The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1880, Page 29

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The Lutheran Pioneer,

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LutnerAN SynopicAL CONFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.

Edited by Prof. R. A. BISCHOFF.

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

Vol. II.

St. Louis, Mo., October 1, 1SS0O.

No. 8.

The Key of Heaven.

I once saw a man trying to unlock a door
with the wrong key. I handed the right key
to him, but he would not take it. He went on
trying the wrong key, and so he did not get
into the house. This made me think of men
that try to go to heaven by their so-called good
works. Those good works are the wrong key,
and that key will never open the door of heaven.
It is true, if man could keep the law of God
perfectly, he could then be saved by the law,
he could then get to heaven by his own good
works. But this is impossible, for we are sinners
by nature. We have all broken the command-
ments of God, and no man can keep the law of
God perfectly. ‘‘The carnal mind is enmity
against God; for it is not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be.’’ (Rom. 8, 7.)
“They are all gone aside, they are altogether
become filthy: there is none that doeth good,
no, not one.’’ (Psalm 14, 3.) ‘‘Who can say,
I have made my heart clean?’’ (Prov. 20, 9.)
So you see, if man wants to go to heaven by
his own good works, he is trying the wrong key,
and that key will never open heaven to him.

But which is the right key then? you may
ask. Let me tell you. It is Christ. Because
sinners could not save themselyes, God, in His
mercy, sent His Son into the world. He was
not a sinner by nature, as we are; but He was
the holy God, without a spot of sin. He took
our place, and, in our stead, kept the lnw of
God perfectly; in His suffering and death He
took the punishment of our sin upon Himself.
He thus opened Paradise again for every sinner,
and gained a righteousness by which we can
enter heaven. This perfect righteousness of
Christ, the right key of heaven, is offered to
every sinner in the Gospel. It is for him to
take it with the hand of faith, that is, to be-
lieve in Jesus as his only Saviour. Good works
will surely follow such faith, but these good
works are not the key of heaven; for faith, out
of which these good works grow like the fruit
upon the tree, has the right key of heaven
already, namely Christ and His righteousness.
The apostle Paul therefore says, ‘“‘By grace are
ye saved, through faith; and that not of your-
selves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest

any man should boast.’’ (Eph. 2, 8.)—I lately
read a little

Srory anour THE Kry or HEAVEN.

A minister was one day going to preach. He
climbed a hill on his road. Beneath him lay
the villages, sleeping in their beauty, with the
corn fields motionless in the sunshine; but he
did not look at them, for his attention was ar-
rested by a woman standing at her door, and
who, upon seeing him, came up to him with
the greatest anxiety, and said, ‘“‘O, sir, have
you any keys about you? I have broken the
key of my drawers, and there are some things
that I must get directly.’’ Said he, ‘I have
no keys.’’ She was disappointed, expecting
that every one would have keys. ‘But sup-
pose,”” he said, ‘‘I had some keys, they might
not fit your lock, and therefore you could not
get the articles you want. But do not distress
yourself, wait till some one else comes up.
“But,” said he, wishing to make use of the oc-
casion, “have you never heard of the key of
heaven???

“Ah! yes,’’ she said, ‘I have lived long
enough and gone tu church long enough to
know that if we work hard and get our bread
by the sweat of our brow, and act well toward
our neighbors, and do our duty in that station
of life in which it has pleased God to place us,
and say our prayers regularly, we shall be
saved.”

“Ahl’? said he, ‘‘my good woman, that is
the wrong key, that is a broken key, for you
have broken the commandments, you have not
fulfilled all your duties. You have broken
that key.”

“Pray, sir,’’ said she, believing that he
understood the matter, and looking frightened,
‘what have I left out in my answer?””

“Why,” said he, ‘‘the all-important thing,
the blood of Jesus Christ.’’ And explaining
the matter to her, he said, ‘It is Christ, and
Christ alone that can open heaven to you, and
not your good works.” .

“What, minister,’ said she, ‘fare our good
works useless then???

“They are useless,” said Ire, ‘af you want to
be sayed by them. If you believe first, you
will surely do many good works; but if you be-

lieve in Jesus, you will never trust in your good
works; if you trust in them you have spoiled
them, and they are not good works any longer.
Put your trust wholly in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He has unlocked heaven’s gate. He is the true
key of heaven.”’ :

The woman accepted the Saviour, and in
Him she found that peace which she did not
have as long as she trusted in her own good
works.

So, then, my dear readers, we must have
true faith in Christ, because the old key of the
law is so broken by us all that we never shall
enter Paradise by it. If any of you think that
you have'no sins, to be very plain with you,
you deceive yourselves, and the truth is not in
you. (1 John 1, 8.) If you think that by your
good works you shall enter heaven, you shall
find at the last great day that your hopes are
worthless, and that like dry leaves from the
autumn trees your noblest doings shall be blown
away by the wrath of God. Be zealous ot
good works after you have got faith; but re-
member, the way to be saved is simply to be-
lieve in Jesus Christ. Christ is the only Key
of Heaven. ‘Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith,- without the deeds of
the law.’’? (Rom. 3, 28.)

—————.j +. - <P
The Rock.

Last summer, says a learned divine, while
tarrying for a few days on the sen coast, my
attention was directed to a great rock at some
distance from the shore. As the tide came in,
or the waves rolled high, it was lost to view;
but it was still there, and by and by it lifted
its rugged head above the waters, unmoved and
unchanged. Again and again have the argu-
ments and objections of infidel science and cri-
ticism seemed to rush like angry billows over
the blessed Bible; but after a little while it
stood forth as of old in its omnipotent and eter-
nal stability. Men may cavil, or men may
rage; nevertheless the foundation of God
standeth sure. ‘*Thou wilt keep him in per-
fect pence whose mind is stayed on thee; be-
cause he trusteth in thee. ‘Trust ye in the
Lord forever: for in the Lord JeHovAH is the
Rock of nges.’’ (Isaiah 26, 3. 4.) ALY