The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1887, Page 29

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The Yutheran

voueer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SYNODICAL CONFERENCE OF NortTH AMERICA.

x R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. IX.

St. Louis, Mo., August, 1887.

No. 8.

A Baptismal Hymn.

(Translated by Rev. H. E, Jacobs, D. D.)

Baptized ones, who know your God,
And bear the Saviour’s name,

Consider well how great the gift,
That through this covenant came.

Cleansing from sin, and beauty true,
Escape from Satan’s prison;

Sonship with Him who wears the crown,
And reigns in highest Heaven.

Our native curse is here removed,
With blessing pure exchanged;

Death dies, Hell breaks, and all its foes
Beneath our feet are ranged.

Here Jesus Christ is now put on;
Our shame is covered o’er,

With all that He has done for us,
And with the cross he bore.

His precious blood here washes us,
And makes us pure and white;

Stainless and sinless, fair and good, _
Before His Father’s sight.

O glorious work, O precious bath,
O water such as earth

Could never yield. No human tongue
Can tell how great thy worth.

. Mere water never could bestow
The blessings thou dost give;
God’s Word and Spirit are in thee

And through them thou dost live.

Help us, O Lord, to use aright
Thy quick’ning power and love,
Till we at last receive from thee

Still fairer robes above.
Paul Gerhardt.

——_s ~~ oe > oe

The Red Hand.

“1, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressians.??—
Isa. 43, 25.

There was once a deaf mute, named John.
Though he never heard any other voice, he
heard the voice of Jesus, knew. it, loved it and
followed it. One day he told the lady who
had taught him, partly on his fingers and
partly by signs, that he had had a wonderful
drenm. God had shown him a great black
book; and all John’s sins were written in it,
so many, so black! and God had shown him
hell, all open and fiery, waiting for him be-
cause of all these sins. But Jesus Christ had

come and put His red hand, red with the blood
of His Cross, all over the page, and the red
hand, the dear red hand, had blotted all John’s
sins out; and when God held up the book to
the light He could not see one left.

Now His sweet word to you to-day is, ‘I,
even I, am He that blotteth out your trans-
gressions."’ Will you believe it? ‘Only be-
lieve,’’ and ‘‘according to your faith it shall be
unto you.’’ It is no fancy or mere feeling, but
God’s truth, that Jesus Christ’s blood has been
shed—nothing can alter that; and that His
precious blood blotteth out our transgressions;
as St. Paul says (Col. 2, 14): ‘Blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us.’? And oh! how much there is to blot out!
—sins that you have forgotten, and sins that
you did not think were sins at all, besides
those you know of—to-day, yesterday, all the
past days of your life. And all these written
in His Book!

Do you want to have them blotted out for-
ever? Do you pray, ‘Blot out mine iniqui-
ties?’’? do you want to know that they are
blotted out? Then take His word about it,
and just believe that it is true, and true for
you—‘‘I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy
transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins: return
unto Me for I have redeemed thee.’

‘«T am trusting Thee for cleansing
Through the crimson flood;
Trusting Thee to make me holy
By Thy blood.”
I, R. H.

—_- ~~ om oe

Not the Righteous.

It is a serious thing for a man, be he young,

old, or middle-aged, to have a good opinion of

himself—to think that his conduct and ehar
acter are good in the sight of God, and deserv-
ing of His approval. For if man think well
of himself, and fancy himself a righteous per-
son, he can lay no claim to Christ as -his Sav-
iour, for Christ came not to call the righteous.
Christ came not to call those who think well
of themselves, and who trust that God will ac.
cept them for their good works; but He came to
call those who are broken down under a sense
of their sins, who feel that they cannot make

themselves better, who know that their case is
so bad, that no man can give them relief; and
who, therefore, in the anguish of their souls,
cry to the Lord to have mercy on them.

It is a right thing to pay one’s debts, to be
courteous to one’s neighbors, and kind to the
poor—to avoid evil speaking and evil-doing,
and to acknowledge God as the author of all
good; this is all right in its place; but many
flatter themselves that by such a course they
have a good chance of acceptance with God in
the day of judgment. Now this notion, how-
ever popular it be, is the great delusion of the
enemy for man’s eternal ruin.. Those who
cherish this notion are altogether deceived. A
person may be blameless in his ways before
men, and amiable and devout in his disposi-
tion, without Christ in his heart.

Morality, and the performance of the out-
ward decencies of religion give no title to
heaven. There is not one in heaven who is
there on the ground of what he is in himself,
or of what he has done. All those who are
there, are there as sinners saved by the grace
of God—washed from their sins by the precious
blood of Christ.

Dear reader, have you thus come to the
Saviour and claimed Him for your own? Have
you come as a sinner, and said to Him in faith,
Thou camest to save sinners: Tam one. Thou
camest to seek the lost: I'am lost. Therefore,
tuke me: let me be Thine, and be Thou mine
furever.

—_—< - 0 <a> 0 +

Bad Bargains.

A teacher in a Sunday-school once remarked
that he who buys the truth makes a good
bargain, and inquired if any scholar recollected
an instance in Scripture of a bad bargain.

“T do,” replied a boy; ‘‘ Esau made a bad
bargain when he sold his birthright for a mess
of pottage.”’

A second said, ‘‘ Judas made a bad bargain
when he sold his Lord for thirty pieces of
silver.” ;

A third boy observed, ‘Our Lord tells us
that he makes a bad bargain who, to gain the
whole world, loses his own soul.’”” A bad bar-
gain indeed!

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