The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1888, Page 41

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The Autheran P ioneet,

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

Pousuisuep By THE HvANGeLIcAL LurHerRaAN SynopicaAL CoNFERENCE oF Norra AMERICA.

Entered at the Post Oftice at St

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. —

. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter.

Vol. X.

St. Louis,

Mo., November, 1888.

No. 11.

Hymn to Christ.

Again the tempter comes! to Thee I cling.

The old serpent comes! I sce his deadly sting—

Hide me, Oh hide me, Christ, beneath Thy shelter-
ing wing!

Oh hold me, hold me, Lord, do not betray
Thine image; cast me not, O Christ, away,
Lest, like the nestling bird, he seize me as his prey!

Ah, that great judgment day! And yet to go
Tlong; pursued each hour with woe on woe,
I find no place of rest, no refuge here below!

Thou call’st me hence ;—but Oh, my faith is small;

O Christ, Iam Thy servant, Thou my all!

Keep me, Oh keep Thine own, till the last trum-
pet call! From the Greck.

=.

You Must Give Account.

When Christ comes to judge the quick and
the dead, man must give an account of him-
self to God. Are you, reader, prepared for
this? Are you conscious of what it will be to
be summoned before that Judge who will bring
before you every detail of your life, even the
most secret? No need of witnesses, no plead-
ing, no place to hide from that Light that will
manifest every work of darkness, and then ex-
ecute upon it speedy judgment.

Would that men ceased to be fools, and con-
sidered their Jatter end!

But if one indeed ceases to be a fool—if in-
deed he does consider his latter end, what is
often the conclusion he comes to? Feeling un-
comfortable, he begins to ‘‘try and do better.”’
Does this settle his trouble? If he is in ear-
nest it will only increase his trouble. Amid all
his trying to do better he will learn more and
more what it is to be a guilty, lost sinner in
God’s sight. The sense of sins becomes intoler-
able; the heart cries out, ‘‘Lord, have mercy
on me!”’ }

Here deliverance comes through the Gospel,
for God Jaid our iniquities on Christ, and vis-
ited them with judgment on Him at the cross,
that all who believe on Him might be saved.
The soul receives this blessed news, and the
burden rolls off. I have taken my place asa
lost sinner, given Christ His place as my Sav-

iour, and in God my Judge I have found my
Father. No wonder that mighty preacher of
the Gospel exclaimed, ‘‘I am not ashamed of
the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God
unto salvation to every one that believeth,”
Rom. 1, 16.

Reader, do you know what all this means?
Do you know that now is the time of your op-
portunity to learn it? Do you know that if
you neglect now, in the day of grace, to give
an account of yourself to God, you will have to
give it in the day when grace will be over, and
when the remorse that will be yours will never-
more find relief? To give an account you must.
Meet it now, and find mercy; leave it till then,
and find judgment without mercy.

The Way. of Salvation.

Reader, are you seeking salvation? By which
of the ways do you seek it? By the way of
works, or by grace? The way of works is the
more popular way, but it will take you to all
eternity to find salvation in that way. By God’s
method—by grace simple and pure, you may
obtain salvation, even this very day. _

“There is life for a look at the crucified One, se
There is life at this moment for thee;
‘Then look, sinner, unto Him and be saved—
Unto Him who was nailed to the tree.”

You may say, This is a strong way of speak-
ing. Yes, but it is true. This is a question of
righteousness. Now, there is man’s righteous-
ness, and there is God’s righteousness. By the
righteousness of man shall no flesh be justified,
Rom. 3, 20. Men go about in a hundred ways
to establish their own righteousness. “‘Go to,’’
says Old Self, ‘‘and let us establish a claim on
God, and so secure salvation.’’? So men set up
a rival cross beside that of Calvary, and when
the voice of incarnate God cries, ‘It is fin-
ished,’ the ‘rival’ worker, Old Self, replies,
“Nay, it is not finished. Stay till I have done
my part; it cannot be finished without me.”
This is what you do when you labor to do some-
thing or bring something, or wait to feel some-
thing or be something, in order to obtain mercy
unto salvation. What-shall Ido? Nothing.

What shall I bring? Nothing. What ehall I

suffer? Nothing. What shall I feel? Nothing.
What shall I be? Nothing—nothing but what
you are, a poor, helpless sinner, at the feet of
the Saviour; and the moment you, a sinner,
and nothing but a sinner, with your bad heart
and all your sins upon you, lay hold with that
black, sinful hand of yours on the outstretched
hand of Jesus, as ‘‘THe Lorp our RIGHTEOUS-
NEss,””
thing in your heart object, saying, ‘““You make
salvation too cheap and easy?”
pride; it is Old Self that so speaks.
saith the Lord?
Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’”’ Acts 16, 31.
‘*To him that worketh not, but believeth on
Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is
counted for righteousness.
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.”’
John 3, 36.

that moment you are saved. Does some-

That is your
But what
‘*Believe on the Lord Jesus

”” Rom. 4, 5. ‘He

Spare Moments.

A boy, poorly dressed, came to the door of

the principal of a celebrated school one morn-
ing and asked to see him. The servant eyed
his mean clothes, and thinking he looked more
| like a beggar than anything else told him to go
’round to the kitchen.

“eT should like to see Mr.——,”’ said he.
‘*You want a breakfast, more like.”

“Can I see Mr.——?”’ asked the boy.
“Well, he is in the library; if he must be

disturbed, he must.’?

So she bade him follow. After talking awhile

the principal put aside the volume that he was
studying and took up some Greek books, and

began to examine the new comer. Every ques-
tion he asked the boy was answered readily.

‘‘Upon my. word,”” exclaimed the principal,
‘you do well. What, my boy, where did you
pick up'so much?”’

‘Tn my spare moments,’” answered the boy.”

He was a hard-working lad, yet almost fitted
for college by simply improving his spare mo-
ments. A few years later he became known
all the world over as the celebrated geologist,
Hugh Miller! What account can you give of

you? sparé moments? —