The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1879, Page 33

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

Lutheran Pioneer,

* A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

Pusuisuep By THE EVANGELICAL LurnerAN SynopicAL Conrerence or Nort AMERICA.

Edited by Prof. R. A. BISCHOFF.

Entered at the Post Ofice at St- Louis, Mo., as second-class matter.

Vol. I.

St. Louis, Mo., November, 1879.

No. 9.

The Catechism.

O my child, fear God the Lord,
Do not take in vain His word,
Holy keep the Lord’s own day,
To thy parents honor pay,

Kill not, shun adultery,

Steal not, lies and slander flee,
Keep from covetousness free.

In the Father I believe,

Who to all their being gave;
And in His incarnate Son,

Who for man salvation won;
Also in the Holy Ghost,

In whose hallowing grace I trust,
Who will raise me from the dust.

Father dear, who art in heaven,
To Thy name e’er praise be given,
Unto us Thy kingdom come,
Everywhere Thy will be done,
Give us bread, our sins forgive,
Let no tempter us deceive,

From all evil us relieve.

Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
Triune God, in Thee I boast;
Thou with water and the word
Didst baptize me, gracious Lord;
Grant that I may faithful be,
That I ever trust in Thee,

And be Thine eternally.

Dearest Lord, my soul do feed
With Thy flesh and real bread,
And refresh me, Saviour mine,
With Thy blood and real wine,
In rembrance, Lord, of Thee;
Thus forgiveness grant to me.
Unto Thee be praise for aye!

B. Pedersen.

> o-0 -

Our Catechism.

writ ction do we mean? We mean
Dr. Martin Luther's Smaller Catechism, the
catechism of the Lutheran Church. Other
churches have their catechisms, but there is no
eatechism like our catechism. Since the times
of the Apostles there was no man as fit to write
® catechism as Dr. Luther. He was a man of
the people, and at the same time a man of
great learning and “mighty in the Scriptures.”
How came he to write a Catechism? Let me
tell you.

-|heavy heart Luther came back home.

In the year 1528 Luther visited the churches
and schools of a certain part of Germany to see
how they stood in regard to doctrine and life.
What did he find? He found the greatest
ignorance among the people. In the Romish
church they had learned the human command-
ments of the pope and the ceremonies of the
church, but they had not learned any part of
God’s Word. Luther himself says, ‘‘Alas,
what manifold misery I beheld! The common
people, especially in the villages, Know nothing
at all of Christian doctrine; and many pastors
are quite unfit and incompetent to teach. Yet
all are called Christians, have been baptized,
and receive the Sacrament, although they
know neither the Lord’s Prayer nor the Creed
nor the Ten Commandments, and live like
eattle and irrational swine.’ With a sad and
He
pitied the poor people that were living in
ignorance, not learning the way of salvation.
And what did he now do? In the plain, simple
form of questions and answers he wrote a little
book containing the sum and substance of
Christian doctrine. He wrote and published
this catechism in the year 1529, and therefore
the Lutheran Church this year, on the festival
day of the Reformation, celebrates the 350th
anniversary of the publication of her catechism.
We are glad to hear from our “Critic’”’. that
the new English translation of the book has
been published, so that all our readers can now
get it for 10 cents. No one that buys and
studies the book will ever regret the few cents
paid for it. For it is a treasure more precious
than gold and silver. Dr. Jonas, a very
Jearned man, once said of Luther’s Catechism:
“It is only a small book which can be bought
for six pence, but six thousand worlds could
not pay for it.”? Others call it ‘‘the star of the
Church, which shines into all conditions of life;
the silver bell and glory of our Lutheran
Church; the true children’s bible, a master-
piece of wisdom in Christian teaching, a gold
mine of divine truth, a real pleasure garden, in
which sorrowful souls can rest and enjoy the
manifold consolations.””

A deep thinker and learned man of the last)
century said when he was 80 years old:
“T stand again on the old spot where I stood

already as a child; for all my learning is con-
tained in the Small Catechism of the blessed
Luther.”’

A theologian of the pope’s church once read
our Catechism and, not knowing that Luther
had written it, cried out, ‘‘Blessed are the
hands that wrote this holy book.’

Prof. Ranke, the renowned historian and one
of the most learned professors at the Uni-
versity of Berlin, says, ‘‘The Catechism which
Luther published in 1529 and of which he said
that he prayed it himself, although he was an
old doctor, is as child-like as it is profound,
simple and sublime. Blessed is he who feeds
his soul with it, who clings to it! He has a
lasting consolation for every moment, in a thin
shell the kernel of truth which is sufficient for
the wisest of the wise.’’

But the most important question, my dear
reader, is this: Is Dr. Luther's Catechism in
harmony with God’s Word? Thank God!
every word of our Catechism is in perfect har-
mony with the Bible. There is no false
doctrine in it. That is the beauty of our
Catechism. - When Dr. Luther wrote his
Catechism, he went down into the deeps of
Holy Scripture and brought up the pearls of
eternal Truth, he went down into the mine of
the Bible and brought up the pure gold of
God’s Word. This is the beauty of our Cate-
chism. It has therefore brought comfort to
many a troubled soul, it has brought conso-
lation to many a dying sinner. It is one of the
confessions of the Lutheran Church, and in the
crown of our Lutheran Confessions this little”
jewel also flashes in all the beauty of God’s
eternal Truth. It is a banner Which has
passed through the smoke of many a battle and
has been attacked by many an enemy of the
Truth, but, thank God, the banner still waves
and leads on to victory. Let us rejoice and
give thanks unto God in this year of our Cate-
chism Jubilee! May Dr. Luther's Catechism
be welcomed and studied in our homes, in our
churches, and in our schools! May God bless
its mission work throughout our land!

—— oboe _

A puirosorPHER has said, “Though a man
without money is poor, a man with nothing but
money is still poorer.””