The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1886, Page 18

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The Lutheran Pioneer:

The Bible. -

The writers of the Bible were inspiréd by
God, who spoke through them. It is absolutely
certain that good men did not write the Bible
of their own will, because they everywhere
affirm that they spake as they were moved by
the Holy Ghost, proclaiming the words which
God told them to utter, and if this is not true,
they uttered what they knew to be false and
were not good men.

It is absolutely certain that bad men did not
write the Bible, because they would be stran-
gers to the lofty conceptions of holiness, to the

and it has won its way without arms, without
human influence, without learning, without
wealth to its recognized supremacy.

The Bible has gone forth into various lands,
and wherever its precepts have been heeded,
and in so far as they have been heeded, it has
laid an arrest upon murder, adultery, false-
hood, drunkenness, avarice, and other shapes
of crime and vice that form such dark blots
upon the pages of human history.

It has been admitted by infidels themselves
that if all those who profess to follow the
teachings of the Bible were only sincere, it

Where are You on Stormy Sundays?

The question might be asked, where are you
when on week-days it storms? Do week-day
storms keep you from work or pleasure, duty
or privilege? Probably not. How is it with
Sunday storms? Do they keep you from
church and Sunday-school? If not, it is to be
feared that your example is not generally
followed. It does seem, judging by the small
number in most churches and Sunday-schools
on stormy Sundays, that a Sunday storm is
a fearfully dangerous affair compared with
one during the week. People have umbrellas
and water-proofs, wraps and _ second-best

A Missionary Church in Africa.

majestic ideas of God, to the terrible denun-
ciations of hypocrisy and evil of every kind,
which pervade the entire book.

Of what other book or books except the
Bible can it be said that at least 250,000,000
have been published during the last 70 years,
and.translated into 250 of the languages and
dialects of earth; and how could this have been
possible, unless it carried with itin great and in-
numerable blessings the proof of its divine origin?

That the Bible has outlived the fires of per-
secution and the assaults of infidel science, is
@ mighty proof that God is its author and that

it is kept by the power of God,

The Bible has encountered from the begin-

"ning the most bitter opposition and unrelenting
“hostility from Judaism, from the Roman empire,
“from the heathen world, from the foul apostacy
of the dark ages, from sinful human nature;

would bring with it incalculable blessings, and
that no community could come thoroughly
under the control of its influence without re-
ceiving a higher and nobler impulse toward all
that is beneficent and valuable.

With all the imperfections and short-comings
of those who profess to be governed by the
authority of the Bible, it has built orphan
asylums'and charitable institutions, and sought
out the poor and suffering, and carried a better
civilization to heathen countries, and lifted all
upon whom it has Jaid its hand to a higher
plane, none of which things can be said of in-
fidelity as an organized effort or system.

The Bible offers a definite and positive ob-
ject of faith and hope to the acceptance of
men, while infidelity only tears down, but can
not build; only denies, but can not affirm;
only takes away, but can not fill the dreary
void it leaves in the soul and in the life.

dresses and clothing; they find them excellent
for use during the storms‘of the week, but
very unsafe when it storms on Sunday. It
seems too bad that the soul should suffer the
loss of so many Sunday services on account of
the greater dangers of a Sunday storm. And
then, too, it is trying to the minister to prepare
a good sermon and have so few to hear and be
profited by it. Would it not be well if in- -
ventors could discover some material that
would protect as thoroughly from a storm on
Sunday as any other day? Such an invention
would be worth millions to the man who gave
it to the public. Inventors, cannot you help
the people against their great danger—a Sun-
day storm ?—Exchange.

9 <8 + ee

WxeEn you are reading a book in a dark
room, and come to a difficult part, you take it
to a window to get more light. So take your
Bible to Christ.