The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1883, Page 41

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Ghe Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY

MONTHLY.

PusiisueD BY THE EVANGELICAL Lurneran SynopicaL ConFERENCE or Norra AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. V.

Martin Luther.

Martin Luther was born on the 10th of No-
vember, 1483; that is 400 years ago.

And what did he do that his name is re-
membered so long and that we this year cele-
brate with joy his four hundredth birth-day?

This question has been answered in former
issues of our paper. We have seen that Lu-
ther, born as the son of poor parents four

hundred years ago, was God’s chosen servant |_

in the work of the Reformation. God endowed
him with all the gifts which were needed for
this great work. His powerful mind, his vast
understanding, his great learning, his deep
knowledge of the Scriptures, his great ability
in teaching and defending the truth, his child-
like modesty and self-denial, his fearless cour-
age, his heroic faith have been admired by
friend and foe. He has been called ‘‘a mir-
acle among men.”’ :

But that which made Luther the Reformer
of the Church, and which makes -him so dear
to our hearts, is his preaching of the eternal
Gospel. When Luther was born, all was dark-
ness; for the light of God’s truth lay hidden
under the rubbish of Romish errors and super-
stitions. ‘The priests and the pape pointed the
people to other saviours than the Lord Jesus
Christ. Luther himself, anxious for his soul’s
salvation, became a monk and a priest of Rome.
He tried hard to find peace for his poor troubled
soul in all the false services of the pope’s
church. But no peace could he find until
God opened to him the Bible. He there
learned that Jesus is the only Saviour for a
poor sinner. In the Gospel of Jesus he found
peace and rest. By the light of that Gospel
he saw what wicked things the church of Rome

St. Louis, Mo., November, 1883.

taught the people to believe instead of the
truth of God. This Gospel, whose saving
power he had experienced in his own heart, he
loudly proclaimed for the salvation of sinners,
and boldly defended it against all its enemies.
By this Gospel God Himself carried out the
work of the Reformation. Luther says: ‘‘I
did nothing but teach and preach the pure
doctrine of Christ and translate the Gospels,
and then laid me down and slept and rose
again. The Holy Spirit did the rest through
the Gospel.” Thus the victory was won. We
still enjoy its fruits and its blessings.

work of the Reformation.
the memory of that great and good man—Dr.
Martin Luther.

———2>+ oo >

A Description of Luther.

peared in the year 1519 during the disputation

at Leipzig with the Romish Doctor Eck, is
given in one of the letters of the Leipzig pro-
fessor, Peter Schade, who was present at that
He says: ‘Martin is of medium
stature, of slender frame, and in consequence
of severe study and anxiety so Jean that you
He is yet in
the prime of life, and his voice is clear and
ringing. In speaking he shows his command
of an extraordinary wealth both of thought
In company he is courteous
and friendly without austerity. He is scrupul-
ous in the useful application of every hour to
its appropriate work, and in the circle of his
friends he is cheerful and delights in the sallies
He always appears to be fresh and
lively, and in the face of the terrors of his foes
he maintains an assured peace of mind and a
I willingly satisfy my-
self that this man has not undertaken so great

disputation.

might almost count his bones.

and of language.

of -wit.

cheerful countenance.

a work without Divine assistance.”
> -oaP o> oo

Luther said: ‘I neither am, nor will be any
I hold with the Church the
one only common doctrine of Christ, who alone

man’s master.

is Master of us all, as said in Matthew 23, 38.’

—

Those
who price the blessings of a pure Gospel will
thankfully remember the servant of God by
whom God Himself carried out the glorious
They will honor

A description of Martin Luther as he ap-

No. 11.

Luther, the expected Reformer.

When Luther, on his way to Worms, in the
year 1521, came to the city of Frankfurt, an
old lady sent him a present. She also paid
him a visit and among other things said that
she, when yet a child, had heard from her
parents that the time was near when God
would raise up some one who would oppose
the errors and superstitions of popery. She
hoped that he was the man and therefore
wished him God’s grace and Holy Spirit for
his important work.

——_—o +o oe

Luther’s Industry.

Luther labored for the spread of the Gospel
not only by his lectures in the University and
by his many sermons in the church, but also
by the powerful writings that came from his
able pen. He was one of the most active and
most industrious of men. From 1517 to 1526,
the first ten years of the Reformation, his pub-
lished writings numbered 300; from 1527 to
1537 they numbered 232, and from 1537 to
1546, the year of his death, 183 books were
published by him. This makes 715 in those
29 years, on the average 25 in every year, or
one book every fourteen days of his public
life. Some of those works, it is true, were
written down by others listening to his dis-
course, and some are but short tracts; many
of them, however, are large books written with
the greatest thoroughness and diligence. His
translation of the Bible alone would be a gi-
gantic work even if he had devoted all his life
time to that work only.

—s - eo

Luther’s Brief Confession of Faith.

In the year 1537 Luther was taken very
sick in the city of Smalcald. He thought his
end had come, and on leaving the city for
home, he commended himself to the prayers of
the Church and made this brief Confession of
His faith: ‘‘I cling to the Lord Jesus and His
Word, and in my heart know of no other right-
eousness than the precious Word of Christ;
which graciously cleanses me, and all who be-
lieve, from every sin, as this is freely confessed
in my books and in the Augsburg Confession.”