The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1882, Page 45

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LurHERAN SyNnopicaAL CoNFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. IV.

(For the ‘‘Lutheran Pioneer.’’)

Christmas.

Rejoice, rejoice, ye sons of clay!

God comes to you from heaven to-day;
The Lord is born a little child

Of Mary, Virgin undefiled.

He is the Branch of Jesse’s tree,

The Lion out of Judah, He

The Gentiles’ Light, the promised Seed,
Who was to bruise the Serpent’s head.

He brings us peace and happiness,
And heals all sorrow and distress,
Which on account of Adam’s fall
Forever weighed upon us all.

By His low birth and dying blood

He saved us, Christ, true Man and God;
The angels’ glory we shall share,

And God the Father’s Kingdom heir.

(C. Freund, ¢ 1591.)
(Tr. by A. C., 1882.)

owe ae

Good Tidings.

Men in distress are glad to hear good tidings.
The condemned criminal who is being led to
the gallows rejoices when the pardon arrives
which brings him life and freedom. Now all
men are condemned criminals by nature, con-
demned to suffer eternal death in hell. They
are all sinners because they have broken the
law of God. And the curse of that holy law
is upon them, for ‘‘cursed is every one that
continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them,’’ Gal. 3, 10.
No mere man and no angel could redeem us
from this curse, no mere man and no angel
could break the chains of our bondage and set
us free. There was no hope fer poor, lost and
condemned sinners but in God, who alone was
able to pay the price of our ransom. And God
did come to our rescue. This the good Christ-
mas tidings tell us. They are the gladdest
tidings that ever fell upon human ears. ‘‘ Be-
h I bring unto you good tidings of great joy,

h shall be unto all people. For unto you is
born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour,
which is Christ the Lord.’ Good tidings truly
are these, that we have a Saviour. And who

is this Saviour? ‘The angel says he is ‘‘ Christ
thé Lorp.”? Our Saviour must be true God;

St. Louis, Mo., December, 1882.

No. 12.

for no mere man could bear the great burden
of human sin together with the wrath of God
and the curse of the law, no mere man could
satisfy the infinite justice of God, no mere man
could conquer sin, hell, death and devil. There-
fore God’s own Son came into this world to be-
come our Saviour. Our Saviour must also be
true man in order that He might suffer and die
for us and thus offer Himself a ransom in our
stead. ‘Therefore God’s beloved Son took upon
Himself our human nature and was born of
the virgin Mary. Our Saviour is true God
and true Man in one undivided person. This
God-Man has finished the work of our redemp-
tion by His life, sufferings and death. Well
may we rejoice in the happy Christmas time as
we celebrate the birth of this Saviour. What
gladder tidings could be brought to this world
of sin and sorrow and misery and woe than the
glad Christmas tidings —‘‘ Unto you is born a
Saviour’? In this Saviour we have all we
need, whatever our condition in this world may
be. We have in Him the full pardon of all
our sins, we have perfect redemption from all
our enemies, we have the eternal riches and
the sweet blessings of heaven. May the merci-
ful God grant to every reader faith to receive
the good tidings of joy, that all may have a
happy Christmas.

speaking of that love, how little can we realize
its greatness! Perhaps the best way to gain
some apprehension of the greatness of Divine
love, is to make a personal matter of it. What
was I, that the Eternal Son of God should leave
His bright throne and His perfect bliss to be
born of the virgin, to be crucified, dead, and
buried for me? Let me think of it, O my soul!
Could I have been a very attractive object,
polluted as I was by sin, that the Lord God
should look on me and say, Live! Or have
there been, or can there be, any such returns
of gratitude and service from me since I have
known Him, as will at all repay Him for His
mercy? And if [ama specimen of the millions
to whom God gave His Son, must it not have
been love, infinite, pure, inconceivable love,
that drew Him from the throne to the manger
and the cross? Surely it must have been that
He loved me before the foundations of the
world, said an humble Christian, for He can
have seen nothing in me since to love!—

Believe!

Tue Christmas tidings require faith which
accepts them as true, and firmly holds, against
all doubts, that the Saviour is surely born.
This faith quiets the heart, so that thou wilt
not charge God with falsehood through thy un-
belief, as they do who refuse to believe and
thus lose their Saviour. Where this faith is
wanting, Christ, as the Son of God, is denied
by those who will not confess their sins, nor
acknowledge Him as their Saviour, as well as
by those who feel their condemnation and con-
fess their guilt, but do not faithfully receive
the consolation, that Christ is their Saviour. —

Tnuther.

A Gift of Love.

God’s gift of His Son was a gift of love.
Was God to gain anything from us that would
repay Him for sending His Son in the flesh?
The largest portion of our race have gone down
to the grave without ever having said so much
as God be thanked for the gift of a Saviour;
multitudes have known the name of Jesus
Christ only as giving them another oath to
swear by; while by those who have known the
Saviour best, His mercy has been but poorly
acknowledged. It could have been only from
a love that is infinite, that God gave us His Son.
And thus the Scriptures say: ‘‘God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten
Son.”’ “Herein is love; not that we loved
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to
be the propitiation for our sins.’? But in

“Unto you a Saviour is born,’’ that is,
God’s wrath, damnation, and eternal death,
shall no longer threaten you, but rather,
through the obedience of the Son of God who
is born for you, there is prepared for you re-
conciliation with God, forgiveness of sins, and
everlasting salvation and ffeedom from all that
oppresses and saddens your heart. —