The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1881, Page 34

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

(For the ‘‘Lutheran Pioneer.’’)

Our full Assurance of Hope.

in His part, surely not for the purpose only
that we should believe that we are at present
reconciled and that meanwhile we should re-
Whilst the world and all that is therein, shall} main in a state of continual agitation, ‘like a
pass away, whilst time itself shall be destroyed, | wave of the sea, driven with the wind and
the children of God have a lively hope of an] tossed’’, because there be no place where our
inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that} feet might rest with security with regard to our
fadeth not away, reserved for them in heaven. | future happiness! We are born anew not unto
1 Pet. 1, 4. God, according to His abundant| faith only, but also unto a hope which is sure
mercy, has begotten us again unto a lively] and steadfast. No man that trusts in Jesus and
hope, and it is His good will towards us, that, | His merits, can be confounded. Let the sea be
respecting the future inheritance of eternal] troublesome and boisterous, let the storms con-
glory, we should have the full assurance of] tinue, the anchor of the Christian ship is fixed
such hope (Heb. 6, 11.) God, for whom it is|in the immovable sure ground—the finished
impossible to lie, declares in His Word, not| work of our salvation. The seal of the Spirit is
only that the kingdom to which we are heirs,|an inviolable security for our safety, giving us
shall never be moved, but also that we are|the full assurance of our hope. By the Holy
kept by the power of God through faith, unto| Ghost we are sealed unto the day of redemp-
salvation. ‘The Christian’s lively hope is an| tion, Eph. 4, 30. This seal, being set on the
anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. It} heart of the believer and testifying that he is
does not rest in the shiftsand of doubt, imagina-}| God’s own property, a member of the heavenly
tion and human opinions, but is fixed in the| family, affords him ‘‘a strong consolation”’ and
solid, sound foundation, the sure immovable] assures him that the kingdom hoped for is his.
ground of the goodness and truth of the great| ‘‘ Ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of prom-
God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The heliever’s| ise, which is the earnest [the pledge] of our in-
safety is secured and the firm expectation that| heritance until the redemption of the purchased
God will grant him‘the complete enjoyment of| possession unto the praise of His glory.’’? Eph.
this safety shall notdeceive him. -‘Hope maketh | 1, 138. 14.
not ashamed.” . : The purpose of God is also a foundation, that
The love of God, which did and still does|stands true and which renders our hope sure
secure our safety, is unalterable. ‘The moun-|and steadfast. God has called us according to
tains shall depart and the hills be removed, but] his purpose. Rom. 8, 28. In Christ ‘‘we have
my kindness shall not depart from thee”—saith | obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
the Lord, that hath mercy on us. Is. 54, 10. | according to the purpose of Him who worketh
The all-sufficient price, which Jesus paid for] all things after the counsel of His own will’’,
us by shedding His own, innocent blood upon Eph. 1, 11. Now, whereas it is impossible that
the cross, continues to be our security. Because | God’s purpose should be frustrate, can shame
Christ laid down His life and purchased us so|and confusion be the portion of him, whose
that we might be His own, heaven is ours. | hope is fixed in this immovable ground? Most
Hope, founded on Christ’s sufferings and death, | assuredly not! Heaving out the anchor of the
is never misapplied and it is impossible that it] soul in the sure ground of God’s purpose, ac-
should have its expectations cut off: The good] cording to which we are called, we are confi-
Shepherd Himself declares: I will give unto| dent of this very thing, that He who hath be-
them eternal life, and they shall never perish;| gun the good work in us will perform it and
neither shall any man‘be able to pluck them] keep us through faith unto salvation. “Now
out of my hand. John 10. The salvation| unto Him, that isable to keep you from falling,
wrought out and accomplished for us, is Christ’s| and to present you faultless before the presence
own work, concerning which He triumphed] of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only
upon the cross: It is finished. Now, by faith] wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty,
the believer has this glorious work in hishands,|dominion and power, both now and ever.
it is already given tohim. But this is not all. | Amen.”’”— G. R.
Being in possession of the kingdom which fad- Sa
eth not away and seing it with open face by| “Thou shaltinot take the name of the Lord
faith, he has in addition the Saviour’s promise, thy God in vain.”
that He will give unto him eternal life. Hence
he may be as fully persuaded as of his present| St. Augustine, one of the “Fathers of the
pardon, that neither things present nor things| Church,’ tells of a mason who, when standing
to come shall be able to pluck him out of the|on the scaffold during a thunder-storm, re-
hand of Him who died for us that we might| marked: ‘‘Hark, our God has also become a
live with Him forever. The Son of God entered| mason; just now He is unloading stones!”
into an indenture with the Father from etern-|Scarcely had he uttered these blasphemous
ity, He engaged that He would repair the| words, when the lightning struck and instantly
image of God in man which Adam and His| killed him.
race had lost. He came to finish the work of TEs ae he aT
redemption and to carry out the work of sanc-| ‘‘JusT so much as is attributed to man in the
tification, in order to make us meet for ever-| matter of salvation, is taken from the mercy
lasting glory. All this was and is being done| of. God and the most holy merit of Christ.”

(For the ‘Lutheran Pioneer.’’)
The Tenth Commandment.

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his
man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his cattle,
nor anything that is thy neighbor's” saith the tenth
commandment, which is but a further explana-
tion of the ninth. It mentions several of those
things which we should not covet nor try to get
away from our neighbor, while in the ninth
commandment all the neighbor's property is
included in the one general term, ‘‘house’’.
According to the tenth commandment we
should not covet in the first place, the neigh-
bor’s (that is, another man’s) wife (or another
wife’s husband). This is done not only by com-
mitting adultery with the wife or the husband
of another, nor only by taking the wife away
from her lawful husband or the husband away
from his awful wife and marrying her or him,
as Herod did with his brother Philipp’s wife,
but also by creating distrust and coldness be-
tween man and wife, or causing them to quar-
rel, or causing them to separate, or persuading
one part to leave the other. We should do
nothing of the kind, but should rather let our
neigbor’s family affairs alone, unless we desire
to make peace. We should try to keep them
together unto death and urge them to do their
duty. Secondly, we should not covet our neigh-
bor’s servants. ‘That is, we should not cause
them to disobey their employers or to quarrel
with them, nor persuade them to leave their
employers by offering them higher wages or
slandering their employers, or by making them
discontented with their situation. In like man-
ner, we should not cause the employers to dis-
trust or dismiss their servants or laborers, nor
cause them to unnecessarily rebuke them. We
should rather urge employers and servants to
remain together in peace and both to do their
duty. Thirdly, we should not covet our neigh-
bor’s cattle. ‘This is done by opening stables,
pens, or fences, or by loosening ropes, halters,
or chains, thus allowing the cattle to escape.
It is also done by coaxing another's cattle to
come over to you and to remain with you, thus
allowing you to use them, or by penning up
stray cattle that have wandered away from
their owner, in order to keep them. We should
rather do all in our power to have everybody
keep his cattle, or have thé same returned to
him, when lost. Lastly, we should covet noth-
ing that is our neighbor's. No, nothing! Dr.
Luther explains this commandment thus: ‘‘We
should fear and love God, that we may not
estrange, force or entice away from our neigh-
bor his wife, servants or cattle, but urge them
to stay and do their duty.” God help us to
keep it! : F. B.

: ——————=t- 4.6 0

CONVERSATION in church, even before the
‘service commences, or when leaving, is by no
means decorous. In some parts of Scotland it
is the practice to go to and from church in pro-