# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1897_S2 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) a a a ae ' ij 2 The Lutheran Pioneer. The Flight into Egypt. In our picture we see the Holy Child Jesus, | be very good in themselves—their goodness with Joseph and Mary, on the way to Egypt. will not keep them for us. They may even Why was the Child taken to Egypt? The angel be very useful to us, but their usefulness will of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, | not secure them. That which we have with saying, Arise, take the child and His mother, | God, far above storm and flood, is that which and fice into Egypt, and be there until I bring | alone is ours. thee word; for Herod will seek the child to destroy it. mother by night and departed into Egypt. From the wise men of the East, who came to worship the Babe of Bethlehem, King Herod had heard of the birth of the new born King of the Jews, and foolishly fearing for his crown, he soon sent men and had all children in Bethlehem So he took the child and His} to the north of Cape Town. 1 /us and ruin. What we possess of the < wave. ‘‘They are gone,”’ he wrote, ‘‘they are that alone is ours. The things which go may] gone; and blessed be God, I can say ‘gone’ without a murmur.”’ Thus perish all earthly things ; the treasure that is laid up in heaven is alone unassailable. — P. B. P. Are You Ready? A vessel was once wrecked some thirty miles} The average age of man is said to be thirty- The passengers | three years. One fourth of all that are born and crew just escaped with their lives, and| die before their seventh year, and one half before their seventeenth year. Of one hundred persons only six live to be sixty years, and of five hun- dred only one lives to be eighty years old. Sixty persons die every killed, from two years old and under. Thus he sought to destroy the new born King. - But Herod was only the instru- ment of Satan, who well knew that the set time of the redemption had come, and that the Babe of Beth- lehem was the promised Saviour. Satan feared for his kingdom. Through Herod he sought to de- stroy the Child Jesus. However, Satan’s and Herod’s raging against the new born Say- iour was all in vain. God took Care of Him, and brought Him to a place of safety until Herod was dead. Then the angel of the Lord again appeared to Joseph and told him to return with the Child and His mother to the land of Israel. Satan and the world at all times rage against Christ and against those that by faith belong to Him. But we need notfear. They rage in vain. ‘‘He that sitteth in the heayens shall Jaugh; the Lord shall have them in derision.’’? The Church is built upon a rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. How comforting it is for the Christian to know that the-God that guided the Christ Child is his guide also. He is his refuge and strength, and under His al- mighty protection the Christian is safe against all enemies. ss ~-oPo —o Heavenly Treasure. It is a grand thing to know that we have that which can never be taken from us. That was what Mary had. ‘‘One thing is needful,’’ said our Lord, ‘‘and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.’”” All things around us are so changing _ 4nd perishing that they seem never to continue in one state. We are like people at sea — ways at the mercy of wind and! wave, and h but an inch or two, at the most, between The Flight into Egypt. nothing more. Amongst the passengers was | minute, one every second. Stop and think! Every second a soul passes into eternity, and there will come a second in which it will be your soul. Are you ready . for the great change? ‘The ques- tion is easily settled. The Bible says: ‘tHe that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Jife; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him,’’ John 3, 36. God Governs the World. When Whitelock was about to go to Sweden as Cromwell’s mes- senger, in 1655, he was much dis- turbed in mind the night before he left, while he thought of the troubled state of the English nation. A servant slept in a bed near by, who, finding that his mas- ter could not sleep, said: ‘‘Pray, sir, will you give me leave to ask you a question ?’’ “Certainly.’’ ‘‘Pray, sir, don’t you think God governed the world very well be- fore you came into it?’’ ‘*Undoubtedly.’’ : ‘And pray, sir, don’t you think He will govern it quite well when you are gone out of it?”’ “*Certainly.”’ ‘Then, sir, pray excuse me, but don’t you a missionary, who lost, amongst other goods, think you may as well trust Him to govern it some eight hundred volumes of books, and, {as long as you are in it?” what was worse, a large number of manu- scripts, amongst which were the notes of his reading for many years. ‘The loss was irreparable. ‘The printed books he could re- place, but the manuscripts never. ‘The loss was almost crushing; but it had a teaching. The good man felt that he had been leaning on these too much. They had been too much to him. But soon after one volume was washed on shore, undamaged. It was a large Bible, which had been wrapped in leather, and this seemed to speak to him and say that his better wealth was safe beyond the reach of wind and To this question Whitelock had nothing to reply, and, turning about, soon fell asleep. —_—_—=>- 0 =a oe ee . Deatu, which is to men a penalty of sin, through the most tender and kind mercy of God becomes to Christian men an end of sin, and a beginning of life and righteousness. For to him who already has righteousness and life, death becomes a minister of life—a loom wherein life is woven; which surely we need not fear, since through no other passage can we reach that life. This is the might of faith. It mediates between death and life, transmut- ing death into life and immortality. —Zuther.