The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1879, Page 16

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

16 The Lutheran Pioneer.

his blood. I believed in Jesus and was
changed. Yes, it is all God’s grace. I am
poor, but Jesus makes me rich.

Old Uncle soon said Good-night and left for
his home. Sitting at my desk, I heard him
singing as he walked down the strect:

In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling.

Whenever I now hear a drunkard or any
other man talk about making himself better by
his own strength, I think of Old Uncle and of
that word ‘‘rotten’’. I pray God to make such
aman feel that he is rotten, and can only be
saved and gain strength to fight against sin by
faith in Jesus, the Saviour of sinners.

2+ oo

One of the Fathers said: ‘A man should
be prepared for death the day before, but as he
does not know when that day is to be, he should
always be prepared.”

2 ~+ ~<a o>
(For the ‘‘Lutheran Pioneer’’ by ‘‘Critic’’.)

Why are you not a member of the Christ-
ian Church?—A Home-Mission Tract.

This Tract contains a Dialogue between a Christ-
ian and an “Outsider”. The latter, at first, is un-
willing to connect himself with the Church, because
he considers himself not good enough to be a
church-member; afterwards, having been told by
“Christian”, that no man is good enough, by na-
ture, to be a member of Christ’s church, and that,
on the other hand, all men, no one excepted, are
redeemed by Christ, he thinks it unnecessary to
unite with other believers. ‘Christian’ explains
to him that the means of grace, the Word of God
and the holy Sacraments, whereby alone the re-
demption of Christ or the forgiveness of sins is
communicated and given to man, are only to be
found in the Christian church; whereupon “Out-
sider’, convinced of his-duty to join the church,
expresses his willingness to study the doctrines of
the Lutheran Church, in order to see, whether it
is, as “Christian” affirms, the church where the
Word of God is taught in its purity, and the Sacra-
ments are administered according to Christ’s in-
stitution.

Wherever Lutheran Christians have a neighbor
or friend of the same turn of mind as “Outsider”,
this neat 4 page tract may be of use to convince
him of the error of his ways.—Moreover, every
one, who buys this tract, will aid a good cause, as
“the surplus is to be used in paying an oppressive
debt resting on a little mission”.

Terms: 1 Copy 4 cts.; 5 copies 15 cts.; 25 copies
65 cts.; 50 copies $1.00; 100 copies $1.90.

All Orders to be addressed to

Rev. D. Simon,
Indiana, Indiana Co., Pa.

sorrowful, brother Martin?’’ Luther replied:
“Oh, where shall I go to?’’ Staupitz said: ‘‘Oh,
you know not how good and necessary such
trials are for you. God does not send them to
you in vain. You shall see that God wants to
use you to work at great things.’ He also
once told him that Christ was no painted
Saviour, but a real Saviour, not for painted
sins, but for real sins.

One day when Luther was in great despair
an old pious monk came to his cell and com-
forted him with those words of the Apostles’
Creed: ‘‘I believe in the remission of sins.”
This article he thus explained: ‘It is not
enough for you to believe in general that God
forgives sins, but you must believe that he for-
gives you, you, you. For we are saved by
grace through faith.’’ By these words Luther
was not only comforted, but his.attention was
also called to the sweet truth that we are justi-
fied by faith. . In this light he now read the
Bible and found more comfort. There were
rays of light, rays of the beautiful Gospel-light
that broke through the darkness of his soul.
But they were only rays, and the darkness
often came back again. God was leading him
slowly on to the full bright light of the Gospel.
He was preparing His instrument for the great
work of the Reformation.
—_—> ~+o~<am-o >

Old Uncle.

