# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1897_S29 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Lutheran Pioneer. A MISSIONARY MONTHLY. PusiisHeD BY THE Evanceicat Lureran SyNopICAL Conrerence or Nort America. R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. Entered at the Post Of_ice at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter. Vol. XIX. Come. Come, ye weary, heavy laden, Bruised and broken by the fall! If you tarry till you’re better, You will never come at all. Not the righteous, Sinners, Jesus came to call. Let not conscience make you linger, Nor of fitness fondly dream; All the fitness He requireth, Is to feel your need of Him; This He gives you— Tis the Spirit’s rising beam! Lo! the incarnate God ascended, Pleads the merit of His blood: Venture on Him, venture wholly, Let no other trust intrude; None but Jesus Can do helpless sinners good. Joseph Hart, 1759. ——s +o oe Coming to Jesus. How to Come ro Jesus. ‘Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest,” says Jesus. He invites all that labor under the burden of their sin and fecl themselves heavy- laden with sin to come to Him for rest. But how can such sinners come to Jesus? He is no longer on earth in such manner that we can see Him. How can we come to Him? He is present in the Gospel which is preached tous. There He, the ‘‘friend of sinners,’? — and that makes Him your friend—offers Him- self to the sinner as his Saviour and gives him rest; for He gives him forgiveness of sin and life everlasting. Aceept Him and rejoice. This is coming to Jesus. Therefore it is written, ‘‘As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God,’’ John 1,12. We receive Him and thus come to Him by believing in Him. Coming to Jesus is the same as believing or trusting in Jesus. This is seen from the following Passage: ‘‘And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst,” John 6,35. The moment the sinner believes or trusts in Jesus as his Saviour, he has come to Him and found rest. bs St. Louis, Mo., August, 1897. No. 8. Come, Tooucn Unwortny. “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out,’’ says Jesus. ‘Him that cometh’’ —let him be who he may; high or- low, colored or white, rich or poor, a young sin- ner or an old sinner, yea, the greatest of all sinners, the chief of sinners: all who shall come shall be welcome. ‘‘I will in no wise cast out’’— though he may deserve it; though he may dread it; let him take my word for it, I will take him in my loving arms, I will in no wise cast him out. The woman that came to the Pharisee’s house and washed the Saviour’s feet with her tears was a great sinner, known all over the city as a great sinner. She came to Jesus with a trusting heart, believing that in Him there was rest and salvation for her. And He did not cast her out, but said kindly to Taught by an Ox. “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider,”’ Isa. 1, 3. A farmer who had recently listened to a sermon on this text was giving food to his stock, when one of his oxen, evidently grate- ful for his care, fell to licking his bare arm. Instantly, with this simple incident, the text of the sermon was recalled to the farmer’s mind. He burst into tears and exclaimed, “Yes, it is all true. How wonderful is God’s word! This poor, dumb brute is really more grateful to me than I am to God, and yet Iam in debt to Him for every thing. What asinnerI am!’’ ‘The lesson had found way to his heart and led him to Christ. her: ‘‘Thy sins are forgiven thee.’’ Thus He gave the laboring and heavy-laden sin- Ho BS Curse not. The thief that was crucified by the Saviour’s side was a very great sinner, but he came to Jesus just as he was, trusting in Him as his Saviour and his King. And Jesus did not cast him out. ‘‘To-day thou shalt be with me in Paradise,’’ He said. Thus He gave the laboring and heavy-laden sinner rest, everlasting rest. Come, then, though unworthy. Let no sense of unworthiness keep you back. Jesus looks for nothing in you. He asks nothing of you. He simply invites you to come unto Him, that He may give you rest. His heart is set upon giving rest to all that labor and are heavy-laden. The most unworthy sinner is most welcome to Jesus. He says, ‘Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’’ The very heavens will fall before that word fails. Jesus says, ‘‘I willin no wise cast out.’’ How this ought to put to flight all your fears! “Just as thou art, without one trace Of love, or joy, or inward grace, Or meetness for the heavenly place, O guilty sinner, come, oh! come.’ —_—* ~~ eo He that sincerely gives his heart will not deny his money. : In a busy seaport town in the North of England two women emerged from a low- looking public-house near the docks. Both had been drinking, and now they had reached the quarreling point; foul language and bitter oaths were hurled at each other, accompanied with much shaking of fists and threats. At last the younger woman dealt her companion a blow in the face, which silenced her fora few moments. When she recovered herself enough to speak, she saw her enemy watching her, and raising her voice to its highest pitch, she shrieked out these fearful words, with oaths too vile to mention: ‘‘May God strike your arm from your body!?’ She who uttered this curse gave birth to a child some months later, and who shall paint that mother’s remorse when told that her in- fant girl had but one arm! She repeated over and over again, ‘The curse has fallen home. Oh! my baby, my poor baby!’ It was pain- ful'to listen to her, and none could comfort her. Before many days were passed that mother received the ‘‘call’? and was taken to her grave; a bad life and drink had done its work rapidly and surely.