The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1881, Page 30

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

(for the ‘Lutheran Pioncer.’’)

The Ninth Commandment.

time, thou wilt one day be compelled to give a
strict account of how thou hust used it; it is
manifestly not given thee to oppress the inno-
cent, but toassist him, for God can not desire
evil. In order to impress this still deeper upon
his heart and conscience, He adds: ‘‘There-
fore, he that delivered me unto thee hath the
greater sin.” He means: The power, it is
true, is here. God hath given it thee; (the
high priest, as representative of the Jews) and
thou, both misuse it, by killing me. Inasmuch
as the Jews have greater knowledge of right
and wrong, they also, iu this, commit a greater
sin; yet thou also sinnest, even if not so much.
But, behold how gently and tenderly the Lord
makes the latter known to him; for He does
not utter this conclusion Himself, but only re-
fers to it in such a manner, that Pilate is forced

oaths, imperfect and double-meaning laws &c.
are their tools to accomplish their evil designs.
God forbid, that we should ever become zuilty
of such robbery. No, no. Whatever belongs
to our neighbor, let him keep it. Let us be
glad that he has it. Let us help him to keep
it, as Dr. Luther says: ‘‘ Help and be of ser-
vice to him in keeping it.” F. B.
—s +e o>
(Translated for the ‘‘Pioneer’’ by C. Spicker.)

Christ, the Model of a true Pastor.

By Rey. H. Hanser.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house.

‘What does this mean?

We should fear and love God, that we may not craftily seck
to get our neighbor’s inheritance or house, nor obtain it by 2
show of right; but help and be of service to him in keeping it.

(Lather’s Small Catechism.)

So saith the ninth commandment. That is,
do not desire, wish, or long to have as your
own anything that belongs to another. “Thou
shalt not covet’’ means: thou shalt have no de-
sire for, no wish for, no longing for what is
already the property of another, excepting only
the desire to buy it of the owner, or give either

IV.

i e for it, which is ; |to draw the conclusion himself, and to say:
Sa aera ca Gents But all ae eh ea aie ARE TO BE | Rven if the Jews commit a greater sin, I never-

theless also sin, by taking part in it, and doing
as they desire. And that Pilate actually came
to this conclusion, and that the words of Christ
also really entered his conscience, we see from
this, that it is immediately said: ‘And from
thenceforth Pilate sought to release Him.’’

We learn. from this that the less a man
knows of the Bible, the more of milk-food, and
not strong meat must he given him; for our
chief design must be to drop the seed of divine
truth into their hearts, and then to wait in pa-
tience whether and until it come up. We
must, therefore, not fret and think that we
have perhaps denied the Lord, when we have
not always presented the entire doctrine of
justification to an unbeliever with whom God
has brought us together, and have not per-
chance closed with the words: If you do not
accept this, you will be damned. “We should
rather rejoice when, in the first place, we have
only caused him to reflect upon one verse, one
divine truth. For not only may the words:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave
His only-begotten Son, that whosoever be-
lieveth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting live,’’ cause a light to dawn upon a
man; he may also be enlightened by the verse:
“ And this is life eternal, that they might know
Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent,’ or by means of an
other; for the whole Word of God ig nice
and powerful, therefore, also every part, every
passage.

We must also not at once imagine that our
words have had no effect, because a confession
of faith does not immediately follow. Much
is spoiled in this case through great haste and
impatience, because we wish to gather fruit,
without giving God’s Word time to ripen it;
in this way, much is ruined through unwise
zeal, which might have become good, if we had
only waited; we sow, and also wish to reap in
the same hour. O, remember the splendid
fruit which the words of Christ afterwards bore
in Nicodemus, who acknowledged himself a
friend and disciple of Christ, at a time, when
all His disciples did not know what to think of
Him, and had left Him; he and Joseph of
Arimathea ventured to bury Jesus, and he
gladly gave of his wealth a mixture of myrrh
and aloes about a hundred pound weight. And
we are told John 8. and Acts 7. of the splendid
fruit which the words of Christ bore among the
depraved Samaritans. Therefore, let pastors
pray to God for wisdom, love, and patience,
that they may, according to the model of the
good Shepherd, constantly become more fitted
to treat the individual souls properly, and so
win more.

