# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1909_S65 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) Che Lutheran Pioneer. A MISSIONARY MONTHLY: PUBLISHED BY THE EvANGELICAL LUTHERAN SyNopIcAL CoNFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA. R..A. BISCHOFF, Epriror. Entered at the Post Ofice at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter. Christ’s Blood Alone. Not any works that we have done, Or any we may do, Can fit us for the mansions bright. To dwell in everlasting light, Or hide our sins from view. Naught but the blood of Christ alone For sinners’ sins could e’er atone. To put away our sin, God’s Son, His well-beloved, caine; He only could for sin atone And .bring us to His Father’s home, Free from all sin and blame. But He, the Lamb of God, was slain To save us from our guilt and shame. “Tis finished,” on the eross He said; By Him the work was done; Therefore it is not do, but trust, And to be saved we only must Believe on Christ, the Son. God loved us so His Son He gave. .That by His death we life might have. Selected. —— None Other Name. An old Buddhist, bent with age, nearly blind, scarcely able to walk, spoke thus to a missionary in Ceylon of his hope for the future: “I am ninety-six. I have climbed Adam’s Peak” (where the heathen- god Buddha is said to have left his footprints) “twenty-six, times; I have visited the Temple of the Tooth, in Kandy, seven times; I had a number of Buddhist books copied and given to Buddhist priests; I have never killed an animal, only on a few occasions have I caught some fish. So you see I have plenty of -merit, and shall fare well in the next life.” ST. LOUIS, MO., SEP TEMBER, 1909. Poor ignorant heathen! brought by No wonder the Gospel the missionary was an offense and a foolishness io him! But is not such heathen ignorance found also — in Christian lands with people who trust in their own merits and worthiness? A reader recently sent us for the P1loNEER what she calls “a touching story taken from a popular magazine.” The story runs thus: Mary lived in the tenement district of St. Louis. She was only thirteen and was the eldest of seven children. When her mother was dying, she said to Mary, “I must leave you, and you must take care ‘of the children; don’t let them be separated, and he patient with father.” A great burden had thus been laid on Mary’s young shoulders; but she took it up bravely, and for two years she toiled and slaved. Then she came down with fever. To a friend she one day said: “I am dying as mother did. Ihave worked hard; but I am afraid to die. I had no time for church and prayers. What shall I say to God?” ‘The friend took the hands, hardened by toil for others, and said, “Don’t say anything. Mary; just show Him your hands.” Well, we read the same silly story many years ago. It was then told as having occurred in Phila- delphia, and has since then, no doubt, been pub- lished in many papers as “a touching story.” It is, indeed, touching in its display of heathen ignorance as to the way of salvation. It teaches that man can get to heaven by his own works and worthi- ness. If there were a particle of truth in such teaching, then the Bible would not be true. The Bible tells us that man is a lost, condemned sinner, and is saved only by grace through faith in Jesus who suffered and died for our redemption. “All