The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1887, Page 13

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Che Lutheran

A MISSIONARY

Howeer.

MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LuTuERAN SyNopicAL CONFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. IX.

Jesus Christ.
THE SAME YESTERDAY, TO-DAY AND FOREVER.

For our Confirmed Children,

Jesus be with thee in all thy ways,
Jesus crown with blessing all thy days,
Jesus’ face in favor shine on thee,
Jesus save thee from all injury,
Jesus be of all thy joy the spring,
Jesus’ love in sorrow comfort bring,
Jesus’ blood be of thy soul the life,
Jesus’ honor nerve thee for the strife,
Jesus’ innocence hide all thy sin,
Jesus’ image formed be within,
Jesus’ name shine clearly in thy heart,
Jesus’ cross soothe in each bitter smart,
Jesus’ hand guide thee in all thy ways,
Jesus hear thee when thy spirit prays,
Jesus of thy songs the keynote be,
Jesus give distaste of earth to thee,
Jesus be the longing of thy soul,
Jesus of thy weeping be the goal,
Jesus’ will the food thou lovest best,
Jesus’ word the staff that giveth rest,
Jesus be thy heaven e’en here each day,
Jesus bring thee into rest for aye.
From the German.
——————> _- o=am oo - ee —SO

The Resurrection of Jesus.

By Jesus’ resurrection we may be sure He
was the Son of God. The truth ofall that He
said and the worth of all that_He did, depend
upon our being sure of this. Before His death
He told men He was the Son of God, but many
did not believe Him. Then He did many
wonderful works which should have convinced
them, but they did not. At last, speaking of
the temple of His body, He said, ‘‘ Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up.’”’ This would be the greatest miracle of all
if it could be done; and it was done. Men
killed Jesus, they made sure He was dead,
they buried Him in a tomb, they made the
tomb fast, and even set soldiers to guard it, and
yet for all that He came forth on the third day
as He had said He would, and His enemies
could not truthfully deny it. Here then was
a miracle which proved the truth of all that
Jesus said about Himself, and it is for this
reason that Paul, in his letter to the Romans,
snys that He was ‘‘declared to be the Son of God
with power, by the resurrection from the dead.”

St. Louis, Mo., April, 1887.

By Jesus’ resurrection we may be sure that
our debt of sin is paid. It is very important
to be sure of this; for if our debt of sin is not
paid, we are lost forever. Jesus came into
the world to pay our debt of sin, and when He
died upon the cross that debt was paid. But
how were we to know it was paid? How were
we to know that God had accepted the sacrifice
of Jesusonour account? In order to be satisfied
we must have that fact certified to in some
way; and this certificate was given to us on
the third day by the resurrection of Jesus
Just as the business man goes to the bank to
have the word ‘‘good’’ written across the face
of his check, so Christ on Easter morning comes
forth from the grave bringing us great joy, be-
cause His rising from the dead is the word
‘<good’’ written by His Father and our Father
upon His work. ‘‘He was delivered for our
offenses and raised again for our justification,’
Rom. 4, 25.

= e+ © a 0 - <a —-

The Offering Accepted.

By the resurrection of Christ we see that God
the Father has accepted the offering made by
His Son for our sins. Christ suffered and died
as our substitute for our sins, and by raising
our substitute from the dead God the Father
declared Himself perfectly satisfied with the
work of His Son. God is satisfied, and the
offering is accepted! ‘This is the glad Easter
news upon which our faith must simply rest
and which will then fill our heart with true
Easter joy.

Some time ago we sat at the dying bed of a
young student. He was distressed by the
thought that he might be rejected at last,
though he had been a professing Christian for
some years. We sought to lead his soul into
the knowledge of what the grace of God is;
but, while assenting to every Scripture we read
him, he continued in.the same state. We had
spoken to him of Christ, when he said despond:
ingly, ‘Lam afraid the trouble with me is that
I havn’t accepted Him aright.”

‘©T> whom did Christ offer Himself in sacri-
fice for us?”’ we asked.

‘* 7 God of course,” he replied.

not a word could he find.
seemed confused.
had suddenly been changed.
ling over hig faith, he was now looking at the
perfect satisfaction God had found in the sac-
rifice of Christ for his sins. His eye brightened
strangely, as he said, “I never looked at it in
that way before; yes, God is satisfied, the offering
is accepted, and I am saved.”

No. 4.

‘And did God accept the offering?”’
“*Certainly!”’

“‘And what do you say to that?”’

He looked as if ready again to answer, but
For a moment he
The scene of his thoughts
Instead of troub-

His end was peace; and now, ‘absent from

the body, present with the Lord,’’ his song is,
“Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from
our sins in His own blood, . . . to Him be glory
and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.”’

s+ oo oe

A Presumptuous Countess.

A young German countess, who lived about
a hundred years ago, was a noted unbeliever,
and especially opposed to the doctrine of the
resurrection. She died when about thirty
years of age, and before her death gave orders
that her grave should be covered with a solid
slab of granite; that around it should be placed
square blocks of stone, and that the corners
should be fastened to each other and to the
granite slab by heavy iron clamps. Upon the
covering this inscription was placed:—‘This
burial-place, purchased to all eternity, must
never be opened.’ All that human power could
do to prevent any change in that grave was
done; but a little seed sprouted, and the tiny
shoot found its way between the sidestone and
the upper slab, and grew there, slowly but
steadily forcing its way until the iron clamps
were torn asunder, and the granite lid was
raised and is now resting upon the trunk of the
tree, which is large and flourishing. The people
of Hanover regard it as almost a kind of super-
stition, and speak in lowest tones of the wicked
countess; and it is natural they should, for as
I stood beside that grave in the old churchyard
it certainly impressed me more deeply than I
can express.—Welected.