# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1895_S21 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) Che Lutheran Pioneer. A MISSIONARY MONTHLY. “ PuBLIsHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LutHEeRAN SynopicaAL CONFERENCE OF NorTH AMERICA. R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. Entered at the Post Office at St. Louls, Mo., as second-class matter. Vol. XVII. St. Louis, Mo., June, 1895. All’s Well. The day is ended. Ere I sink to sleep, My weary spirit seeks repose on Thine. Father, forgive my trespasses, and keep This little life of mine. With loving-kindness curtain Thou my bed, And cool in rest my burning pilgrim feet: Thy pardon be the pillow for my head; So shall my sleep be sweet. At peace with all the world, dear Lord, and Thee, No fears my soul’s unwavering faith can shake; All’s well whichever side the grave for me The morning light may break. Selected. <—>er The Work of the Holy Spirit. Christ was sent into the world to be the Saviour of all sinners. By Him the work of redemption was accomplished for all men. This redemption must be applied to the soul. Man must be brought to faith in the finished work of his Redeemer and thus be made par- taker of the blessings of salvation procured by Christ for all sinners. If I am to enjoy & treasure, it must be made my own. So the treasure of salvation must be made the sin- ner’s own, if he is to enjoy its benefits and its blessings. : This is the work of the Holy Spirit. Man can not do this work, nor can he assist in this work. He is ‘‘dead in trespasses and sin,”’ and there is not the least particle of strength in him by which he could bring himself into spiritual life or in any wise assist in this work. Man is born of flesh, and therefore is nothing but flesh, and flesh is ‘‘enmity against God.”’ “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness Unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,” 1 Cor. 2, 14. “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost,’’ 1 Cor. 12, 8. Such are the plain statements of the Bible. We there- fore confess in our Lutheran Catechism: ‘‘I believe that I can not by my own reason or Strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or Come to Him; but the Holy Spirit hath called me through the Gospel, enlightened me by His gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in the true faith.’? And in the Larger Catechism Dr. Luther says, and with him the Lutheran church confesses: ‘‘Neither you nor I could know anything of Christ, nor believe in Him or have Him for our Lord, except as it is offered to us and granted to our hearts by the Holy Ghost through the preaching of the Gospel. The work is finished and accom- plished; for Christ, by His suffering, death, resurrection, etc., has acquired and gained the treasure for us. But if the work remain con- cealed, so that no one knew of it, then it were in vain and lost. That this treasure, there- fore, might not lie buried, but be taken and enjoyed, God has caused the Word to go forth and be proclaimed, in which He gives the Holy Ghost to bring this treasure home and apply it unto us.’” : From these quotations we learn also tha the Holy Spirit does His work through the Word of God, which we read in the Bible, which we hear in every true Gospel sermon, which we see connected with certain signs in the Holy Sacraments. We are not to run to and fro in quest of the Spirit. We are not to invent all kinds of schemes by which to ob- tain the Spirit. We are not to introduce all kinds of new measures by which to accom- plish the Spirit’s work. No! The Word of God is the means by which the Holy Spirit comes to us and by which He works in our hearts. He that accepts the Word, thereby accepts the Holy Spirit; and he that rejects the Word, thereby rejects the Holy Spirit. Stephen says to the people who resisted the Word of God which he preached to them: ‘Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye,’’ Acts 7, 51. By resisting the preaching of God’s Word they resisted the Holy Ghost, and hindered His work in their hearts, and did not come to faith; for ‘‘faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,” Rom. 10, 17. May we, therefore, be diligent in the hear- ing of God’s Word. The Word is the bearer of the Holy Spirit, and therefore the Word of the Gospel is ‘‘the power of God unto salya- tion to every one that believeth.” That Word is never without the Spirit, and the Spirit never comes to us without the Word. May we also be diligent in bringing the Word of God to those that are still sitting in the darkness and misery of sin. The Word is the only means by which the Holy Spirit is brought to them to give them light and life and salvation. ‘‘How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”’ Rom. 10, 14. 15.