The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1886, Page 22

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22

earth to construct a system of religion, which
can meet our present need, and tell us anything
of the future state of being.

The Bible.

This marvellous volume consists of many dif-
ferent books, occupying about sixteen hundred
years in their production, and composed by
about forty different persons embracing every
variety -of intellect, culture and social con-
dition; and yet we find a perfect and sublime
unity of testimony. Open at any part of the
volume you please, and you will find its state-
ments in perfect harmony with all other parts,
whether they relate to God or man.

The Bible is precisely adapted to the wants
of all, high and low, rich and poor, Jearned and
unlearned; and as a fact persons of every con-
dition and in every Jand and of every race have
found in it a message suited to their necessities
and a rule of life they can safely follow in all
circumstances unto death.

4 e
The Bible’s commission to its disciples re-
quires them to go into all the world, preaching
the Gospel to every creature, carrying its en-
treaties and warnings unto the ends of the
earth, and thus it aspires to universal dominion
but without a whisper of violence.

There are many important truths which the
Bible alone reveals, important as bearing upon
the question of our present and everlasting
happiness, which confessedly lie beyond the
discovery of man’s intellect, as shown by the
fact that they were not dreamed of by the
wisest and best of men of ancient or modern

_ times who reject its testimony.

The Bible alone reveals the existence of one
God, who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable
in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice,
. goodness, and truth; ‘and this in the light of
all human history is shown to be entirely above
the knowledge of human nature.

The Bible makes known the only way of sal-
vation, by which God manifests at the same}
time His love for the sinner and His hatred of
sin, by which not a spot sullies His righteous-.
ness; while His grace is untrammeled in its
merciful errand to a guilty and ruined world.

This revelation of divine love is made in such
manner as to uphold the strict purity of the
doctrines, duties, and precepts of the entire
Bible, for you can not discover from first to
-last the least allowance for sin, nor any excuse
for the evils incident to fallen human nature.

The Ascension of Christ.

The Bible's exaltation of God and stern con-
demnation of man, always vindicating the for-
mer, always telling of some evil in the latter,
shows that it did not have a human origin.

Wherever the Bible has been proclaimed,
multitudes of the most thoughtful have by
God’s grace become convinced that it is from
God, nor have they been inferior in intellect,
in intelligence, in good behavior, nor in any
other respect to those who have refused to heed
its claims.

The Old Testament contains an almost un-
broken record of the unbelief, ingratitude, idol-
atry, and meanness of the Jews, both leaders

and people, and it is unnatural to suppose that
this shameful record was made by Jewish writ-
ers, unless they were moved by a power higher
than their own. :

The New Testament also brings its stern ac-
cusation against the entire human race, repre-

_ senting all alike as depraved, as at enmity with
God, as by nature the children of wrath, the
whole world lying in the wicked one; and it is

Jity composed such a book of their own will.

The Bible has shown a marvellous power,
which no other religion has exhibited, and
which irreligion does not even pretend to wield,
to arouse the conscience, to enlighten the un-
derstanding, to renew the will, to give another
heart, to refine the life, to make the moral
desert blossom as the rose, and to set free the
prisoners of vice.

The Bible reveals man to himself precisely
as he is, and knows himself to be; and it is not

surprising that a native Chinaman, engaged

by Dr. Morrison to assist in the translation of
the Scriptures, came rushing one day into the

presence of the Missionary with tle exclama-

tion, *‘“Whoever made this book made me.’

The Lutheran Pioneer.

“Thy Will Be Done.”

Several years ago a pastor in New York city
stated in the public prints, that soon after he
had entered the ministry, a lady sent for him
to pray for the recovery of her little son, who
was dangerously ill. He kneeled beside the
distressed mother and the cradle of the child,
and asked God to arrest the disease, and spare
the loved one, if consistent with his will. The
lady caught him by the arm, and exclaimed,
“TI did not send for you to pray in that manner.
I do not wish you to say, if it is God’s will. No
matter what His will may be, it is my will that
my child shall recover. I will not give him
up: God must spare him to me.’’ God did
spare him, and that same mother lived to know
that the same boy was swung by the neck from
the gallows for murder. There is something
better than health, and that is God's approving
smile; there is something worse than sickness,
and that is God’s displeasure. It must not be
forgotten that in praying for things pertaining
to this life we must submit to the will of our
Father! ‘This is the confidence that we have
in Him, that, if we ask anything according to
His will, He heareth us,’’ (1 John 5, 14). It
may not be His will, it may not be best for us,
or for those near to our hearts, to be exempt
from sickness, or to continue on the earth ; and
altough we may cry in our agony as our Lord
cried in Gethsemane, ‘‘O my Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me,’ yet we
must also learn to say with Him, ‘‘neverthe-
less, not as I will, but as thou wilt.’’

— -— + °o-<pe

Sin.

There is a tree called the manchaneel, which
grows in the West Indies. Its appearance is
very attractive, and the wood of it peculiarly
beautiful; it bears a kind of apple resembling
the golden pippin. The fruit looks very tempt-
ing, and smells very fragrant, but to eat of it
is instant death, and its sap, or juice, is so poi-
sonous that, if a few drops of it fall on the skin
it raises blisters and occasions great pain. The
Indians dip their arrows in the juice, that they
may poison their enemies when they wound
them. Providence hath so appointed it that
one of these trees is never found but near it
there grows a white wood or fig tree, the juice
of either of which, if applied in time, is a rem-
edy for the disease produced by the mancha-
neel. Sin, like this poisonous apple, looks
pleasant to the eye, and men desire it, eat ‘of
it, and die; but there is a remedy at hand —it
is the precious blood of the Son of God, which
soothes the troubled conscience, and cleanses
it from all sin.—Biblical Treasury.

— oe +

Gop has given a man two eyes; if he lose
one, he hath another. But man hath only one

-soul; if he Jose that, the loss can never be made

up again. —Chrysostom.