# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1903_S33 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) Dhe Lutheran Pioneer. A MISSIONARY MONTHLY. PuBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LutHERAN SyNODICAL ConFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA. R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. Entered at the Post Oftice at St. Louis, Mo., a8 second-class matter. Doubt Not! Wherefore dost thou doubt, O soul? Wherefore dost thou doubt? Cannot Christ, thy loving Lord, Work life’s problems out? Has He not delivered thee Many a trying hour? Is He not the same to-day In almighty power? Has His blood not purchased thee? Art thou not His own? Through the whelming waters deep Dost thou go alone? Wouldst thou know the reason why All these things go ‘wrong’? He will show thee by and by; Change thy sighs to song. He will surely bring to thee Whatsoe’er is best; Guide thee all thy journey through To His promised rest. Doubt Him not, O troubled soul! Wherefore be afraid? Arms of love encompass thee! Be thou not dismayed! Selected. ——— —- oo Worthy in Christ. —— Sinners often meet with obstacles in trying to find peace, simply because they persist in thinking of themselves instead of directing their thoughts to Christ, and to the object of His mission to earth, and to His finished work. They hear Christ’s invitation to come to Him for rest; but they complain that they are not good enough to come. No, and they never will be in themselves; but they forget that Jesus has said, ‘‘I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,’’ Matt. 9,18. ‘The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost,” Luke 19, 10. “This is a faithful saying,” says Paul, “and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world tosave sinners; of whom I amohief,”’ 1 Tim. 1, 15. Who was Paul and what was he doing when Christ saved him? He himself tells us he was ‘‘a blasphemer, and & persecutor, and injurious,”? and “J verily thought with myself,”’ he writes, ‘‘that! ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem; and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being ex- ceedingly mad against them, I persccuted them even unto strange cities,” Acts 26,9—11. Truly, Paul did nothing to make himself fit or good enough to come, but he was “‘a brand plucked out of the fire,’’? just as every other saved sinner is; for all of us are far worse than we think ourselves to be, even when most deeply humbled under a sense of our guilt. The fact is that out of Christ we have no worth or worthiness at all, do what we may; but in Christ the vilest of the vile are infi- nitely worthy, there being ‘‘no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus ;’’ for they are clothed with the righteousness of God’s Son. A wicked, swearing teamster, who had been the terror of the neighborhood, was led by the Spirit to the knowledge of his sins and to faith in Jesus, and it was announced that he would openly confess the Saviour before men and partake of the Lord’s Supper. Driving through a town where he was well known, he was met by an old woman with the question, ‘‘They tell me, Thomas, that you be going to take the Sacrament on Sunday ; is it true that you be?”’ “By the grace of Christ, my Saviour,’’ he replied, ‘“‘I shall be a guest at His Table and shall have the privilege of showing His death with others who believe in Him.”’ “But, Thomas, do you think that you be worthy ?’” said the old woman. ‘‘I don’t mean to reflect on ye, but you know what kind of man you have been, and what kind of life you have led, and do you think, Thomas, that you be worthy ?”’ ‘(Ag worthy as any man in town,” was the reply, ‘‘for Iam a poor, worthless sinner saved by the grace of God through the precious blood of Christ. I trust in Him alone and do not doubt that He gives me His body and His blood as a pledge of the forgiveness of all my sins. Yes, I only trust in Jesus and in His finished work.”’ Such is the language of faith leading the sinner to lose sight of self in the believing contemplation of the Saviour, who so gra- ciously says, ‘‘Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out,’’ John 6, 37. “But I am a great sinner, sayest thou? Twill in no wise cast out, says Christ. But I am an old sinner, sayest thou? Iwill in no wise cast out, says Christ. I have served Satan all my days, sayest thou? Iwill in no wise cast out, says Christ. But I have sinned against light, sayest thou? Iwill in no wise cast out, says Christ. But I have sinned against mercy, sayest thou? Twill in no wise cast out, says Christ. I have no good thing to bring, sayest thou? Twill in no wise cast out, says Christ.” The God- Man. Jesus was a man, but He was more. He sat weary at Jacob’s well, and, therefore, was a man; but He lifted the redeemed soul of the sinful woman into the joy of eternal life, and, therefore, was God. He slept upon a pillow in the ship, and, therefore, was man; but He stilled the raging of the tempest with a word, and, therefore, was God. He weptat the grave of Lazarus, and, therefore, was man; but He called the dead man from the tomb, and, there- fore, was God. He is the God-Man, our Redeemer. —J. H. B. oe eo A Blessed Service. An aged pastor closed his last sermon with the following precious words: “‘When the wind blows cold He slways takes the bleak side of the hill. The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on His shoulders. These forty years and more have I served Him, blessed be His name! and Ihave had nothing but love from Him. I would be glad to continue yet another forty years in the same dear service here be- low if so it pleased Him. His service is life, peace, joy. Oh, that you would enter on it at once! God help you to enlist under the banner of Jesus even this day! Amen.””