The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1880, Page 43

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

The Lutheran Pioneer.

43

priests and bishops to hide it under a bushel?! | searching of the Holy Scriptures is giving that
Should this light not rather be set up to the| which is holy unto the dogs, and casting the
greatest advantage for the enlightening of the| pearls before the swine.’ Indeed, the Holy
world ? : Scriptures are ‘holy’—and are ‘pearls’, but the
St. Paul tells us, that ‘‘whatsoever things] people are not ‘dogs’—are not ‘swine’. Much
were written, were written for our learning, | more could be said to show the settled oppo-
that we through patience and comfort of the|sition of the Pope and his associates to the
Scriptures might have hope”’, Rom. 15, 4. All| reading of the Word of God by the people, but

that is written in the Word of God is not written | this may suffice.
for angels—or merely for popes and priests—| Our blessed Saviour exhorts ALL to “search
but for the sons of men, for you—for me—for | the Scriptures’’—St. Paul charges all Christians
us all, and for our instruction, that by them |that the Word of God should ‘dwell richly in
we may receive strength and comfort in all ad-|them’’—-and the Fathers of the church, as
versitics and have hope of the life to come. |St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, Jerome, Cle-
And again St. Paul tells us (2 Tim. 3, 16.), | mens, Irenaeus and others do most frequently
that ‘all Scripture is given by inspiration of|and earnestly recommend to the people the
God; and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”’
There is no sentence, no clause, no word, no
syllable, no letter, but it is written for your in-
struction; there is not one jot, but it is sealed
with the blood of the Lamb. Our imagina-
tions are idle, our thoughts are vain; but there
is no idleness, no vanity in the Word of God—
and consequently no reason in the world, why
the Antichrist—the Pope at Rome, should rob
the people of the Holy Scriptures, or any part
thereof. Surely the Bible was designed to be
“x light to every age’’, and to EVERY man, and
it has been translated into all the languages
spoken, so that ALL might read in their own
tongue the wonderful works of God, and be able,
through faith, to find the way of salvation and
eternal life. And now remember, dear reader,
of the Bible, which is the book of books—which
is a star without a speck; a sun without a blot;
a vein of pure gold; a light without darkness;
a moon without its paleness; a glory without a
dimness—of this book the ‘‘infallible’’ (?!?)
teachers of the Romish church say, it is Nor a
book for the people, consequently must not—
yea dare not be read by all.—All the popes,
especially for the last 700 years, have either dis-
couraged or prohibited the people from reading
the Bible in their mother tongue. Among the
great number we will here mention a few:
Gregory the Seventh—Innocenz the Third—Pius
the Fourth—Gregory the Ninth—Gregory the
Thirteenth—Sixtus the Fifth—Clemens the Eighth
—Clemens the Eleventh—Pius the Sixth. The
popes of our present 19th century have done
the same thing, namely, told the people that
the Bible is a dangerous book in the hands of a
layman—and have frequently damned and
cursed all Protestant Bible-Societies, for in-
stance Pope Pius the Seventh (1816)—Leo the
Twelfth (1824)—Grregory the Sixteenth (1832)
and Pius the Ninth, the most unholy father,
who has, more than once, denounced the spread
of Protestant Bibles, and who classed the Bible-
Socicties with socialism, communism, and secret
Societies; Jena, Pius [X., this very fallible Pope,
‘ven dared to call the Bible-Societies ‘‘rEsTs’’

of the country.—
Oi Cardinal of the Roman Catholic
pecan h by the name of Hosuis once said: ‘To
\t the laity (the people) the reading and

most unholy antichristian popes at Rome have
said and do say to the people up to this day:
you must not search the Scriptures—the Script-
ures are not for the people.’’

