The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1888, Page 25

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The Lutheran Pioneer, |

A MI

SSIONARY MONTHLY.

PrBLiSHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SYNODICAL CONFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

.Vol. X.

St. Louis, Mo., July, 1888.

No. 7%.

Arise and be Glad-Hearted.

Arise and be glad-hearted.

For lo! the night departed,
Thy light begins to rise;

The Saviour’s glory beaming,

Both far and wide is streaming;
Lift up, lift up thine eyes.

The world, ’tis true, is dreary,
The heathen nations weary,
Groan through a tedious night;
But He who ever liveth,
To thee so freely giveth
His own, His heavenly light.

Where’er the sunshine speedeth,
And heathen nations leadeth
Upon their daily ways,
There shall thy light extending,
Be welcomed as descending,
From heaven in saving rays.

Lift up thine eyes with gladness;
Nations long bound in sadness,
The world shall come to thee.
Its sons and daughters learning
Thy truth, and fondly yearning
Joint-heirs with Thee to be.

Thy heart, how fondly swelling!
When they who have their dwelling
On earth or sea shall come!
Thine eyes! what contemplations!
To sce the heathen nations
All find in Christ their home.
Foreign Missionary.

—— +s +o or oe

Christ Instead of Me.

You find this glorious truth like a scarlet
line running all through the Bible. ‘‘All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God;”
but Christ died for the guilty, ‘‘the just for
the unjust.’’ He died in the place of sinners,
and if I have Him I have taken Him as my
substitute, and I am saved.
war a certain man agreed to join the ranks in
the place of a comrade who had been drafted.
The offer was accepted, the battle took’ place,
and the man was killed. Some time after
another draft was made, aud they wanted a
second time to take the man whose substitute
had been shot. ‘No,’ said he, ‘‘you can’t
take me, I’m dead. I was shot at a battle.’’

In the time of

“Why, man, you are crazy. Look here, you
got a substitute; another man went in your
place, but you have not been shot.’’ ‘No,
but he died in my place, he went as my sub-
stitute.’? They would not recognize it, and it
was carried up to the Commander; but he said
the man was right. The doctrine of substitu-
tion was recognized. But think of this, dear
reader, God in heaven has recognized the doc-
trine of substitution. He sent His only-be-
gotten Son to take our place and to die in our
stead, that we may go free. If God had not
recognized the doctrine of substitution, if He
had not put Christ in our stead, where would
our hope for eternity be? Dashed to the ground.
Ask me where my hope of salvation is, and I
answer, Jesus for me! I have broken the law.
Yes, but Christ sends me the Gospel message,
and He says, ‘‘I have taken your place, and
you shall take Mine.’”’ I have deserved God’s
wrath and punishment. Yes, but Christ sends
me the Gospel message, and He says, ‘“‘I have
taken your place, and you shall take Mine.”
Take Him as your Substitute and Saviour.
Yes, dear reader, the Lord Jesus Christ is your
Saviour because He is your Substitute, and if
you will only believe this in your heart, and
trust to His precious blood to cleanse you, you
will be a saved and happy child of God forever.

sinner who comes, and at once give him all he
needed, He would be acting as He tells man
not to—sending the needy away when He has
by Him. No, dear reader, forgiveness, justi-
fication, eternal life—all you need, and more
than all you can think of, God has right by
Him. You do not have to wait—no, not a
single day. God’s word is, ‘‘ Now is the ac-
cepted time.’’ ‘‘ He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life.” If you wait till to-
morrow, it is because you will not take salva-
tion to-day. God is ready to give you salvation
through the Gospel, you have only to receive it.

soo oe

The Best Runner.

When Duke George of Saxony lay on his
death-bed and was yet in doubt to whom he
should flee with his soul, whether he should
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and His merits,
or in his own merits and the saints’ good works,
a trusty courtier said to him: Your Grace, re-
member ‘‘that straight forward makes the best
runner.’? This maxim the duke had chosen as
his motto, and being reminded of it in the
struggle of his soul, he went straight forward
to the throne of grace and committing his soul
into the hands of his Saviour departed in peace.

We are justified freely by the grace of God
through the redemption of Christ Jesus, whom
God hath set forth to be a propitiation through
faith by His blood. Neither is there salvation
in any other, for there is none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must
be saved.

+ om 8

Ready to Give.

“‘Say not unto thy neighbor, go and come
again, and to-morrow I will give; when thou
hast it by thee,’’ Prov. 3, 28.

Surely God would not tell man to act more
kindly than He Himself does. ‘‘If ye then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts, . ..
how much more shall your Father which is in
heaven,’ Matth. 7,11. If man is not to turn
his neighbor away with promise of future help,
when he has the means with him, how much
less would God turn the needy sinner away.
God ‘“‘has by Him” all that the sinner needs.
Christ “by His own blood has entered in once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption,’’ Heb. 9,12. That precious blood
speaks to God of a finished work—an eternal
redemption. So, if God did not receive the

A Good Test.

On a certain occasion Valerius Herberger,
the well-known Lutheran pastor at Fraustadt,
was called to visit a dying counsellor who had
grown up in the Romish Church, but who for
a long time attended Herberger’s preaching.
As he was about breathing his last he said to
the minister: ‘‘I have never been rightly on
your side, for I was brought up in the papacy;
but now, on my death bed I feel it, that your
gospel furnishes the best comfort.”