The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1884, Page 38

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88 The Lutheran Pioneer.

Sayings of Luther on the Bible.

THE BIBLE ABOVE ALL BOOKS.

The Holy Scripture, or the Bible, is full of
divine gifts and virtues. The books of the
heathen taught nothing of Faith, Hope, and
Love; nay, they knew nothing at all of the
same; their books aimed only at that which

_ was present, at that which, with natural wit
and understanding, a human creature was able
to comprehend and take hold of; but to trust
in God and hope in the Lord, nothing was
written thereof in their books. In the Psalms
and in Job we may see and find how those two
books do treat and handle of Faith, of Hope,
of Patience, and Prayer.

To be short, the Holy Scripture is the best
and highest book of God, full of comfort in all
manner of trials and temptations; for it teacheth
of Faith, Hope, and Love, far otherwise than
by human reason and understanding can be
comprehended. And, in times of troubles and
vexations, it teacheth how these virtues should
light and shine; it teacheth also, that after this
poor and miserable life, there is another which
is eternal and everlasting.

HOW TO STUDY AND KNOW THE BIBLE.

The chief lesson and study in Divinity is,
well and rightly to learn to know Christ, for
He is therein very friendly and familiarly
pictured unto us. From hence St. Peter saith:
“Grow up in the knowledge of Christ’’: and
Christ Himself also teacheth that we should
learn to know Him only out of the Scriptures,
where He saith: ‘‘Search the Scriptures, for
they do testify of me.”

We ought not to measure, censure, and un-
derstand the Scriptures according to our own
natural sense and reason, but we ought dili-
gently by prayer to meditate therein, and to
search after the ‘same. The devil and temp-
tations also do give occasion unto us somewhat
to learn and understand the Scriptures by
experience and practice. Without trials and
temptations we should never understand any-
thing thereof; no, not although we diligently
read and heard the same. The Holy Ghost
must be the only master and tutor to teach us
therein, and let youth and scholars not be
ashamed to learn of this tutor. When I find

_ myself in temptation, then I quickly Jay hold
and fasten on some text in the Bible which
Christ Jesus layeth before me; namely, that He
died for me, from whence I have and receive
comfort.

——s + o-  —

The Bible the best Book.

A society of infidels in England used to
assemble at each other's houses for the purpose
of ridiculing the Scriptures, and hardening one

‘another in their unbelief. They one day set
"apart one evening meeting to the burning of
‘the Bible. A large fire was prepared, the

turned pale and laying down the Bible on the
table, he said, “No, we will not burn that book

till we get a better.”

died, and on his death-bed received unshaken
hopes of forgiveness, and of future blessedness,
from the book he was once going to burn. He
found it, indeed, the best book, not only fora
living, but a dying hour.

in our own tongue!
Cranmer’s edition of the Bible was printed, in
1538, and fixed to a desk in the churches, the
ardor with which men flocked to read was in-
credible.
they who could not, crowded to read it, or to
hear it read in churches, where it was common
to see mechanics meeting together for that pur-
pose after the labor of the day. Many even
learned to read in their old age, that they might
read the Bible.
ingmen who joined each his little stock, and
bought a Bible, which they diligently read;
but being afraid of their master, who was a
zealous papist, they kept it under the straw of
their bed.

having any candles in the evening, would fetch
a handful of straw from her house, and kindling
it, would get her husband to make haste and
read as much out of the Bible as he could while
the blaze lasted, which she marked diligently,
and with a great deal of-care and joy.

light was brought to him for a short time to
eat his meal, would pull out his Bible, and read
a chapter, saying that he could find his mouth
in the dark, but not read in the dark.

Book is dearer to me than my kingdom; and
were I under necessity of quitting one, it should
be my diadem.’’

queath to all my children, and to my children’s
children, to each of them, a Bible, with this
inscription, ‘‘None but Christ.’

from which they proposed to drink a blas-|‘‘Take it off to the barn,”’ said the father of the
phemous dirge. One of their members was| family; ‘Ill not have it in the house.”’

fixed upon to perform the task; he took upthe} ‘Very well,’”’ the distributor replied; “‘I do
Bible, and was walking forward to cast it into | not know that I could leave it in a better place.
the fire when he was arrested by himself look-| Our blessed Saviour once lay in a manger.’’
ing upon the book. The passage which he had | He went to the barn and placed the Bible in a
learned in his youth came to ‘his mind: “The|safe place. As he left, a prayer went up to
word that I have spoken, the same shall judge | God, that He would incline the man to take it
him in the last day,’’ John 12, 48. He trembled, | into his house, and bless its contents to the con-
version of his soul. _

For several days the thought of his rejection
of the Bible followed him wherever he went
and in all he did. He could not get it off his
mind. ‘‘The man was very civil,’ thought he.
“After all, the book won’t hurt me; and to tell
him to put it in the barn was folly! I dare
say he left it there; I'll go and see.’’ He went,
and found the Bible, and as he turned over the
leaves, he came to the place where it is written,
“Unto you is born this day a Saviour, which is
Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto
you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swad-
dling-clothes, lying in a manger.’’ The man
wept because of his guilt and folly. It was the
Spirit’s work in his heart.

Reader, it may be you have never rejected
the Bible—I mean the book itself. Perhaps
you possess one—the gift it may be of a pray-
ing mother, or godly father or some other
Christian friend. Do you read it?

Soon after this, the same young gentleman

The Bible Valued.

What a great blessing is it to have the Bible
We are told, that when

They who could, procured it; and

-————>~ oo

Ts “ - :
Mr. Fox mentions two work- Witnesses forsthen Bible.

Shortly before he died, Patrick Henry, lay-
ing his hand on the Bible, said:

‘Here is a book worth more than all others,
yet it is my misfortune never to have read it,
until lately, with proper attention.”

With voice and gesture, pertinent, and all
his own, John Randolph said:

“A terrible proof of our deep depravity, is
that we can relish and remember anything
better than THE Book.”

When the shades of death were gathering
around Sir Walter Scott, he said to the watcher,
“Bring the Book.”’

“What book?’’ asked Lockhart, his son-
in-law.

“There is but ONE book,’’ said the dying
man, and the Bible was brought to him.

A pious woman, being very poor, and not

A prisoner in a dark dungeon, when the

Robert, King of Sicily, said: ‘The holy

The Mother and her Bible.

Dr. Harris wrote in his last will: ‘I be-
It is related of the mother of Rev. T. Peck

that on one occasion, returning from a neigh-
bor’s to find her humble home on fire, she rushed
into the burning building, and coming out with
her eyebrows singed, she exclaimed, ‘‘I have
got my Bible, the rest may go!’’ Referring to
this incident in the presence of a large company
of friends at his residence, a few months before
his death, Rev. Peck took up that old Bible,
copy of the Scriptures to every family who | saying, ‘‘Here it is—the book out of which five
were without it, one of their distributors called | sons studied theology, under the tuition of my
at a house where he met with an angry repulse. | godly mother.””

The Bible in a Barn.

When the New York Bible Association was
making exertions, some years ago, to supply a