The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1888, Page 10

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

The Reason Why.

and suffered, and died to save sinners, even the/
chief, tell me, will He cast them out when they |

Why did Christ, the glorious Son of God,} come to Him, when they come and say, |

become man in the midst of earth’s misery?!

You say, ‘‘To save sinners.’’

He was -made under the law and led a life!
He Him-
self said, *‘ The foxes have holes, and the birds

of misery, of poverty and of want.

of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath
not where to lay His head.’? Why all this?
You say, ‘‘To save sinners.’

He went toa place called Gethsemane and
‘began to be sorrowful, and very heavy. Then
saith He, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even
unto death. And He went a little further,

“Thy blood can make the foulest clean,
That blood avails for me’’?

Will He say, ‘‘ Depart, thou guilty sinner’?!
Will He say, ‘‘I will have nothing to do with |
you’’? Nay, He will rather say, ‘‘ Welcome, |
thou poor penitent, welcome to the cross; and |
thou returning sinner, welcome to thy Saviour
and to life eternal.”’

And has not Christ Jesus commanded you
to come, and‘entreated you to come, and prom-|
ised ‘‘in no wise’’ to reject you; and do you
think He who has done and suffered so much

and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O my
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from | break His word and cast you out? In the|
wes nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou} Gospel He offers you forgiveness of sins and
wilt. And being in an agony, He prayed more} eternal salvation. Come to Him! He will not
earnestly ; and His sweat was as it were-great Castivoutouts

drops of blood falling down to the ground.’’} 2 “ee

Why did He bow His head in won-
drous submission when torn by: the
pains of deadly agony in Gethse-
mane? You say, ‘‘It was to save
sinners.”

One of His disciples betrayed Him
for thirty pieces of silver; another
denied that he had ever known Him;
and they all forsook Him and fled.
Alone in His anguish He was seized
and dragged to the bar of the high-
priest, where, after a hurried trial,
He was condemned to death, and
spit upon and buffeted, and treated
with shameful indignity. The next
morning, early, He was taken into
the presence of Pilate, the Roman
governor, by whose command He
in whom no fault was found, was
scourged with the cruel whips of
Roman soldiers, and was crowned
with a crown of thorns. Why did
He yield His body to be smitten with hand
and rod, and torn with the lacerating scourge,
and pierced with thorns? why? You say, ‘‘It; Dr. Luther was once asked at table concern-
was to save sinuers.’’ ing the ‘‘bloody sweat’’ and the other deep

The cross was laid upon His shoulders,’ and | spiritual sufferings which Christ endured in the
He was led away to be crucified. Behold the} garden (of Gethsemane). Then he said—‘‘ No
Sinless One on His way to Calvary! He walked} man can know or conceive what that anguish
with faint and weary step beneath His heavy | must have been. If any man. began even to
burden, until unable to carry it longer. Atj experience such suffering, he must die. You
length He was nailed to the fatal wood, be-|know many do die of sickness of heart; for
tween two thieves, and there suffered that] heart-anguish is indeed death. Ifa man could
great agony of soul which pressed from His| feel such anguish and distress as Christ felt, it

lips that cry of abandoned woe, ‘‘My God,/| would be impossible for him to endure it and

my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”? And | for his soul to remain in his body. Soul and

when ‘all was finished, He bowed His head,|body would part. To Christ alone was this
and gave up the ghost. Why did He, the|agony possible, and it wrung from Him ‘sweat

Sinless One, endure this agony, and suffering, | which was as great drops of blood’.”’

and woe, and shameful death? why? You say,

‘Tt was to save sinners.”’

If the Lord Jesus Christ has passed through
‘shades of darkest misery—through flames of .
greatest sufferings—and the black waters of} In acertain house belonging toa rich family,
‘ death itself—if He has sighed, and wept, and| there was never any blessing asked at table,

_ prayed, and preached, and lived, and labored, | and when once the clergyman of the place was

for you, will prove so false and cruel as to}

Christ’s Agony in Gethsemane.

The Agony in the Garden.

Repeating the same Words.

invited to dinner, he begged that grace should
be said, not only that time, but also in the
future. This request caused some embarrass-
ment, and a long silence, which the master of
the house broke at length with the remark that
the daily prayer at mealtime was only a matter
of custom, and that the repetition of the same
words year after year, must necessarily become
monotonous and meaningless.

The seven-year old grandchild kissed his
hand and said: ‘‘Dear grandpa, must I not
come any more to you every morning and say,
‘Good morning, grandpa,’ or at evening, ‘Good
night, grandpa?”’

Another silence ensued, which the clergyman
interrupted, looking at the child with great de-
light, reminding all of the words of the Psa] mist,
“‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings.’’

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Just Three Things.

“‘Tonce meta thoughtful scholar,’

says Bishop Whipple, ‘‘who told me
that for years he had read every
book he could which assailed the
religion of Jesus Christ, and he said
he should have become an infidel
but for three things. First, lama
man. Iam going somewhere. To-
night I am a day nearer the grave
than I was last night. I have read
all such books can tell me. They
shed not one solitary ray of hope or
light upon the darkness. They shall
not take away the only guide and
leave me stone-blind. Second, I had
a mother. I saw her go down into
the dark valley where I am going,
and she leaned upon an unseen arm
as calmly asa child goes to sleep on
the breast of its mother. I know
|that was not a dream. Third, I have three
motherless daughters (and he said with tears
in his eyes), they have no protector but my-
self; I would rather kill them than leave them
in this sinful world if you blot out from it all
the teachings of the Gospel.”’

A Great Wonder.

Once when the great missionary Henry Mar-
tyn was telling a boy in Persia about the high-
priest who struck Jesus on the face with his
hand, the boy asked: ‘‘ And, sir, did not his
hand dry up at once?’’ The boy thought it
could not be possible for one to sin so greatly
against the Lord and not be punished at once.

It is surely a great wonder that God has not
stricken us.all down long before this, because
of our many sins against Him. But this only
shows how great is His love and pity and pa-
tience. But it does not prove that He will
never punish us if we go on in our sins. If we
reject the Saviour, punishment will surely fol-
low sin.