The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1886, Page 13

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Ghe Lutheran Pioneer,

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusuisHeD By THE EvaNcELicaL LurHEran Synopicat Conrerence or Nort A

Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo.,

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

MERICA.

As second-class matter.

Vol. VIII.

(For the ‘‘Lutheran Ploncer.’’)

The Lord’s Passion.

1. Jesus, I will ponder now
On Thy holy passion;
With Thy Spirit me endow
For such meditation.
Grant that I in love and faith
May the image cherish
Of Thy suffering pain and death,
That I might not perish.

to

- Let me see Thy great distress,
Anguish and aflliction,
Bonds and stripes, and wretchedness,
And Thy crucifixion;
Let me see how scourge and rod,
Spear and nails did wound Thee,
How for man Thou diedst, O God,
Who with thorns had crowned Thee.

ao

. Yet, O Lord, not thus alone
Let me see Thy passion,
But its cause to.me make known,
And its termination.
Ah! LI also and my sin
Wrought Thy deep aflliction;
This the real cause hath been
Of Thy crucifixion.

4. Grant that I Thy passion view
With repentant grieving,
Nor Thee crucify anew
By unholy living.
How could I refuse to shun
Every sinful pleasure,
Since for me God’s only Son
Suffered without measure?

5. If my sins give me alarm,
And my conscience grieve me,
Let Thy cross my fear disarm,
Peace of conscience give me.
Grant that I may trust in Thee
And Thy holy passion;
If His Son so loveth me,
God must have compassion.

eS

Grant that I may willingly
Bear with Thee my crosses,
Learning humbleness of Thee,
Peace ’midst pains and losses;
Let me give Thee love for love.
Hear me, O my Saviour!

That I may in heaven above
Sing Thy praise forever.

S. v. Birken, 1653.
Tr. by A. C., 1836.

St. Louis, Mo., April, 1886.

The Sin-Bearer.

During the last illness of the late heathen
king of Travancore in India, a queer ceremony
was performed, by which the king tried to put
away his sins. A man was found willing, for
a large sum of money (10,000 rupees), to bear
the responsibilities of the king’s sins. He was
brought into the royal presence, and after the
heathen priests had performed certain ceremo-
nieg over him, the sick man tenderly embraced
him. Then he was led out of the country of
Travancore into the Tinnevelly district, with a
charge never to return. Thus the poor dying
king tried to {provide a sin-bearer who should
take away his sins. But all such trying is in
vain. There is but one true Sin-Bearer, whom
God Himself has provided for all sinners. It is
our precious Saviour—‘‘the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world.” ‘The
Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all,”’
(Isa. 58, 6). He came ‘to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself,’ (Heb. 9, 26).

Behold the Sin-Bearer in Gethsemane, bowed
down under the burden of our sins and sweat-
ing great drops of blood in the unspeakable
agony of His soul! Behold Him bound, and
dragged from one tribunal to the other,
scourged with the cruel whips of Roman sol-
diers, crowned with a crown of thorns, and led
forth by Pontius Pilate into the presence of the
murderous rabble that cried out, Crucify Him!
Crucify Him! Behold Him nailed to the cross
and suffering that great anguish which pressed
from His lips that cry of abandoned woe, “My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
The sin-hating God there met His sin-bearing
Son and laid upon Him the dreadful punish-
ment which we deserved. All the wrath due
to sinners was wrung into one dreadful cup of
suffering, and Jesus drank it to the dregs, cry-
ing ‘‘It is finished,’ bowing His head, and
giving up the ghost.

And now the question comes to be, Has that
sacrifice of our Sin-Bearer been accepted and
have our sins been put away? We find the joy-
ful answer in the empty grave on Easter
morning and in the risen Saviour. He who

was delivered for our offences, is raised again.

for our justification. The sacrifice of our Sin-

No. 4,

Bearer has heen accepted and our sins have
been put away. Christ took all our sins upon
Himself and died for them and was buried
under their heavy weight, but on the third day
He came forth freed from all our sins, having
left them behind Him in the grave.

This only true and great Sin-Bearer comes to
you in the Gospel and offers Himself to you
without money and without price. Embrace
Him with the arms of faith and accept Him as
your Sin-Bearer, by whom your sins have been
put away. Then in the face of sin, death, devil
and hell you can raise the shout of victory,
“There is now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus,’ Rom. 8, 1.

——— 0

The Believer’s Blessedness.

“Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not impute sin,’’ Rom. 4, 8. He will not im-
pute sin to the believer. Having imputed it
to Jesus, having punished it in Jesus, having
put it away by Jesus, He will never charge it
upon any one that is in Christ. What a com-
fort is this! If God were to impute my sins
to me, said an aged Christian, or deal with me
according to my sins, how could I have one
moment's peace? How could I be happy?
But when God tells me that, as a believer in
Jesus, He will not impute sin to me, but deal
with me as one who died in Jesus, is risen with
Jesus, and for whom Jesus intercedes, I can
rejoice, and sing for joy.

—s eae oe

Risen With Christ.

True Christians know that they are risen
with Christ. What an exhortation is gathered
from this to live as those whose citizenship is in
heaven, who are seated with Christ in heavenly
places, who have left the cross and death and
the grave behind them! “If ye then be risen
with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affection ‘on things above, not on
things on the earth,” (Col. 3, 1.2). Things
above, mind, not things on the earth.