# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1897_S33 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) Che Lutheran Pioneer. A MISSIONARY MONTHLY. PuBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LutueRaN SynopicaL CONFERENCE OF Nortn AMERICA. R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter. Vol. XIX. “St. Louis, Mo., September, 1897. " No. 9. Mission Prayer. Use me, O God, in Thy great harvest-fleld, Which stretcheth far and wide, like a wide sea; The gatherers are so few I fear the precious yield Will suffer loss—oh, find a place for me— A place where best the strength I have will tell, It may be one the other toilers shun; Be it a wide or narrow place —’tis well— So that the work it holds be only done. Selected. ——s+c<—Pe Faith in the Word. He that believes in Jesus knows that he has forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. He knows that he is a child of God and an heir of heaven. He does not doubtfully hope that he is saved. No. He knows it. How does he know it? He knows it by believing what God says. His assurance is based, not on his feelings or on anything he finds in his own self, but on the infallible, never changing Word of God. A Christian merchant, having lost his way while traveling in the country, looked about him for some house, where he might get food and rest, and also be shown the right road. On he went till he came in sight of a farm- house, toward which he at once bent his steps. Upon asking the kindly-looking folks to allow him to rest, and give him some bread and milk, he was at once invited inside and made to sit down. While the refreshment was being prepared, he looked around and noticed an old woman sitting in a corner, with a large Bible before her, and a big pair of spectacles on her nose. The milk and bread were soon before the traveler; upon which he bent his head to ask a blessing upon the food. The old woman thought he was examining the milk and was doubting its sweetness. She therefore said, “The milk is good, man; it’s just as God sent it; drink it up, man!’ . The traveler assured her he did not fora Moment doubt the sweetness of the milk and would gladly ‘drink it up,’ and, in return, asked her whether she did the same with the “sincere milk’? of God’s Word which she then had before her. Did she simply believe it, and thus drink it up as her own to live upon and grow thereby? “Yes, [hope I do,” said the old lady. ‘Well, then you know, of course, that all your sins are forgiven, that you have eternal life, have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and are just waiting for God’s Son from heaven?’’ “No, no,’’ said the old lady, ‘‘I can not say all that; I wish I could. Indeed, man, I think no one can go as far as all that.”” Our friend asked her to turn to the third chapter of John’s gospel, and lovingly pressed her “to drink up just as God sent it,’’ the 16th verse: ‘‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that who- soever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’” Then other Scriptures were looked at, such as ‘‘Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” ‘Christ died for the ungodly.”? ‘God commendeth His love, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.’? And again, ‘‘He that believeth Aath everlasting life.”’ And, ‘“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.”” The Christian merchant earnestly begged the old lady to take these truths as from God himself, whose words they were. They were brought home to her soul, and she began to be glad and at the same time to wonder she should have read her Bible so many years, and not have seen such sweet and glorious truths before. A happy time these two had together over that old Bible—our friend delighted to be thus used of God; and the dear old woman, with tears of joy, thanking God that she by simple faith in His Word had gained the assurance of the forgiveness of all her sins, and of life everlasting. Dear reader, have you “drunk it up, just as God sent it”? I mean His loving simple Word as you find it in the Bible. It is no proken cistern which holds no water. It is the deep, deep well of God’s love to you. It is the ‘‘sincere, pure, unadulterated milk.”’ Oh, drink it up, just as God sent it! Have faith in that Word which tells you that ‘‘God so loved the world’’— that means you, for you surely belong to the world—‘‘that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever’ —mark well that word whosoever — ‘‘believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlast- ing life.” é ——__—2 -o~