# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1903_S26 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) ——_- . = 26 ‘The Lutheran Pioneer. The Second Article. Many ‘are the benefits which we acknowl- edge in the First Article. And all these God has given us without any merit or worthi- ness in us, for we are sinners. And being un- worthy and undeserving of His benefits, we have made matters yet worse by proving un- grateful and disobedient even after experienc- ing the heavenly Father’s goodness and love. We are, indeed, most wretched creatures, de- serving of punishment and condemnation, and all the divine blessings of which we speak in the First Article cannot alter the fact that we are lost and condemned sinners. Our sins have turned us away from God, and we have all gone astray. Because of sin the wrath and curse of a righteous God are upon us. But yet God loved us. He desired to save the lost and to remove from us the sentence of death. To make this possible, He gave His only-begotten Son, so that all who believe in Him should not perish, but have everlast- ing life. O wonderful love! God, the holy, righteous, insulted God, loves the world, sin- ners, rebels, and to save them gives His dear- est and best, gives His Son, delivers Him into poverty, shame, and death. O wondrous Love! what hast Thou done! The Father offers up His Son, The Son, content, descendeth! O Love! O Love! how strong art Thou! In shroud and grave Thou lay’st Him low Whose word the mountains, rendeth! i What blessed tidings for us, for the whole world of sinners! Here is truly a word worthy of all acceptation: Christ Jesus has comé into the world to save sinners. Of Jesus Christ and His blessed work of Redemption we learn in - Tue Seconp ArrIcLe. The first thing we learn in this Article are the names of our Saviour and Redeemer. Be- fore His birth the angel had said to Joseph: “She [Mary] shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.”” The name Jesus was given to the Saviour by divine command. And why He was to be called Jesus, the angel tells Joseph: ‘*For He shall save His people from their sins.’” —The name Jesus means Say- jour, Redeemer, Rescuer, or Helper. And what more appropriate name could be given Him, since it expressly states His purpose of coming into the world? Dear name! the Rock on which I build, My Shield and Hiding-place. My never-failing Treasury, filled With boundless stores of grace. The other name given our Saviour is Curist. This name means: the Anointed. This name has the same meaning as the Hebrew name Messiah. Why our Saviour bears this name elearn Ps. 45,7. There, namely, the Psalm- ist says to the Saviour: ‘‘God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.?? Referring to the fact that in the Old Testament prophets, priests, and kings were anointed to their offices with the oil of gladness, that is, the Holy Ghost, he says that Jesus is anointed with the Holy; Spirit above them. Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed, for He is anointed with the Holy Ghost without measure. And He is anointed to a threefold office, namely, to that of Prophet, Priest, and King. He is in the fullest sense Prophet, Priest, and King in one person, for He teaches us the way to heaven, reconciles us with God, and rules, guides, and protects us. Moses, Asron, and David were but shadows of Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed. F. J. L. ——__—2- oo - The Christian’s Experience. The Christian knows from experience that the Bible is God’s Word. That Book has done for him what no human book can do. He has experienced its divine power, and can say with the man to whom Jesus gave sight, ‘‘One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” He can truthfully affirm, ‘‘The things I formerly hated I love, and the things I formerly loved I hate.’’ And as the Christian advances in years, the Bible becomes more precious to him as God’s Word. He experiences more and more the divine power of that holy Book. In the trials and sorrows and afllictions of life he finds divine comfort in the Bible, and he can say with the Psalmist: ‘‘Unless Thy Law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.”’ Especially is the Christian’s experience of value when his warfare is accomplished, and his work on earth is finished. Then, while sight and hearing and friends and the world and life are failing, he finds what the Bible is to him with its clear, strong assurance, “The eternal God is thy refuge, and under- neath are the everlasting arms,’’ and he can say with the Psalmist: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”’ “Bring me the Book,’ said Sir Walter Scott on his dying bed. ‘‘What book?’’ in- quired his son-in-law. ‘‘There is but one Book,’’ replied the departing novelist, histo- rian, and poet; and the Bible was placed rey- erently in his hands. Yes, there is but one Book whose light pierces the awful darkness of the grave, and guides the weary spirit of the believer home to the bright land, where ‘‘God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away,’’ Rev. 21, 4. How precious is the Book divine, By inspiration given! Bright as a lamp its doctrines shine, To guide our souls to heaven. “Pray Without Ceasing.” A Christian servant girl overheard a num- ber of ministers discussing the text, ‘‘Pray without ceasing,’’ and found that at length they appointed one of their number to pre- pare an essay upon the subject to be read at their next meeting. She modestly expressed surprise to a fel- low servant that they should take so much time about a passage of Scripture so plain and simple; and her remark having reached the ears of one of the ministers, he asked her why she thought it easy to understand the text. She replied with humility that it seemed to her believers were compelled to pray without ceasing, for everything they did reminded them of the Saviour and salvation. ‘*When, for example,’’ she went on to say, ‘‘I open my eyes in the morning, I praise God who hath shined into my heart to give me the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. When I dress, I bless Him for having clothed me in the spotless robe of His dear Son’s righteousness. When I wash my face, I thank Him for the precious blood that cleanseth from all sin. When I kindle the fire, I think of the cloven tongues like as of fire, and the Holy Ghost who came down on the day of Pentecost to dwell with the dis- ciples of Jesus. When I sweep the room, I ask that the Holy Spirit may remove from me all defilement, and keep me clean through the Word.. When I eat my breakfast, I turn my mind to the Bread of heaven that daily nour- ishes my soul; and thus in all my little duties there is something that brings Christ before me and causes me to pray without ceasing.’”’ That girl lived in close and constant com- munion with Jesus, and therefore she knew what it means to pray without ceasing. ———->~- oP ee “Pana, Are You There?” Dr. Trumbull tells of a little boy who slept inatrundle-bed. He never went to sleep in the dark without asking, ‘‘Papa, are you there?”’ ‘Yes, my son.”’ ‘“Will you take care of me to-night?” ‘*Yes, my son.’’ Then he would turn over and fall asleep. “That little boy,’’? said Dr. Trumbull, is now an old man of sixty-seven years, but he never goes to sleep without looking into His heavenly Father’s face and saying, ‘‘Father, will you take care of me to-night?’’ And the answer comes back in every experience of darkness, ‘Yes, my ‘son,’’ and then, ‘He giveth His beloved sleep.’’ Into the Father’s Hand. A Christian sailor, when asked why he Te mained so calm during a fearful storm at 5¢8; answered: ‘Though I sink, I shall only fall into the hollow of my Father’s hand, for He holds all these waters there.””