 1898. No. 3. The Precious Blood. Lord Jesus Christ! Thy precious blood Is to my soul the highest good: Of all my sins a perfect cure, It quickens me and makes me pure. Thy blood, my spotless glorious dress— Thy innocence, my righteousness : Before my God I pardoned stand And enter, crowned, the heavenly land. Lord Jesus Christ, Thou Son of God! My Throne of Grace, my Staff and Rod! Thy precious blood, Thy quick’ning power My spirit strenghten every hour. And should I draw my dying breath In fear of Satan, hell, and death— O Christ! let this my comfort be: Thy blood from sin hath made me free! Selected. > © 0 ee Our Substitute. Do you know what a substitute is? A sub- stitute is one that takes the place of another. In the time of war Mr. Brown was drafted and ordered to take his place with the troops down South. But Mr. Brown had a large family which he did not wish to leave, and he got a young man to go in his place. That young man was Brown’s substitute. He took Brown’s place and went to war in Brown’s stead. That is substitution—one man taking the place of another, and answering for him, and giving his life to the horrors of war in his stead. Reader, do you know the sinner’s substitute ? Do you know Him who took the sinner’s place and suffered punishment in his stead? Jesus, the Son of God, is our substitute. By our sins we have deserved the curse of God and eternal damnation. ‘The Bible says, ‘‘The soul that sinneth it shall die.”’ And again the Bible says, ‘‘Cursed is every one that con- tinueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.’”? Can you provide one to take your place and suffer the punish- tent due to your sins? In vain would you try to provide a substitute. God Himself has provided a substitute. He has given His Son @ ransom for sinners. The Bible says, ‘‘God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’” Again it says, ‘‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.’? And again it says, ‘‘His own self bare our sins in His body on the tree.’? From these and many other passages of the Bible we see that Christ took our place, bearing God’s wrath against sin, in our stead. In the sea- son of Lent we behold the sinner’s Substitute, suffering and dying for us. His agony is our agony, His sufferings are our sufferings, His death is our death. We deserved it all, but He took our place, and suffered and died in our stead, thus redeeming us from sin and all its woe. He that accepts this Substitute and believes in Christ as his Saviour has forgive- ness of all his sins and enjoys the payment made by Christ in his stead. There was an old soldier, who on his dying- bed confessed himself a sinner, but seemed to stumble at the thought that he must be saved without any goodness or efforts of his own, simply by faith in the work of One who had taken his place and had suffered and died in his stead. At last the pastor opened the fifty-third chapter of the prophet Isaiah and said, ‘‘There is one verse here to which I ask your special attention: ‘All we like sheep have gone astray’— that is what God says about you and me; is it true?’’ ‘tYes,’’ the soldier promptly replied, ‘‘it is true, for this is what I have done for more than seventy years.”’ ‘God speaks the truth then about you?” ‘tYes, sir, He does.’’ ‘‘Listen to the next clause: ‘we have turned every one to his own way’—that is what God says about you and me; is it true?’” ‘*Yes,’’ he answered, ‘‘it is true, for all my life I have turned to my own way, and not gone God’s way.’’ ‘God then speaks the truth about you?’’ ‘tYes, sir, He does.’’ “Listen now to the next clause: ‘and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” You admit that God tells the truth in the first two clauses of the verse, and does He not tell the truth in the last clause? And since God tells the truth when He says that He has laid all our iniquities on Christ, if you believe this to be the truth, you must see that your sins can not be on you and on Jesus too. God says He has laid them on His Son; do you believe Him ?’’ The old man looked at the pastor in silence for a few moments, and then with tears start- ing from his eyes, he earnestly said, ‘‘Yes, and I am satisfied; Jesus suffered and died for me.’’ He soon departed this life, rejoicing in the work of his Substitute. ——s +o o> oe Meaner than a Dog. A member of the church came to his pastor, complaining that the latter used very strong language in the pulpit. ‘‘Such at least is my aim,’’ was the reply, ‘‘and if I fail it is due to my inability, not to my want of inclination.’’ ‘“‘Well, you said yesterday that man was meaner than a dog; what am I to understand by that statement?’ ‘‘The words are so simple I supposed that a child could under- stand them. You know what a man is?’’ “Yes.’? ‘*You know what a dog is?’’ ‘‘Yes.’’ ‘“