# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1903_S25 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) bee es salesman aaeeeneiaeiee eee een ne taeda Che Lutheran Pioneer. A MISSIONARY MONTHLY. PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LutuERAN SynopicAL CoNFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA. Vol. XXV. R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter. St. Louis, Mo., July, 1908. “Come Unto Me.” “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matt. 11, 28. There are no words like these words; how blessed they be, How calming when Jesus says, ‘‘Come unto me.”’ Oh, hear them, my heart, they were spoken to thee, And still they are calling thee —‘‘Come unto me.” I will walk through the world with these words on my heart; Through sorrow or sin they shall never depart; And when dying, I know He will whisper to me, “1 have loved thee, and saved thee; come, sinner, to me.” Paxton Hood. 2+ o> 0 > Do You Trust Jesus? Do you trust Jesus? If not, why do you not trust Him? He is surely worthy of your trust. He is the sinners’ best friend —the only true friend. He laid down His life for sinners. None can do more. In the Gospel He invites sinners with the sweet assurance, “Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.’’? No sinner in the wide world that came to Jesus, trusting in Him for forgive- ness and salvation, was ever cast out. Even the chief of sinners was welcomed and made happy. No matter who you are and what you are, you may trust in Jesus for forgiveness and salvation. He will not, He cannot deceive you. There is no reason whatever why you should not trust Him. : A young man‘once came to an aged pastor with the question, ‘‘What shall I do to be saved ?”” The pastor replied, ‘‘You know what the answer is: ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’’” ‘But,’’ said the young man, ‘T cannot be- lieve in Jesus Christ.” “Well, now,’’ said the old pastor, ‘Slook here, I haye believed in Him a good many years, and I do trust Him; but if you know something or other against Him, I should like to know it, for I do not like to be de- ceived.”’ “No, sir, I do not know anything agains Him,” said the young man. ‘‘Why don’t you trust Him, then?’ said the pastor; ‘‘could you trust me?’’ ‘*Yes,’’ replied the young man, ‘‘I would trust you with anything.”’ : “But you don’t know much about me,’’ said the pastor. ‘“No, not much,” answered the young man, ‘tonly I know you are a preacher of the Word, and I believe you are honest and I could trust you.’’ “Do you mean to say,” ssid the pastor, “that you would trust me, and then tell me that you cannot trust Jesus Christ? You must have found out something bad about Him. Let me know it.’’ The young man stood still and thought for a moment, and then said, ‘‘I can see it now. Why, of course I can trust Him. I cannot help trusting Him. He is such a blessed, truthful Saviour that I must trust Him. Good- bye, sir; it is all right now.” That young man was a theological student, and later became an earnest, ardent preacher of the Gospel, leading many souls to the Saviour. Jesus is a friend indeed, The very friend that sinners need. Trust Him and in Him believe! He will never you deceive. ——— —- oe God Loves Us. ‘Some years ago two gentlemen were riding together, and as they were about to separate, one addressed the other thus: ‘Do you ever read your Bible?’ ““rYes; but I get no benefit from it, be- cause, to tell you the truth, I feel I do not love God.’ ‘(No more did I,’ replied the other, ‘but God loved me.’ “This answer produced such an effect upon his friend that, to use his own words, it was as if one had lifted him off the saddle into the skies. It opened up to his soul at once the great truth that it is not how much I love God, but how much God loves me.”’ This is, indeed, the great truth: ‘‘For God so loved the world” —the guilty, sinful, ruined world—‘‘that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,’’ John 3. 16. “Tn this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only-begatten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved (od, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins,’”’ 1 John 4, 9. 10. ‘*We love Him, because He first loved us,’? 1John4, 19. Do not imagine that you must love Him first, in order to make Him love you in return, so that His love to you is a reward for your love to Him. No. The Apostle says, ‘“‘We love Him, because He first loved us.’’ The devil would like to persuade us that God cannot love us first, and that we cannot come to Him just as we are; but ‘*he is a liar and the father of it.”” And when he whispers to your soul that you must do something and make yourself better and get to be something different from what you now are before God can love you, he is whispering a lie. God loves you, the sinner, and when He sees you afar off, He yearns over you with unutterable tenderness, and longs to take you to His heart of love and make you happy for ever. ————- oe Come to Jesus. Jesus says: ‘‘I am the Bread of Life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst,’’ John6,35. O hungry and thirsty ones, heed the loving voice of your Saviour. All the pleasures and all the treasures of this world cannot truly satisfy your souls. There is a hunger which only Jesus can satisfy, a thirst which none but Jesus can quench. Come to Him with all your sins and doubts and fears and questionings, and learn the meaning of the precious invitation, ‘‘ Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely,’’ Rey. 22, 17. Come to Him, who is willing and mighty to save. ‘Then can you enter into the gladness of those who confess: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus only, Can my heart-felt longing still; Without Him my soul is lonely, And I wish what Jesus will. For my heart, which He hath filled, Ever cries: Lord, as Thou wilt.