The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1883, Page 26

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26

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Who .Art Thou?

This was the question put to John the Baptist
by the messengers of the Jews. ‘‘And he con-
fessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am
not the Christ. Iam the voice of one crying
in the wilderness, Make straight the way of
the Lord,’’ John 1, 19—23. He did not seek
honor for himself, but pointed men only to
Christ as the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. ‘‘He must increase, but
I must decrease,’’ said John. Yea, he rejoices
to be nothing, so as only Christ can be every-
thing. ‘The friend of the bridegroom rejoiceth
because he heareth the bridegroom’s voice, this
my joy is fulfilled,’ said he. This was the
Christian humbleness of him of whom Christ
says, “Among thém that are born of women
there hath not risen a greater than John the
Baptist.’’

Put that question to the pope and you will
get a quite different answer. The pope claims
to be in the place of Christ here on earth and
takes for himself the honor which is due to

Christ alone. The late pope Pius IX. said of
‘himself: ‘I am the way, the truth and the
life.”? These are words used by Christ in John
14,6. The present pope Leo XIII, on being
requested by an Italian sculptor to trace a
word on a bust of his own, wrote in Latin:
“The Lion of the tribe of Juda.”’ This isa
name given to Christ in Revelations 5, 5. Pope
Boniface VIII, in a letter to the King of
France, called himself ‘‘the judge of the quick
and the dead.’’ A Romish writer says of the
pope: ‘‘All power is given unto him in heaven

. and in earth.” Another says: “‘No one but
God is equal to the pope.’”? Another says:
“The pope is the bridegroom of the whole |
church.’’ Another calls the pope “that one
Lord of whom Paul speaks in the 4th chapter
of his epistle to the Ephesians.’” But St. Paul
there speaks of Christ. Ini the Romish canon-
law the pope is called ‘four Lord God,’’ and it
is said: ‘‘The pope is the foundation of faith.”
The Bible, however, says: ‘‘Other foundation
can no man lay than that is laid, which is
Jesus Christ,” 1 Cor. 3, 11. In the Romish
council, in the year 1516, the pope was ad-
dressed with the words of the 72. Psalm: ‘All
kings shall adore thee, all nations shall serve
thee.” In the sixth session of that council

pe Leo X. was called “‘the Lion of the tribe
of Juda, the Root of David’’ In the fourth
session the pope was named ‘‘the other God
here on earth.’’ And in the first session of
that same council he was addressed with these
words: ‘‘Your Divine Majesty.”” But this
willdo. ‘These Romish speakers and writers
hold high rank in the pope’s church. Their
words and writings were not condemned. No!
The pope condemned all Protestant Bible so-
cieties, but he did not condemn the blasphe-
mous words and writings of these men by which
Christ is robbed of His honor and a miserable
creature is put in the place of the Creator.

" By all this, and by his teaching soul-destroy-

ing doctrines in opposition to Gud’s Word, the
pope gives us a plain answer to our question,
Who art thou? And the answer is this: I am

“that man of sin, the son of perdition, who
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is

called God, or that is worshipped,’’ 2 Thess. 2,
8. 4. Thank God that his power was overthrown
by the Gospel through Dr. Martin Luther.

A Profitable Business.

