# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1896_S25 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) cart £ Che Autheran Pioneer. A MISSIONARY MONTHLY. PusiisHep By THE EvANGELICAL Lurueran SynopicaL CoNnFERENCE or NortH AMERICA. R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter. Vol. XVII. St. Louis, Mo., July, 1896. No. 7. Sow thy Seed. “Sow thy seed, be never weary, Let no fears thy soul annoy; Be the prospect ne’er so dreary, Thou shalt reap the fruits in joy. God but uses thee as sower, Puts the seed into thy hand; Sow thou then, let Him be mower, Till thou reap in fatherland.” ——> oa. Christ is the Way.- “YT am the way,”’ says Christ. He does not say, I am one of the ways to heaven. No. He says: ‘‘I am the way.’’ There is only one way to heaven, and that way is Christ. _ He is the only way to our heavenly home; for no one cometh to the Father but by Him. And why is Christ the only way to heaven? Because He alone is the Saviour. Man is so deeply fallen that he can not lift himself out of sin. Jesus, and Jesus only, is the sinner’s Redeemer. He took our sins upon Himself and suffered the punishment, thus redeeming us from sin ‘and eternal woe. He alone did this, and there- fore He alone is the 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.’’ How fool- ish for people to try to get to heaven in some other way than by faith in Christ! ‘‘I am the way,’’ says Christ. ‘ There is no other way to heaven; every other way leads to hell. The selfrighteous, who trust in their own works, deceive themselves. Their righteousness is no way to heaven. They are on the way to hell as well as other sinners that believe not in Christ. ‘‘I am the way,’ says Jésus. Those that believe in Him are on the way to heaven and are'saved; those that believe not in Him, no matter in what else they believe, are not on the way to heaven and are condemned. For it is plainly written: ‘‘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. “Tam the way,’? says Christ. He does not say, Tam part of the way. No. He says, Tam THE Way.”” He is the oncy way, and He is ALL the way to heaven. He has paid att the debt we owe; He has suffered att the punish- ment we deserved; He has done att the work God required to be done, ‘‘that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus,’’ Rom. 3, 26. Therefore Christ is ALL the way to heaven. Mark well! Not half the way, nor two-thirds of the way, nor nine- tenths of the way, but att the way. It is not the work of Christ and something added that brings us to heaven, but the work of Christ alone, apart from anything and everything we can do or feel, as having the slightest merit in the sight of God. How foolish for people to try to get to heaven by partly trusting in Christ’s work and partly in their own doings! They are like the man who tried to cross a stream by walking on a sound plank and on a rotten plank at the same time. He fell into the water. So they who partly trust in the righteousness of Christ and partly in their own righteousness will surely fail of eternal life. For Christ says, ‘‘I am the way.”” He is the only way, and He is all the way to heaven. ‘Trust in Him, in Him alone, and you shall be saved. “J ‘am the way,’’ says Christ. Happy are they that by faith walk in this way. They are on the only way that leads to heaven. But, alas! there are many that know not Christ and therefore know not the way to heaven. Hence those that have been brought to Christ by the grace of God will be zealous in mission work, by which Christ is made known to men, and sinners are brought into the only way that leads to heaven. :