fastings and watchings. When, in his eager
study, he had forgotten to say the prayers at
certain hours, he would lock himself up in his
cell and, without eating and drinking, made
up what had been neglected. He so tormented
himself that he at one time could not sleep for
five weeks. It is also told that once, after
missing him for some time, his friends went to
the door of his cell and knocked; but there
was no answer. They at Jast broke the bolted
door open and found him stretched senseless on
the floor. They only brought him to life by
strains of music, which he so dearly loved.
Indeed, Luther could say of himself with truth:
“Tt is certain that I was a pious monk, and so
carefully observed the rules that I can say, if
ever a monk entered heaven by monkery, I
shall enter also. All my companions in the
cloister who knew me, will testify to this. For
if these things had gone on, I would have
tortured myself to death with watching, pray-
ing, reading, and other labors.’-—And did
Luther find comfort and peace by those good
works? Oh, no! He was always sad and
sorrowful. He himself says: ‘‘With all my
masses, prayers, watchings, chastity, I could
never get so far that I could say, now I am
certain that God is gracious to me, or, now I
have experienced that my order and strict life
have helped me and Jead me to heaven.’’ In
his anxiety he went to confession daily, but
there was no comfort forhim. For the papists
teach that whoever would get forgiveness of
sin, must specify all his sins; but Luther never
could know whether he had not forgotten one
sinful thought. Nor did the absolution, or
pardon of sin spoken by the priest, comfort
him; for that pardon of sins was given with
the condition that he must himself atone for
his sin by good works; and Luther never knew
whether he had done enough. Oh, there were
terrible struggles in his soul. The Romish
doctrine brought him to the most horrible
despair. He was not told to go to Jesus as the
dear Saviour, but he was told to consider Christ
an angry, terrible Judge. In this way he was
taught to understand the Bible. He tried to
gain God’s grace by good works, but just be-
cause he was honest and sincere, he saw this to
be impossible. He followed the Romish doc-
trine most faithfully, until he learned by
experience that it is false and comfortless—‘“‘a
well without water’. He, therefore, in after
years said, ‘‘A cloister is a hell, in which the
devil is abbot and prior, and monks and nuns
are the lost souls.’”
Our most merciful God did not let Luther

All the people in town knew Old Uncle.
I shall always remember him. . He was a little
eccentric, it is true. He would often stand at
the street-corner and sing some song of Zion,
while the children gathered around him and
listened. But he was considered an honest
true Christian. The people told me, If you
take Old Uncle to tend to your room, you may
scatter gold dollars about the house, he will
not take a single one. I never tried this; and
there was a good reason for not trying it.
I could not have tried it with greenbacks even.
But still I always found Old Uncle honest, a
true child of God.

One evening he came to get his pay for some
work he had done for the school. I told him
to take a seat, and after talking to him about
Luther, whose picture he saw hanging on the
wall, I asked him, How is it, Uncle, that you
are so different from many others, so that you
can always be trusted? This is. what he
answered as far as I can remember: It is the
Lord’s grace. I lived bad once like many
other people. I once thought the Lord had| ‘Tne Lurieran Pronger is published monthly,

. payable in advance at the following rates, postage
made all the chickens for Old Uncle. I was Included, toovit 6 1 P

TERMS:

perish amid those terrible conflicts, but sent|not honest then, no! But I knew I was doing 1 Copyerrsessseeeeees ceocncer $ .25
him comfort through his saints, of whom there | wrong and I tried to be better, but I could not. ae a
were some hidden even in the corrupt Roman |I then saw that I was bad all over, that I was ne «

rotten, rotten to the core, and that God must
punish me with eternal damnation. I was
afraid to die then. But one day some one
spoke to me from the Bible about Jesus, who

church. Dr. Staupitz, a pious and good man,
the Vicar General of the Augustine monks,
who himself lamented the corrupt morals and
false doctrine which afflicted the Church, tried
to comfort Luther in this great troubles. Atj}came to save sinners. I was a bad sinner, a
the table Dr. Staupitz once saw him very sad | rotten sinner, and oh! I was glad to hear that
and downhearted, and said: ‘Why are you so| Jesus saves sinners, and washes away sins by

All business communications to be addressed to
»Luth. Concordia Publishing House‘, M. C. BAR-
a Agt., St. Louis, Mo. 7

All communications concerning the editorial de-
perement to be addressed to Pror. R. A. BiscHorr,

ncordia College, Fort Wayne, Ind.

ON age eee) ee
Print of the Luth. Concordia Publishing House.