The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1884, Page 37

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LutuerRAN SynopicaL CoNFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. VI.

St. Louis, Mo., October, 1884.

No. 10.

Farewell To My Bible.

BY A DYING SAINT.

O Book! life’s guide! how shall we part,
And thou so long seized of my heart?
Take this last kiss; and let me weep
True thanks to thee before I sleep.

Thou wert the first put in my hand,
When yet [ could not understand,
And daily did’st my young cyes lead
To letters, till I learned to.read;
But as-rash youths, when once grown strong,
Fly from their nurses to the throng,
Where they new consorts choose, and stick
To those, till either hurt or sick:
So with that first light gained from thee,
Ran I in chase of vanity.
Cried dross for gold, and never thought
My first cheap book had all I sought.
Long reigned this rogue; and thou, cast by,
With meek dumb books did’st woo my eye,
And oft left open would’st convey,
A sudden and most searching ray
Into my soul, with whose quick touch,
Refusing still, I struggled much,
By this mild act of love, at length

* Thou overcam’st my sinful strength;
And having brought me home, did’st there
Show me that pearl I sought elsewhere—
Gladness, and peace, and hope, and love,
The secret favors of the Dove;
Her quickening kindness, smiles, and kisses,
Exalted pleasure, crowning blisses,
Fruition, union, glory, life,
Thou did’st lead to, and still all strife,
Living thou wert my soul’s sure case,
And dying mak’st me go in peace:
Thy next effects no tongue can tell;
Farewell, O book of God, farewell!

2 —Selected.

—

An Open Bible.

One of the great blessings of the Reformation
by Dr. Martin Luther is an open Bible. Be-
fore Luther's time the Bible was shut, buried
away in dusty libraries and in dead languages.
Even the priest, who were called to be the
teachers of the people, knew very little of it.
Many of them could neither read nor write.
The Romish church kept away the Bible, the
light of God, that people might not see the
false human doctrines by which they -were
cheated out of their souls’ salvation. The Bible

was said to be a book which could bring no
good to the people, a dark book which the
people could not understand.

The time of deliverance came. Through the
blessing of God in the glorious Reformation of
Dr. Martin Luther the Bible was again given
to the people. It became an open book. From
the Bible Luther learned the way of salvation
and found peace for his troubled soul. His
heart’s desire now was to see that precious book
in the hands of the people. He therefore trans-
lated the Bible into German and thus brought
the word of God into the homes of the rich
and the poor. By his masterly translation the
desire of other nations was awakened to have
the Bible in their own languages. The time
had come for which the popular preacher Eber-
lein had sighed, ‘“‘when every Christian would
have a Bible in his house, so that every person
who could read might study it daily mcre or
less, turning his heart to God and cherishing
right regards for his neighbor. God grant that
we may live to see that day!”’ ,

When that day came, the people rejoiced.
They gladly read and studied the precious
Book. Cochlacus, a bitter enemy of the Re-
formation, in speaking of Luther’s translation
of the New Testament, says: ‘‘Copies of this
New Testament have been multiplied to an
astonishing amount, so that shoemakers, women
and laymen of all classes read it, carry it about
with them and commit its contents to memory.
As a result of this they have within a few
months become so bold that they have dared
to dispute about faith, not only with Catholic
laymen, but with priests and monks; yes, even
with Magisters and Doctors of Theology. At
times it has even happened that Lutheran lay-
men have been able to quote off-hand more
passages of Scripture than the monks and priests
themselves; and Luther has long ago convinced
his adherents that they shoul not believe any
doctrine that is not derived from the Holy
Scriptures. The most learned Catholic theolo-
gians are now looked upon by the Lutherans
as ignorant in the Scriptures, and here and
there laymen have been heard to contradict
the theologians in the presence of the people,
and to charge them with preaching falsehoods
and things of man’s devising.’’

We still have an open Bible. Every one
can read it in his own language. What a great
blessing this is! The Bible is the Rule of faith
by which we can judge all doctrines and guard
our souls against error. It is God's word which
tells us the true way of salvation and works in
our hearts faith in our dear Saviour. It is
God’s rod and staff which comfort us when we
walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
Let us love the Bible! And when we on Re-
formation day thank God for the many bless-
ings of the glorious Reformation, let us also
thank Him for that great blessing of an open
Bible.

Sin and the Believer.

When the apostle speaks about sinners who
believe in Christ, he says, ‘‘Ye who sometimes
were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ’’?; but when he speaks about sin, he
says, ‘‘that Christ appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself.’”

Thus the sin which God hates he puts away,
and the sinner whom He loves He brings nigh,
and all through THe Broop of His dear Son!

Dear reader, have you been made nigh by
the blood of Christ? :

Faith and Unbelief.

The one grand distinction, before God, by
which a man’s state and destiny are determined,
is the belief or rejection of the truth. To believe
is to be saved; to live and die in unbelief is to
be sealed up in hopeless and endless condem-
nation. ‘True faith and certain salvation, con-
tinued unbelief and eternal misery are linked
together in the word of God. It is not by
human effort; is it not by our own merit of
our own exertions, that we can be saved: it is
by grace through faith. ‘If thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt be-
lieve in thy heart that God hath raised Him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For the
Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him
shall not be ashamed,’ Rom. 10, 9—11.; “He
that believeth not the Son shall not see life;
but the wrath of God abideth on him,’
John 8, 35. :