other desires for anything that is our neighbor's
are forbidden as coveting our neighbor's prop-
erty. For instance, if I am not content with
the little I have, but wish that I had something
of my neighbor’s property also; or if I envy
my neighbor, disliking to see him have what I
have not, and wishing that I and not he owned
it; or if I am greedy and always want more,
though I have plenty and enough, and wish
that such and such things belonging to another
were mine; or if anything that is my neigh-
bor’s so pleases me, that I fall in love with it,
and wish that it were mine—all this is coveting
my neighbor's property. And I might mention
many other cases, where the heart covets the
things of another. By this time, the reader
will have seen that the word ‘“‘house’’ in the
commandment does not only signify the build-
ings and dwelling-houses of our fellow-men,
but also their grounds, lands, crops, furniture,
tools, or whatever else belongs to them.

Now, there are many that do not only covet
in their hearts that which is the property of
another, but also seek to obtain the same and
make it their own. If they try to obtain it as
common thieves do, that is, by taking it away
without asking further questions, then they
steal it. There are other ways, however, in
which man may wrongfully obtain his neigh-
bor’s property. The two ways most commonly
practiced are those mentioned by Dr. Luther
in his explanation of this commandment: ‘‘\Ve
should fear and love God, that we may not
eraftily”’ (slyly, artfully, by trickery) “seek to
get our neighbor's inheritance or house, nor ob-
tain it by a show of right” (justice and law
appearing to be on our side, while in reality
they are not). Men have invented many cun-
ning and artful tricks by which they succeed in
getting what their hearts covet of their neigh-
bor’s property. The world calls them smart,
but such smartness is of the devil. Eve thought
she was smart, when she coveted (desired) to
be like God and tried to obtain it by eating of
the forbidden fruit, but what did it profit her?
Furthermore, men manage to get what belongs
to the neighbor by a show of right. That is,
they make it appear as if they had perfect

right to take it. Lawyers and judges thus
have no conscience, witnesses swearing false

We also learn from Christ, the good Shep-
herd, how the individual souls are to he treated.
He does not treat one man like the other, but
each in his own way, and according to his fail-
ings. He attacks Nicodemus who trusted in
and was proud of his natural birth from Abra-
ham, and his blameless life before the people,
differently than He does the publicans; He de-
stroys all this for him; and nothing could have
shocked this man more than just this, that all
that was worthless before God, upon which he,
hitherto, had so firmly relied.

He attacks the rich young man whose heart
was bewitched hy Mammon, in another way.
In order to show him this fault, and to rid him
of it, He demands of him: ‘Sell all that thou
hast, and distribute unto the poor... and come,
follow me.”” Luke 18. He attacks the worldly
and carnally minded woman of Samaria, in an-
other manner. In order to enter into conver-
sation with her, He requests her to give Him
to drink; when she woniered at this, He be-
gan to speak of Himself and the living water;
but she understands all in a worldly and fleshly
manner; but He does not become impatient.
He reveals Himself as a prophet, by telling her
things of her life, which probably no one save
she herself knew; by this means He leads her
on, so that she now looks up to Him as a
prophet, and lays before Him a question of
conscience, namely, whether the Samaritans or
the Jews had the true worship. To this He
replies that salvation is of the Jews; but the
time had come when God -would break down
the barrier hetween the Jews and the Samar-
itans, and would gather from all nations, those
who worship Him in spirit and in truth. He
thus leads her further and further, until He,
at length, fully brings her to a knowledge of
Himself and to faith, by finally saying to her
that He was the Messiah, whom she was long-
ing for. Then there fell from her eyes as it
had been scales, and in her great joy she
hastens to lead others to-Him ulso. Behold,
with so many words, with euch a splendid ex-
planation, the Lord treats with a lost woman,
who stood so low in the eyes of the disciples,
that they marveled, that He even spoke to her.
John 4. In still another way, He attacks the
heathen Pilate. He could not take hold of
him, as He did the woman of Samaria, who
knew something of God’s Word, nor as He did
Nicodemus, who knew the Bible well. Pilate
is proud of his power to crucify or to relense,
ns he pleases. The Lord, however, destroys
this pride, hy saying: ‘Thou couldest have no
power at all against me, except it were given
thee from above.” The Lord wishes to say:
If, however, thy power is nut thine own, but
bestowed upon and entrusted to thee for a short

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