The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1880, Page 37

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Ghe Autheran

A MISSIONARY

oneer,

MONTHLY. :

Pusiisuep BY THE EVANGELICAL LuTuHERAN SynopicAL CoNFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.

Edited by Prof. R. A. BISCHOFE.

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

Vol.

St. Louis, Mo., November, 1880.

No. 10.

(For the ‘‘Lutheran Pioneer.’’)

Believe the Bible.
Luke 16, 31.

The man whom the Bible does not convince,
will never be convinced. The Bible is so clear,
perfect, complete, and has such great convincing
power in its words, that one will never be con-
vinced of the truth of what it says by anything

else, if the Bible itself fail to convince him.
Do you hear this? Perhaps you are an infidel
and do not believe that the Bible is the Word
of God and divine truth; though you read and
studied it, you are not yet convinced of its
truthfulness. But as you want to be fair, you
say that you would accept the Bible as the
word of God without further objection, if God
would perform some great miracle for you,
showing that there is a God and that-the Bible
is His word. Let me tell you that this will not
be done. It is unnecessary and would be al-
together useless. The prophets, Christ, and
the apostles performed enough miracles that
clearly and undeniably prove the Bible to be
the Word of God. If you are not convinced
by these, you will not be convinced, even if the
dead of a whole cemetery rose from their graves.
Besides, there is such convincing power in what
the Bible says, that, if you fail to be convinced,
the fault is with you and not with the Bible.
You are determined not to believe. And
nothing else will convince you. The greatest
of miracles would have no effect on you. You
would be the first one to call it a humbug.

Perhaps you are selfrighteous and trust in
your own good heart and upright life to earn
God’s favor and heaven. The Bible has failed
all this while to convince you that you are a
wretched, hell-deserving sinner and that there
is nothing good in you. ~It has failed to persunde
you to throw away all selfrighteous. thoughts
and to give up the useless labor to win heaven
yourself; to deceive yourself no more by think-

ing you must and can stand before-God on your
own merits. It has failed to convince you that
in Christ alone there is hope for such sinners
as you. What will convince you, since the
Bible does not? Nothing. Not-even a dead
Pharisee returning from hell to earth, or a
pardoned sinner returning from heaven and

begging you to believe in Christ and to cast}lies. Ido not believe, because I feel so and so,
away all dependence on yourself, would con-| but because my God tells me in His Word that
vince you. A man that does not believe his |I am saved and forgiven. In short, I will not
own conscience and the proofs of the Bible, will} be such a great fool and do so great a wrong as
doubt and disbelieve everything else. to believe other things first and God afterward.
Perhaps you are one that would gladly be- Lb Ub
lieve in Christ, if you were convinced that He
is also your Saviour and that God is willing for
Jesus’ sake to forgive also your sins; if you could
with certainty know when your sins are for-| Infidels of all ages fotind their strongest ar-
given. My friend, if the Bible fails to con-|guments against revealed religion upon what
vince you that Christ redeemed all the world, | they regard as improbable. And yet our own
you and all men; that God in His great mercy | existence is incomprehensible. We might with
offers pardon and heaven to all men for nothing, | about the same degree of reason deny this fact
merely asking them to take it, that is, to be-/as to refuse to believe in a future existence.
lieve it; that as soon as you believe that Christ | We know that we live in this world. Is it un-
has redeemed you and that God forgives your | reasonable to believe that we shall live in an-
sins for Christ’s sake, you are pardoned, I say, | other world? If we are to believe nothing but
if the Bible does not convince you of all this—} what we understand, we should go through life
you will be convinced by nothing else. The | incredulous and aimless. We are ready enough
Bible tells you this and the Bible is the Word | to believe on information the things that relate
of God, as true and undeniable as God is the|to this world. But we are slow to believe in
truth and cannot lie. Besides the Bible is the prophecy and revelation, though both are corro-
very thing by which God not only convinces | borated by observation, experience, and events.
us of sin, but also of our redemption by Christ; | Infidelity, claiming superiority in ‘reason’ and
by the Word of God the Holy Spirit works|common sense, asks us to believe that all of
true faith in Christ in our hearts; by the Word grandeur and sublimity, all of vastness and
of God He testifies in our hearts that we are power in the beautiful heavens and upon the
the children of God (Romans 8, 16.). We need | bountiful earth, comes by chance; that every-
nothing else to convince us. The forgiveness | thing is self-created and self-existing, and that
of sins is not a thing which we must wrestle for | Jaw, order, and harmony are accidents. Those
and of which we can not be certain and sure, | who accept this theory would find its application
until God does something to convince us. Our|to their business affairs anything but advan+
sins were forgiven over 1800 years ago, when tageous.—Thurlow Weed.
Christ had suffered and died for them. Ever} -
since, the pardon of our sins has been waiting
for us. It is offered to usin the Bible. It is
only. necessary that we take it. And as we
cannot take it with our hands, we must take it
with our hearts, that is, believe what the Bible
declares unto us, and rely on it. It is absurd
and a sin to look for other proof than the Bible.
I don’t want to be convinced by dreams of what
the Bible tells me already to be true. Nor|-
need I go to a revival and there be made} Nor all that profess Christianity are true
excited and then jump and shout like a mad | believers; hypocrites are in all churches. This
man before I will believe. I will not faint|is true. But it proves nothing against Christ-
away or fall into a trance and see all kinds of ianity. Everything valuable gets debased.
sights and visions to assure me of what already | The richest fabrics haye their imitations. Gold
is told unto me in the Bible by Him that never and silver coins are debased or counterfeited.

——> +0 o

Foolish Infidelity.

4 eo

ABSENCE from worship without urgent cause
is a sign that the heart is not intent as it should
be upon the one thing needful, and there is
great danger that the evil will grow upon us
and prove our ruin. For the sake of our own
souls we should not neglect the assembling of
ourselves together.

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