# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1894_S45 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Lutheran Pioneer, : A MISSIONARY MONTHLY. PusiisHED BY THE EvaNncELicaL LutHEraN SynopicaL ConrEerEeNce or Nortn AMERICA. R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter. Vol. XVI. Syn ILGwHE, IMIS, IDAaouaee, SOL Christmas Carol. Bright angel hosts are heard on high All sweetly singing o’er the plains; While mountains echo in reply The burden of their joyous, strains. Say, Shepherds, why this jubilee? What doth your rapturous mirth prolong? Say, say, what may the tidings be Which still inspire that heavenly song? Come, come, to Bethlehem, come and sce The Child whose birth the angels sing; Come, come, adore on bended knee The infant Christ, the new-born King! See-there within a manger laid Jesus, the Lord of heaven and earth! See saints and angels lend their aid ° To celebrate the Saviour’s Birth! Selected. ——s +0 <> p The Saviour Is Born. This is the glad news which comes to us on Christmas day and makes that day a day of rejoicing to all that feel the need of a Saviour. We all need a Saviour ; for we are by nature lost sinners and have deserved God’s wrath and everlasting punishment. The wrath of God over sin must be borne by some one in our place, if we were to be saved from ever- lasting punishment. He that took our place to suffer the punishment in our stead is our Saviour. And who is He? He is God’s only- begotten Son, who became man and was born of the virgin Mary in the blessed Christmas night. Therefore the angel of the Lord in that night said to the shepherds: ‘‘Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” The Saviour born at Bethlehem is God and man in one person. Therefore the angel calls the child born of the virgin Mary. Christ the Lord. The Babe for whom there was no room in the inn and who was laid in the manger was God over all, blessed forever. What the prophet Isaiah declared has been fulfilled 8 ‘Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulders; and His name shall be called Won- derful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Ever- lasting I’ather, the Prince of Peace.’’ Isa. 9, 6. The Babe of Bethlehem is our Lord and our God, who for our salvation has become man. No creature in heaven or on earth could be our saviour; for no creature could fulfill the law of God for us and suffer the great pen- alty which we deserved by our transgressions. God’s power only could lift the great moun- tain of sin from a perishing world. And, be- hold, God came to the rescue. ‘tWhen 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 own Son became man, took our place under the law, fulfilled all its demands and suffered its curse. Thus He be- came our Saviour. Well may we in the blessed Christmas time rejoice at the birth of this Saviour. In Him we have all that our souls need. In Him there is comfort for the sorrowing, redemption for the captives, help for the helpless, pardon for the sinner, salvation for the lost, heaven for the condemned. The Saviour is born! Be- lieve in Him and rejoice! He is your Say- iour, for He is the Saviour of all. There is not one excepted. The angel plainly said: “T bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.’’? There is none shut out. Unto you, and unto me, and unto every sinner a Saviour is born. Whosoever—be he rich or poor, learned or unlearned, high or low, colored or white, yea, be he the greatest of all sinners—whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. The Saviour is born! May we all receive Him as our Saviour and thus enjoy a blessed Christmas. 0 +00 + Christmas in Mexico. It is very sad to think that there are parts of the world where Christmas is unknown. Is it not also sad that in many countries the cele- bration of the day is mingled with idolatrous customs? A missionary gives the following account of Christmas in Mexico. There are many Catholic countries where it is no better. Rev. Mr. Sawyer says: ‘‘For almost a week before Christmas we heard singing in a house on the hillside below our house here in Guana- juato, as though they were holding cottage prayer-meetings, or serenading somebody. One evening we had to pass the house in re- turning from church, and what do.you think we saw? Nearly a dozen women, girls, and boys standing in a group before the door of the house, which was closed, and two boys had upon their shoulders a decorated wooden platform about the size of a small door taken off its hinges, with the image of a man and a woman sitting uponit. The group wauld sing a song in their language, and then the people inside the house would sing. Upon inquiry I learned that the ‘images represented Joseph and Mary going to the inn at Bethlehem, and being turned away ‘because there was no room for them in the inn.’ “This was kept up every night until Christ- mas eve, when the order of exercise was changed. Then, instead of singing, there was music upon violins, harps, and cornets. Upon passing the house I found the door wide open, and the room nearly full of people, some sit- ting, some kneeling, and a few standing near the doors. Near the centre of the room stood a little cot beautifully decorated, and what do you think was lying upon it? A wooden image of a very small baby which they were wor- shiping, kneeling around it, and making music . for it. They called the image the new-born Saviour and worshiped it as such. This they do every year for nearly two_weeks,” — Work without Merit. Merit is a work for the sake of which Christ gives rewards. But no such work is to be found, for Christ gives by promise. Just as if a prince were to say to me: ‘‘Come to me in my castle, and I will give you a hundred florins.’” Ido a work, certainly, in going to the castle, but the gift is not given me as the reward of my work in doing, but because the prince promised it me.— Luther. : ———.@> ~- 0 0 ee True Christmas joy is joy in the Lord.