The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1887, Page 45

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— The Lutheran Pioneer,

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PuBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LuraHeRaAN SynopicaL CONFERENCE oF Nort AMERICA.
R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. IX. St! ous, Mol December, 1eev, No. 12.

Christmas. only-begotten Son to save us from sin and

eternal woe. That Son should take the sinner’s
place and pay the sinner’s debt. In order to
do this He must become man, must become
one of us whom He was to redeem. As man,
as one of us whom He came to save, He was
born of the virgin Mary in Bethlehem in that
holy Christmas night when the angel brought
the glad tidings: ‘‘Unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ
the Lord.’”? He is born unto ws. He is our
Saviour, the Saviour of all people. For the
angel says that the good tidings of great joy
shall be ‘‘to all people.’’ Don’t you.see that
this is what makes Christmas jubilant with joy?
Don’t you see that only by accepting this
Saviour we experience the true joy of the
happy Christmas season? Here is joy for the
colored and the white, for the high and the low,
for the healthy and the sick, for the rich and
the poor.

You may be very poor, dear reader, and
perhaps no Christmas tree and no Christmas
present will be found in your home. Still re-
joice and be glad in the happy Christmas sea-
son! ‘The Christmas Gospel brings you a gift
which is far more precious than all the treasures
of this world. It brings you the Saviour from
all your sins. Believe in Him and rejoice!

You may live in trouble and in sorrow, dear
reader, and perhaps some loved one whom you
followed to the grave during the past year will
be missed at your Christmas table. Still rejoice
and be glad in the happy Christmas season!
The Christmas Gospel brings you the loving
Saviour, the Comfort of all the sorrowing and
the Consolation of all the weeping. Trust in
Him and rejoice!

You may be a very great sinner, dear reader,
and perhaps you think theglad Christmas tidings
are not for such great sinnersas you are. But,
oh, rejoice and be glad in the happy Christmas
season! ‘The Christmas Gospel brings you a
Saviour whose love, grace and mercy are
greater, far greater than all your sins. It is
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of
the world. Come to Him just as you are!) .
Accept Him as your Saviour and rejoice!

We wish all our readers the true joy of the
happy Christmas season.

Christmas and our Missionary Work.

“Waken, Christian children,
Up and let us sing
With glad voice the praises
Of our new-born King.

What has Christmas to do with our missionary
work? Is there any other connection between
the two besides the ‘‘and’’ which the editor
puts in the heading of his article? Yes, there is.
Let me tell you. Christmas should arouse us
to new zeal in our missionary work. ‘‘ Good
tidings of great joy which shall be toall people,”’
said the angel on the fields where shepherds
watched. Mark those words ‘‘To all people.”
Christians who dwell with rapture on the words
‘good tidings’ and ‘‘great joy’” will not forget
the ‘‘all people.’’ The shepherds did not forget
it. When the angel had winged his way back
to heaven, the shepherds came with haste to
Bethlehem and beheld with joy the Babe lying
in a manger. And what did they do when
they had found the Saviour? ‘They made
known abroad the saying which was told them
concerning this Child.’”’

Have you found the Saviour in the Bethlehem
of the church? Have you seen Jesus with the
eye of faith? Then make known abroad the
saying concerning this Child. Is your heart
filled with the great joy of Christmas? Then
remember that this great joy is “to all people.”
And how is it brought to all people? Simply
by bringing them the good tidings. This is
done in our missionary work. It is done in our
schools and in our chapels. It is done by our
missionaries as they go from house to house
pointing out the way of salvation to lost sinners.
Many have thus already been made partakers.
of the ‘‘great joy’”” which shall be ‘‘to all people.”
But there are many others to whom the good
tidings must be brought; for they too are in-
cluded in the words ‘‘to all people.” And it
is our duty, yes, it is our sweet privilege to
help the Church in this missionary work by
our prayers and contributions. Make known
abroad what you know concerning the Child
Jesus!

Tell to others around
What a dear Saviour you have found. ©

The Christmas gift of God’s great love
Is the only way to heaven above! ~

“Come, nor fear to seek Him,
Children though we be;
Once He said of children,
‘Let them come to me.’

“Haste we then to welcome,
With a joyous lay,
Christ the king of glory,
Born for us to-day.”’

> -o oe oe

Our Christmas Joy.

Christmas is a time of gladness and of joy.
But not all the gladness which Christmas brings
is pure. The joy which many have in this
happy season is but a carnal and sinful joy.
They give themselves up to pleasures which
injure body and soul and which are an abomi-
nation in the sight of God. There is no room
in their hearts and in their homes for the Babe
of Bethlehem. They have a Christmas with
the thought of Christ left out. Others may
not engage in sinful pleasures, but they devote
the Ghristmas season so entirely to gifts and
parties that they are in danger of also having
a Christmas joy with the thought of Christ
left out.

Christmas is a time of gladness and of joy.
Yes. But the true Christmas joy is found in
the glad Christmas tidings which tell us of the
great gift of a Father's Jove to sinful men. The
angel who brought those tidings to the shep-
herds in the holy Christmas night said to them,
“Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy
which shall be to all people.’’ And what tidings

. did he bring? He. said, ‘‘Unto you is born this
day in the city of David a Saviour, which is
Christ the Lord.’’? Unto us sinners a Saviour
is born! That is the Christmas Gospel! And
‘that is what makes Christmas a time of glad-
ness and of joy!

We are sinners condemned in our sin, and
no creature in heaven and on earth could rescue

“us from everlasting damnation. But, behold,
God, in His great mercy and love, sent His

—_—_— oP 0 oe

‘“EyERY song about Jesus, every church-bell
that rings, echoes the music of Bethlehem.”

,
.