The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1885, Page 9

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SyNoDICAL CONFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., 28 second-class matter.

Vol. VII.

St. Louis, Mo., March, 1885.

No. 3.

“Christ Crucified.’

“7, IF I BE LIFTED UP FROM THE EARTH, WILL
DRAW ALL MEN UNTO ME.”’

John 12, 32.

Oh teach me what it meaneth,
That cross uplifted high,

With One, the Man of Sorrows,
Condemned to bleed and die.

* Teach me awhile to ponder

What human guilt hath done

To Thee, the King of Glory,
And God’s beloved Son.

Oh teach me all their meaning—
Torn hands and thorn-clad brow;

And teach me why, with anguish,
Thy heart is breaking now.

Oh teach me what it cost Thee
To make a sinner whole;

And teach me, Saviour, teach me,
The value of a soul.

Oh teach me what it meaneth—
That ‘sacred crimson tide—
The blood and water flowing
From Thine own wounded side.
Oh teach me it availeth
To wash the darkest stains,
Till on my soul polluted
No spot of sin remains.

Oh teach me what it meaneth—
Thy love beyond compare ;
The love that reacheth deeper
Than depths of self-despair.
Yea, teach me, till there gloweth
In this cold heart of mine
Some feeble, pale reflection
Of that pure love of Thine!

Oh Infinite Redeemer,
I bring no other plea—
Because Thou dost invite me,
I cast myself on Thee!
Because Thou dost accept me,
Love and I adore!
Because Thy love constraineth,
T’ll praise Thee evermore!
—Selected.

For Me.

In the time of Lent we behold the Son of
God on His way of sorrow. We behold Him
in Gethsemane, where “‘being in agony He
prayed more earnestly; and His sweat was as
it were great drops of blood falling dcwn to the:

ground.’’ One of His disciples betrayed Him;
another denied that He had ever known Him;
they all forsook Him and fled. He was seized
by the multitude and dragged to the bar of
the high-priest, where, after a hurried trial,
He was condemned to death, and spit upon,
and buffeted, and treated most shamefully.
He was taken to Pilate, the Roman governor,
who, though finding no fault in Him, confirmed
the sentence of death, the people crying, ‘‘Cru-
cify Him, crucify Him!’’ He had been severely
scourged, and a crown of thorns was pressed
upon His head. A cross was laid upon His
shoulders, and he was led away to be crucified.
With faint and weary step He walked beneath
His heavy burden, until unable to carry it
longer. At length Calvary is reached. He is
nailed to the cross. There He hangs on that
fatal wood between two thieves. He is mocked,
He is scorned, He is laughed at. Vinegar is
given Him to quench His thirst. God’s wrath
is poured out over Him, and in His deep agony
of soul that piercing cry breaks forth from His
lips: ‘“My God, my God, why hast thou for-
saken me?’’ And again He “‘cried. with a loud
voice, and gave up the ghost.” ‘And when
the centurion saw what was done, he glorified
God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous
man.’’

Now, why did this Righteous One, this Sin-
less One, in whom there was no fault, endure
these great sufferings and agony of soul? Let
the Bible tell you. ‘‘He was wounded for our
transgressions, He has bruised for our iniqui-
ties,’ Isa. 58: ‘‘While we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us,”’ Rom. 5, 8. ‘‘Christ died
for our sins,’ 1 Cor. 15, 3. ‘‘Christ. has re-
deemed us from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for us,’ Gal. 3,13. ‘He hath
made Him to be a sin for us, who knew no
sin,” 2 Cor. 5, 21. He ‘‘bare our sins in His
own body on the tree,’’ 1 Pet. 2, 24. The same
Bible which tells us that we as sinners are un-
der the curse and doom of eternal death, also
tells us that Christ suffered in our place, that
He as our substitute took all our sins and the
curse and wrath of God upon Himself and
satisfied the claims of divine justice. Thus
He redeemed us from the curse and doom of
eternal death.

If you, my dear reader, wish to enjoy this
finished work of redemption, it is not enough
for you to know that Christ died for men in
general, but you must believe in your heart
that He suffered and died for you. You must
see Him by faith hanging upon the cross for

your sins, suffering in your stead, taking your

place under the curse of God’s broken law,
making atonement with His precious blood. for

your soul. Thus beholding the suffering and

dying Saviour and crying out in true faith,
‘Jesus suffered and died for me, the poor, lost
and condemned sinner, and now I am saved,”
you will enter into the gladness of knowing
that ‘‘there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus,’’ Rom. 8, 1.

———<0 @ <0 +e ___

Saving the Lost.

Christ came that He might save the lost.
When a sinner has come to the end of himself
—takes the place of one utterly lost, then God
can deal with him in grace, and give him life.
Christ came not to call the righteous, but sin-
ners to repentance. ‘‘Why did you not rush
after your friend, when he fell into the water?”’
was once asked; to which was replied, ‘‘He
was trying to save himself; if I had gone to
him at first, then we might have both been
lost. I waited till he had come to the end of
his own strength, and then it was easy to
save him.’’ You understand. When a man
takes his place as one who is lost, and gives
up all his self-righteousness, and finds himself
under sentence of death, then he is thankful
to be saved by grace—then he will come to
the Saviour of sinners.

—qsS)+ oo

Suffering.

Christ suffered for sin that we might not
have to suffer for it. He endured the wrath
of God that we might not have to endure it.
This is the ground of our peace. But as regards
suffering from man, we shall always find that
the more faithfully we follow in the footsteps
of Christ, the more we shall suffer in this
respect; but this is a matter of gift, a matter
of privilege, a favor, a dignity.