The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1886, Page 41

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

Che Autheran Pioneer.

A MI

SSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusuisHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LuTHERAN SyNnopicAL CoNFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. VIII.

St. Louis, Mo., November, 1886.

No. 11.

“Shall He Come and Find Me Watching?”

Shall He come and find me watching
As the watchers watch for morn,

As the hour of midnight passes,
And the coming day is born?

Shall He come and find me waiting,
With my loins well girt about,

Staff in hand, the word to welcome,
Waiting without fear or doubt?

Shall He come and find me standing
From the worldling’s joy apart,
Outside of its mirth and folly,
With a true and loyal heart?

Shall He come and find me faithful
To His parting words to me:
“Tf I go—a place preparing—
I will quickly come to thee?”’

Shall He come and find me working
In the vineyard full of love;
Only working, till the glory
Breaks upon me from above?

Jesus, let me thus be waiting,
Full of hope, and love, and zeal;
Let Thy coming, to my spirit,
Be a hope divine and real.
Selected.
————~>—~ o-~<>- 0 >

Refuges of Lies.

‘‘The hail shall sweep away the refuge of
lies,” says the Prophet Isaiah.

Reader, the day of judgment is coming. It
will be a terrible day to those who seek safety
for their souls in ‘‘refuges of lies.’’? The ter-
rible hail of God’s wrath will sweep those ref-
uges allaway. Nothing will remain to shelter
the soul of the wretch who trusted in them.
There is but one place of security for the soul
when earth is passing away, and that is the
rock Christ Jesus—the glorious ark of safety.
All others must perish.

Many think because no open crime has
stamped their moral character, they are fitted
to meet God. They think that their good
works, their virtue and morality constitute a
safe refuge for their souls. Refuge of lies!
Oh! how the hail of God’s wrath will sweep
this away. Paul tried this refuge in the days
of his blindness; but, when his eyes were
Opened, he saw how false was the hope he
rested in, and he forsook it to take his place as

a sinner, deeply convinced of his own utter
depravity, at the feet of a crucified Saviour.
The Bible clearly shows that all have sinned,
and that one sin brings the sinner in just as
guilty as if ten thousand crimes had stained
his soul. By the deeds of the law no flesh liv-
ing can be justified; so the sooner the soul flies
from that refuge of lies the better for its eternal
interests.

There are others who trust in their good feel-
ings. They attend meetings where their feel-
ings are excited. They mistake these feelings
for true, living faith; they mistake their ex-
citement for that new birth of the soul without
which no man shall see the kingdom of God.
They make their excited feelings a refuge of
lies to their own souls.

There are others who, rejecting Christ, pre-
tend to fly to the general mercy of God. Ref-
uge of lies! How the hail of God’s wrath will
sweep that away on the day of judgment! Oh!
remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ
when He said, ‘‘No man cometh unto the
Father but by Me.’’ God's mercy is to be
found in Jesus only. If you meet God in any
way save through faith in Jesus He must prove

true refuge for your soul. Put your trust in
this Saviour only, and you will be eternally
secure. ‘‘ Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.’’

——qj>+- oo oe

“The Father Almighty.”

“‘T believe in God, the Father Almighty.”
What strong consolation! Other helpers are
finite; they may be sincere, yet there is a limit
to their succor. But my Father is Almighty!
He who is from everlasting; who spake, and it
was done; who commanded, and it stood fast;
who doeth His pleasure in the armies of heaven
and among men—He over-shadows me! The
hand that spread forth the heavens and flung
the stars abroad, that piles the mountains and
sinks the sea, is stretched out for my defense.
They whose home is the Most High must be
safe, for they abide beneath the shadow of THE
ALMIGHTY.

=» « <> 0

Look unto Jesus.

We shall never find happiness by looking at
our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is
what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest
to the soul. If we would at once overcome
Satan, and have peace with God, it must be by
‘looking unto Jesus.’’ Keep thine eye simply
on Him; let His death, His sufferings, His
merits, His glories, His intercessions, be fresh
upon thy mind; when thou wakest in the morn-
ing look to Him; when thou liest down at night
look to Him. O, let not thy hopes or fears
come between thee and Jesus. Follow hard
after Him, and He will never fail thee.—C. S.

—————> oa eo

a consuming fire. He is a holy God and you
are a sinner. In Christ only has God been
reconciled to a sinful world. To trust in any
mercy of God that has not been revealed
through Jesus, is to build upon a foundation
of sand and must prove in the end ‘‘a refuge
of lies.””

Others trust in a half Saviour. They think
to partly trust in Christ and partly save them-
selves. Refuge of lies! The merits of no half
Saviour will be received as a plea on that great
day of judgment. There is only one Saviour—
Jesus Christ. And He is no half Saviour. No!
He says, ‘‘I am the way.’’ He does not say,
Iam half the way; no! He says, “I am the
way.’ He is the whole way to heaven. He
must be taken as the Saviour from all sin. He
must be trusted, not for a half salvation, but
for a full salvation.

Dear reader, beware of the refuges of lies.
The day of judgment is coming and the hail
of God’s wrath will then sweep away all ref-

uges of lies like the hailstorm sweeps away the
autumn leaves in the forest. Jesus is the only

“Werartep at length with your own right-
eousness, rejoice and confide in the righteous-
ness of Christ. Learn, my dear brother, to
know Christ, and Christ crucified; and learn
to despair of thyself, and sing to the Lord this
song, ‘Lord Jesus, Thou art my righteousness,
but I am thy sin. Thou hast taken what be-
longed to me; Thou hast given me what was
Thine. Thou becamest what Thou wert not,
in order that I might become what I was not
myself.’””—Inither, letter to a friend.