# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1903_S45 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) Che Lutheran Pioneer, A MISSIONARY ONIN sks: ; Entered at the Post Oflice at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter. R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. Vol. XXV. Yo. 12, Christmas. Fear not! The Christmas message comes, Good tidings of great joy! It brings to you and all the world A gift none can destroy. For you is born in Bethlehem A little helpless Babe, The Christ, your Lord, your Saviour, King! He comes the world to save. qs -< e+ A Faithful Saying. A faithful saying is a saying which is true, and which is therefore worthy of belief. Such a saying is the Christmas message which tells us of the birth of the Saviour of sinners. St. Paul says, ‘‘It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,’’ 1 Tim. 1,15. ‘‘Christ Jesus came into the world.”’ He came from the glory which He had with the Father from all eternity. St. John, speaking of the Son of God, says, ‘‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’’ ‘‘And the Word was made flesh.’’ It was the Word that was made flesh; it was the Son of God that be- came man, born of the Virgin Mary. ‘‘When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the Law.’? Therefore the angel who brought the Christmas tidings to the shepherds in the holy Christmas night called the Child born at Bethlehem, ‘Christ the Lord.’’ That Child for whom there was no room in the inn and who was laid in the manger was the great Jehovah, the Maker of all things, God over all, blessed forever. The Babe at whose rough couch we worship in the blessed Christmas time is the God-man in whom we see God IManifest in the flesh. This is a great mystery, above all human understanding, and therefore rejected by those who in the pride of their own wisdom know not God, nor the works and ways of God. They laugh ast the birth of a virgin mother, and will not believe that the holy Child born of the virgin is the Son of God. But no matter what foolish man may say or think, the Christmas saying is a faithful say- ing, a true saying, worthy to be believed for our comfort. Yes, for our comfort. For, if it were not true, if the Child born at Bethlehem in the blessed Christmas night was not the Son of God, then we have no Saviour and are lost forever. By sin we were subject to God’s wrath and everlasting damnation. We could not help ourselves, neither could a mere man be our Saviour. God’s own power was nec- essary to lift the great mountain of sin from 8 perishing world, and to save us from ever- lasting woe. In our helplessness God Him- self came to the rescue. God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son to save us from utter ruin and endless misery. God’s own Son became man, and took the sinners’ place under the Law, and bore the sinners’ transgressions, and endured the sin- ners’ punishment. To this end did He come, and therefore the angel making known His birth said, ‘‘Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour.” This is indeed good news, but not too good to be true; for ‘tit is a faithful saying,’’ a true saying, ‘‘that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin- ners.”” The self-righteous will nothing of all this. They imagine that they can save themselves, and therefore reject this saying of the birth of a Saviour. But no matter what foolish man may say or think, the Christmas saying is a faithful saying, a true saying, a saying worthy of belief. In this faithful saying every sinner may find peace and salvation. ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,’’ all sinners, even the chief of sinners. Therefore the angel said that the Christmas tidings of great joy “shall be unto all people.’’ There is none excepted, not one. The Saviour born at Bethlehem is the Saviour of all. He is your Saviour. Believe in Him and rejoice! In this faithful Christmas saying the be- liever has the assurance of God’s love in the darkest hour of grief and sorrow and afflic- tion. Much of life is dark. There is much sorrow and trouble and heartache, and we are often tempted to doubt God’s goodness. But the faithful saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners brings light into the darkness. In the light of this saying all doubts are stilled. He that gave His own Son to be a sacrifice for our sins surely loves us, and His ways are ways of mercy. Many mysteries still remain, but in the light of the faithful saying one thing is clear: God’s pur- pose towards us is one of love, and, clinging to this, we shall some day see face to face and know as we are known. In the faithful Christmas saying we find in- spiration for mission work. We carry on mis- sion work to make Known the glad tidings that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. This is not a doubtful saying, in- vented by the human mind. No. It isa faith- ful saying, a true saying. It is God’s own message, and it will manifest its divine power in church and school. Our labor cannot: be in vain. Let us, then, rest our hearts upon the ‘‘faith- ful saying’’ that ‘‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” a saying which is ‘worthy of acceptation’” by all men. 0 God Is Love. Do you doubt it? Behold the lowly Babe of Bethleliem, whose birth we celebrate in the blessed Christmas time! That Babe in the manger is God’s own Son sent into the sin- cursed world out of love to sinners. Not be- cause God saw any worthiness in us did He send His dear Son to be our Saviour, but be- cause He loved us so. Not because we de- served it did God’s Son become man and take our place in poverty, and sufferings, and death, but because He loved us so and desired to save us from sin and everlasting damnation. «God is love.’? This is the sweet truth which we learn at the manger of Bethlehem. The Christmas bells ring it out to the world and ring it into our hearts, ‘‘God is love!” “God is love!’ ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,’? John 3, 16.