The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1880, Page 45

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The Lutheran Pioneer,

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusiisHep BY THE EVANGELICAL LuTnERAN SyNopicAL ConFERENCE oF NorrH AMERICA.

Edited by Prof. R. A. BISCHOFF.

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

Vol. I.

Presentation in the Temple.
Luke 2, 22—32.

Light of the Gentile nations,
Thy people’s joy and love!
Drawn by Thy Spirit hither
We gladly come to prove
Thy presence in Thy temple,
And wait with earnest mind,
As Simeon once had waited
His Saviour God to find.

Yes, Lord, Thy servants mect Thee,
Even now, in every place

Where Thy true Word hath promised
That they should see Thy face.

Thou yet wilt gently grant us,

Who gather round Thee here,

In faith’s strong arms to bear Thee,
As once that aged seer.

Be Thou our joy, our brightness,
That shines ’mid pain and loss,
Our Sun in times of terror,

The glory round our cross:

A glow in sinking spirits,

A sunbeam in distress,
Physician, friend in sickness,

In death our happiness.

Let us, O Lord, be faithful
With Simeon to the end,
That so his dying song may

. From all our hearts ascend:
“O Lord, let now Thy servant
Depart in peace for aye,
Since I have seen my Saviour,
Have here beheld His day.”

My Saviour, I behold Thee

Now with the eye of faith:

No foe of Thee can rob me,

Though bitter words he saith.
Within Thy heart abiding,

As Thou dost dwell in me,

No pain, no death has terrors
To part my soul from Thee!

(John Franck.)

++ o> oe -

None other Name.

The Christmas tidings told us that the Child
of Bethlehem was born as the Saviour of all
- People; and from the New Year's Message we
farned that the name of that Child of Bethle-
em was called Jesus, because He would save

People from their sins; and when Christ,

St. Louis, Mo., February, 4880.

as we read in Luke 2, 22—32., was presented
in the temple, old Simeon took the child ‘‘up
in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord,
now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
according to thy word; for mine eyes have
seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared
before the face of all people, a light to lighten
the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.’’
Old Simeon found his peace and hope of salva-
tion only in Jesus, the Saviour of sinners.
And the Bible teaches us all the way through
that we can be saved only by faith in this
Saviour; there is no other way to heaven.
Christ Himself says, ‘I am the way, and the
truth, and the life: no man cometh to the
Father, but by me”? (John 14, 6.). What a
fearful sin are those guilty of who teach that
men may be saved in some other way!. The
Bible knows nothing of the way to heaven
which is taught in the pope’s church. The
Bible does not teach salvation by works, or by
the virgin Mary, or by the saints. That is the
pope’s way to ‘“‘purgatory’’, but it is not the
Bible-way to heaven.

There are so-called Protestants, however, that
are guilty of the same fearful sin. For example,
at a late reunion of soldiers a ‘minister of
Christ”’ offered a prayer in which he said that
“all the comrades that died upon the battle-
field for their country have entered the celestial
fields of eternal glory above.’’ Now, this is all
sentimental nonsense and poetical bosh. If it
were true, it would prove the Bible to be a
fraud, and the life and death of Christ a farce.
People may honor patriotism, but patriotism is
no door to heaven. Christ, and Christ only is
the door to heaven. Those that believe in
Him are saved, and those that die without faith
in Him are lost, lost and condemned eternally.
“Fe that believeth, and is baptized, shall be
saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned”’
(Mark 16, 16.). This truth may not be
popular, but we don’t care a broken straw for
popularity which is gained by dishonoring the
Saviour and by pouring contempt on the Word
of God. Wecare more for the approval of our
Master than for the applause of men, and upon
the authority of God’s Word we tell you, dear

reader, if you reject Christ, and scorn salvation.

through His blood, and die in your sins, you

No. 12.

will be lost and damned for all eternity. Oh,
then, believe in Jesus! ‘‘Neither is there salva-
tion in iny other: for ‘there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we
must be saved”’ (Acts 4, 12.).

soo oe

Search the Scriptures!

**Let the worp or cuist dwell in
you ricuvy in all wisdom; teaching and
admonishing one another in psalms and
grace in ydur. hearts to the Lerd."*
(Colossians 3, 16.)

Ii.

‘Incline your ear and hearken.’’ These are
words which have stood the test of judgment
of eighteen hundred years ‘and more—words
uttered by Him in whose mouth was found no
guile—no falsehood. In these words, with
holy, earnest and solemn greeting, he invites
us to a feast, a Bible feast, that we may cele-
brate and enjoy it.—Dear reader, you have a
Bible in your house. A poor house, indeed, it
would be in which no Bible could be found.—
Well, but do you know what is contained in
your Bible? Do you know, that in your Bible
you have an incomparable treasure—better
‘than thousands of gold and silver’’—a treasure
that cannot perish by reason of rust or by the
moth? ‘‘Give me’’, said a New Zealander to
a missionary, ‘“‘a flint with which I may shoot
the wicked spirit’”’:—he wanted the Bible.
“Present me, with a compass’’, said another,
“that I may steer aright’’:—he also meant the
Bible. Oh, how these heathens put to shame,
and judge and condemn, the blindness of thou-
sands of Christians! Alas! by how many
thousands of Christians is the Bible accounted
a strange thing—because they never read it.
Now, if the Bible be the Word of God (as was
shown in our last letter), what will become of
those who very seldom or ‘‘never’’ or ‘hardly
ever’’ read the Bible? ‘‘Most people treat the
Bible very politely’”’,—n certain minister once
said in his sermon—‘“‘they have a small pocket
volume, neatly bound; they put a white
pocket-handkerchief round it and carry it to
their places of worship; when they get home,
they lay it up in a drawer till next Sunday
morning; then it comes out again for a little
bit of a treat, and goes to chapel; that is all