CLEMENS, one of the Fathers of the church,
says: “The word of God is hid from no man; it
is a light common unto. all men’’;—IRENAEUS
says: ‘‘The Scriptures are plain, and without
doubtfulness, and may be read and heard by
all men’’; Curysostom calls upon the people
to read and hear the Scriptures: ‘Hear me, ye
men of the world; get ye the Bible, that most
wholesome remedy for the soul— — —get at
least -the New Testament, St. Paul’s Epistles,
the Gospels, and the Acts that THEY may be
your -continual and earnest teachers.’’? And
again: “Hearken not to the Word only here
in the church, but also at home; let the hus-
band with the wife, let the father with the
child, talk together of these matters— — —
and would God they (the people) would begin
this good custom.’’ ORIGEN says: ‘‘Would to
the Scriptures.’’? Sr. JEROME says, in ex-
pounding the words of the Apostle, ‘‘let the
word of Christ dwell in you  plenteously”’:
“Here we are taught, that the lay-people ought
to have the word of God, not only sufficiently,
but also in abundance, and to teach and counsel

mighty God, in the Scriptures, speaks as a fa-
miliar friend, without distinction, unto the
hearts both of the learned and of the un-
learned.”’

Ah! may the God of the Bible‘be with us as
He was with our fathers, and by His Spirit in-
spire us with a deeper reverence and a holier
love for that Word which is our salvation and
eternal life! Remember, the Scripture of God
is like an apothecary’s shop, full of medicines
of various sorts, that every man may there
choose a convenient medicine for his disease.
There are salves and ointments to cure all mal-
adies. Whosoever cannot be cured by the
word of God, his disense is grown desperate
and past cure. “We are told that the heathen
used to bind their gods to the tempels by chains
of gold, lest they should remove or an enemy
should carry them away—so let us, dear sends
ers, bind this precious book, the Bible, not

reading and study of the Scriptures; but the |-

God we would all do as it is written, ‘Search |

one another.’’—Sr. AuGUSTINE says: ‘‘Al-|°

our churches alone, but to our hearts, with
bands purer and stronger than gold, and allow
no enemy—no pope—no bishop or priest to rob
us of it or any part of it, so that we and our
children may have it as our guardian and our
joy forever.

Cc. F. OBE.

_——~- Po oe

Story of Old Nancy,

or,

Going to the Golden City.

Lame and old, lame and old,
She lived alone in a mud-built cot:
Walls and windows let in the cold;
Desolate, desolate seem’d her lot.

Food in winter was hard to win,
Fuel to warm her harder still;

She had buried her last of kith and kin;
She was poor and lonely, and old and ill.

Never a fire in her tiny grate
Had shone to-day with its feeble spark:
The sun was setting in pomp and state—
Setting, to leave her alone and dark.

That setting sun of God’s own day
Had seen her bow at His feet in prayer;
The Lord’s day service, so far away,
Though loved as ever, she could not share.

But she knelt on the rough, uneven floor,
And bent her cheek on the broken bed;
And want and weakness were felt no more,

For tears of joy were the tears she shed.

“O Father in heayen, Thy love has been
Ever around me in weal and woe:

I thank Thee for all that my eyes have seen
Of all Thy faithfulness here below.

I thank the Great Shepherd that follow’d me
And brought me home to his happy fold;
And has kept me there when, willfully,
-L else had left it, oh, times untold!

“And day after day Thy spirit’s grace

Has led me on with unwearied love,
And now I soon shall behold Thy face

In the happy home of Thy saints above.

“Father in heaven, be with me still!
Jesus, my Saviour, oh, quickly come!

Thy blood has washed each stain of ill,
And bear me speedily, safely home!’’

The sun has set, the day now ends,

And sleep and darkness come on the earth—
Sleep which a sweet oblivion lends

Alike to the children of grief and mirth.

The widow slept; and while her eyes

Were closed in slumber a dream she dream’d,
Filling her soul with sweet surprise;

So strange and yet so true it seem’d.

When morning dawns, and the widow wakes,
“Tt could only have been a dream”, she cried,
“Flow swift a journey the spirit takes!
I thought at first I had surely died.”

Her scanty store for a scanty meal

- She carried in to a neighbor’s near:

“T should like the warmth of your fire to feel,
And to eat my morsel in comfort here.”

“Ay, ay, come in; there is always room,
And put thy chair in the old man’s nook,
And tell him something to chase his gloom,

Out of thy favorite, holy Book. ~