We clip the following from the New. York
World: A remarkable suit is pending in the
city of Brooklyn. For many years Father Ma-
guire was pastor of St. Paul’s Roman Catholic
Church on Congress and Court streets. The
Rev. Father Kenney was assistant pastor.
Father Maguire was a very intimate friend of
Mrs. O'Hara, the widow of Peter O’Hara. It
may be remembered that Mrs. O’Hara’s will
was contested, ‘but finally sustained. She left
a Jarge sum for Father Maguire, who, when he
died, left an estate estimated at about $65,000.
This money is in the hands of the public ad-
ministrator, as Father Maguire had no legal
heirs. Now Father Kenney in his suit claims
that Mrs. O’Hara gave Father Maguire $16,000
for one hundred and sixty masses, to be said
for the soul of Peter O’Hara. Father Kenney
alleges that at all these masses he was the cel-
ebrant, and claims that he was entitled to $90
for each mass, $5, going to each of the deacons.
He also claims pay for other masses said for
various persons, so that in all the amount will
reach $20,000: What a demonstration of the
ineradicable superstition, priestcraft, and vir-
tual idolatry which prevail in the Roman Cath-
olic Church, we have in this suit! A hundred
and sixty masses for the soul of Peter O'Hara
at $100 apiece! No wonder their coffers swell!
No wonder their enterprises succeed! No won-
der that their poor Irish devotees will give all
they possess to mitigate the woes of the de-
parted brother, husband, wife, son, or daughter
in purgatory! The reading of such things as
these prepares the whole Christian world out-
side of Rome to hail with delight the approach-
ing celebration of the four hundredth annivers-
ary of the birth of Martin Luther.
—_—_~ + oo

Luther and the General.

As Luther was journeying to Worms, he met
the great General Frundsberg at an inn. ‘Are
you the man,” said the general, ‘‘who has un-
dertaken to reform the papacy? how will,
how can you accomplish that?’ ‘‘Yes,’’ said
Luther, “Iam the man, and I rely upon Al-
mighty God, whose vocation and Word I have
with me.’” This terrified Frundsberg, and be-
holding Luther with affection he said, ‘‘Dear
friend, there is something in what you say. I
am a servant of the great Jord, the Emperor
Charles, and at his command have made many
heavy marches. But you have a greater Master
than the Emperor Charles is, He also will help
you and stand by you.’’—From the German.

Romanism.

A curious case, showing the spirit of the
Roman Catholic priesthood, occurred at Ventry
in 1827. The Rev. John Gregg went there to
preach for the society the first Irish sermon
ever heard in the place. The room was crowded.
As soon as Mr. Gregg began to speak a thun-
dering noise came from the cellar. The people
thought it was St. Patrick warning them not
to listen; but the delight of hearing their
mother tongue spoken by the preacher was
enough to keep them, and the duel went on be-
tween the preacher, waxing ever warmer and
warmer, and the powers of the lower regions,
growing weaker and weaker. The preacher
conquered, and three days after had the pleas-
ure of giving an Irish Bible to a young man
who confessed to having been sent by his priest
to break up the meeting. He had been scrap-
ing a stick against the leg of a table, but, when
too tired to go on with it, had heard enough to
make him want to know more. This young
man afterward became a zealous clergyman of
the Irish Society, and for years worked among
the people of Cleena, a rocky peninsula on the
western coast, where he built a church and
established mission-schools.—Churchmen. .

Sufferings of a Missionary.

A missionary in China, has written describ-
ing the outrages heaped upon him in Muay last,
by the Chinese. His chapel was burned, his_.
flock robbed and dispersed, and he himself
stripped of his garments and tortured. His
letter says: ‘‘A dozen men, or rather wild
beasts, threw themselves upon me, dragging
the hair from my head and beard, and the
clothes from my body, which they began cruelly
to burn in various parts. I was then suspended
by what hair was yet left me, and then goaded
on to the village gate to be beheaded. My
naked body was one, mass of blood- and mud,
and my members black from repeated blows.
Having arrived at the gate, they paused to
discuss the particular kind of death I was to
undergo. Many sought to have me burnt alive,
but those in favor of decapitation prevailed, so
I was compelled to kneel down and to have my
hands tied behind my back. My head was
then laid down upon the block, while they pre-
pared the fatal knife. I remained in that awful
position, bleeding, suffering, naked, exposed to
the rude gaze of hundreds of men, woman and
children, between life and death, for a good
quarter of an hour; I was then bidden to rise
and march farther.’’ He was finally rescued
by a mandarin, of the city of Kwang Tong.

—> +P ee

“‘You have entered the ship with Christ,”
said Luther to one of the German Electors,
‘and what do you expect? Jair weather and
pleasant sailing? Nay, verily, but storms and
tempests, and at times Christ Himself will seem
to sleep.”’