The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1879, Page 1

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A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusiisHep BY THE HvaNncELicaL Luraeran Synopicat ConFereNce or Norta AMERICA.

Edited by Prof. R. A. BISCHOFF.

| Dear Reader,

This little paper wishes to become a wel-

come friend to you, making a monthly visit at

| your home. By whom is it sent? What is its
| aim?—It is published by the Evangelical Luth-

,| eran Synodical Conference of North America.

‘| iting the colored people at their homes.

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} This Conference, comprising six Lutheran Syn-
| ods, resolved, in July, 1877, to carry on a mis-
' sion among the colored people of the South. A
' Mission-Board was appointed, and the Rev. J.
‘| Dorsoner was called as the first Lutheran mis-
/sionary. He traveled through several of the
| Southern States, preaching the Gospel and vis-
The
Lord blessed his labors. He was welcomed at
many a place, and with joy the people listened,
when he told them the way to heaven and
pointed them to the Saviour of sinners. Schools
were organized, and in Little Rock, Arkansas,
a small congregation was gathered. The Rev.
F. Bere, the second missionary, accepted the
call of this congregation. A chapel was built,
and a congregational school was opened. At
the session of the Synodical Conference, in July,
1878, the members could not but give thanks
to God for his blessing resting upon our mission-
work. It was then resolved to publish a paper
in the interest of the colored people. The
editor now respectfully makes his bow and pre-
sents the paper to you, dear reader. Perhaps
you will take a liking to this little friend of
yours. You can then easily help to pay his trav-
eling-expenses by subscribing for only twenty-
five cents a year.—But what is the aim of the
paper? Its very name can tell you. It wishes
to be a Pioneer of the Lutheran Church, march-
ing with or before the missionaries and pre-
paring the way for them. It will thus be
a help in the glorious mission of saving souls.

It will come to you every month and talk to
you about the truth asitisin Jesus. It will
try to make you acquainted with the doc-
trines of the Bible to the salvation of your soul.

These doctrines will be brought to you in all
their purity, as they are taught in the Bible
and professed’ by the dear church which bears
the name of Luther, the great Reformer. Our
|| missionaries will ‘through this paper send you
‘the news from the mission-field. They will tell

you about their hardships and their success.
And when time allows, our little friend will
sit down by your side and tell you some little

story to interest and to benefit you. We hope
you will welcome him and treat him kindly
when he comes. He has a hard road to travel.
The editor especially regrets hisown weakness and.
inexperience. We know, however, that many a
pen, far abler than our own, will help to make
this paper interesting and instructive. Most of
all do we commend our little friend on his jour-
ney to the loving care of our most merciful God.
For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are
all things; to Him be glory forever. Amen.

——— ++ o>

The Source of Christian Knowledge.

We are living in dangerous times. On the
one hand, we have the infidels, denying all the
doctrines of the Bible. On the other hand, the
Christians are divided into many different par-
ties, every one of them claiming to have the
truth. Now, God says to every one of us, ‘‘Be-
loved, believe not every spirit, but try the spir-
its whether they are of God; because many
false prophets are gone out into the world.”’
(1John4,1.) How can a man “try the spirits’’?
how can he tell what is truth, and what is
error? how can {he know with certainty that
all he believes, is surely true? how can he
guard his soul against false doctrine? Must
he leave his calling and become a very learned
man to do all this? Oh, no! ‘There is a cer-
tain principle which every’ man, even the most
unlearned, can easily understand; and if he
accepts this principle and acts according to it,
he can discern and avoid every error and keep
his soul in the way of truth: The principle is
this: The Bible, the Word of God, 1s the only
source of Christian knowledge. _ Every doctrine,
in order to be true, must not be taken from the
sinful heart of any pope, must not be taken
from the erring reason of any man, must not
be taken from the dreams and Visions of any
jumping enthusiast; but it must be taken from
the Bible, the only source of christian truth.
Ever since God had his Word written for the
salvation, of man, the true Christians acted ac-
cording to this principle. Christ Himself, the

Son of God, appealed to the Scriptures, saying,

“It is written’. He says to His hearers and
He says unto, us: ‘Search the Scriptures; for
in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they
are they which testify of me.’”? (John 5, 39.)
Thus we also find the apostles appealing to the
Scriptures for the truth of their doctrines.
When, for instance, false teachers arose in the
city of Corinth, trying to lead the Christians
astray by false preaching, the apostle Paul
warned his beloved congregation and reminded
them that the doctrines he preached among
them, were all ‘according to the Scriptures’’.
(1 Cor. 15.) And the same apostle, standing
before king Agrippa, defends himself against
the accusations of the Jews by saying that he
preached ‘‘none other things than those which
the prophets and Moses did say should come.’’
(Acts 26, 22.) And the apostle John writes
those solemn words at the close of the last book
of the Bible: ‘If any man shall add unto these
things, God shall add unto him the plagues
that are written in this book; and if any man
shall take away from the words of the book of
this prophesy, God shall take away his part out
of the book of life.’’ Whenever, therefore, men
departed from the Bible, the book of God, they
departed from the way of truth. When Satan
had brought our first parents not to believe the
word of God which told them, that the eating
of the fruit of that tree would bring death unto

them, then he had carried his point. Our first .

parents fell into error and into sin. When the
pope had brought men to turn away from the
Bible and. accept doctrines founded upon hu-
man tradition and ‘upon human imagination,
then the flood-gates were opened, and the wa-
ters of false doctrine overflowed the church in
streams. But hark! there is a loud trumpet-
call heard, a call to men to flee to the only firm
and immovable rock of safety. It was the call
of the Reformation by Dr. Martin Luther; it
was the call of God to his church to turn back
to the Bible, the only source of Christian knowl-
edge. Certain men preferred to make human
reason the source of truth alongside of the Bi-
ble. But Luther held fast to this principle:

The Bible is the only source of Christian doc- ~

trine. “And the Lutheran Church follows her
great | leader. She says in one of her confes-
sions, ‘‘Nothing else but the Word of God, not

23 if Seb CONCORDIA SEMINARY LIBRARY

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

The Xutheran Pioneer, Zi,

A