The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1889, Page 13

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE HVANGELICAL LutTHERAN SYNODICAL ConFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.
R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XI. St. Louis, Mo., April, 1889. - No. 4,

the Lord Jesus Christ. When we see this fact,
how simple all becomes! Because if Christ has
finished the work’ for sinners, the moment we
take the place of sinners, we can claim the
benefits of His finished work. ‘The moment,
therefore, we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that moment all the value of His work on the
cross is ours; and we have the blessed assurance
of it right from the Word of God, which says,
‘‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life’ (John-3, 36); ‘‘Whosoever believeth -in
Him shall receive remission of sins’? (Acts 10,
43); and ‘‘being justified by faith, we have
peace with God: through our Lord Jesus
Christ.” :

Dear reader, notice these facts from God's
Word:

I. ‘All have sinned and come short of the
glory of God,” Rom. 3, 23; ‘‘He that believeth
not is condemned already,’’ John’3, 18.

II. “Christ died for the ungodly,’”’ Rom.5, 6;
“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,”
Rom. 5, 8; ‘‘Christ Jesus came into the world
to gave sinners,’ 1 Tim. 1, 15.

III. ‘‘Believe on the Lord Jesus 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,” Rom. 4, 5. i

We are one with Christ in resurrection too.
In His resurrection also He was our substitute.
‘| Our sins were buried out of sight, and in Christ
we were set free. (God ‘‘hath raised us up to-
gether, and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus’? (Eph. 2, 6).. What
comfort and joy is thus brought to all be-
lievers! But what an exhortation also is gath-
|ered from this to live as those whose citizen-
ship is in heaven, who are seated with Christ
in heavenly places, who have left the cross and
death and the grave behind them! “‘If ye then
be risen with Christ, seek those things which
are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God’’ (Col. 3, 1. 2).

> + oo

“| Am Doing the Best that | Can.”

Prayer for our Confirmed Children.

Father, those children keep!
We know not what is coming on the earth;
Beneath the shadow of Thy heavenly wing,
‘Oh, keep them, keep them, Thou who gav’st them
birth.

Father, draw nearer us!
Draw firmer round us Thy protecting arm;
Oh, clasp those children closer to Thy side,
Uninjured in. the day of earth’s alarm.

Them in Thy chambers hide!

* Oh, hide them and preserve them calm and safe,
When sin abounds, and error flows abroad,

- And Satan tempts, and human passions. chafe.

Oh, keep them undefiled!
Unspotted from a tempting world of sin;
That, clothed in white, through the bright city gates,

They may with us in triumph enter in.
H. B.

“Are you sayed?” was the question asked
one day of an old woman.

“*T hope so,’” was the answer.

‘And what makes you hope so0?’’ was the
next question.

“‘Oh,’ she replied, ‘I am doing the best that
I can.”

“My good woman, that is the straight road
to-hell!’? was the startling answer that was
used to awaken her dangerous position.

How many souls to-day are being deceived
by this false thought! “Reader, let me ask you,
if you had a crab-apple-tree in your garden,
what is the best itcould do? Bring forth crab-
apples. And what is the best a sinner can do
but bring forth sins? So the prophet says,
‘All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”
All the best we can do are only rags that can
never cover us, and “‘filthy rags’’ at that; and
what about your worst?

But now the question comes, ‘‘If we can do
nothing to save ourselves, how then can we be
saved??? There, my dear reader, is where the
Gospel comes in. We were sinners, without one
ray of hope; God saw us, loved us, pitied ‘us,
and sent His Son to do the work that saves us,
because we could do nothing for ourselves. For
God so loved the world that scorned Him, that
He sent His Son. Sent Him to do the work
that saves us, and that work is done.

The work that saves is the finished work of:

——- o<=ae

Dead and Risen with Christ.

The Lord Jesus took the sinners’ place. In
His sufferings, death, and resurrection He was
our substitute. By His sufferings He did not
merely Jay the foundation upon which we work
for eternal life in doubt and pain. No! In
God’s view the vilest sinner himself was there,
passing through all that Christ experienced.
When Christ was crucified, we were crucified;
when He died, we died; when He was buried,
we were buried; when He arose, we arose. He
was our substitute through the whole of the
amazing scene from the cross to the glory.

God ‘‘made Him to be:sin for us,” says the
Bible. Our sins were laid upon Him, and there-
fore the wrath of a sin-hating God was poured
out upon Him and pressed from His lips that
cry of woe, ‘‘My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?’’ He bore the agony in our stead,
and His death was ourdeath. Hence the apostle |
says, ‘‘If one died for all, then were all dead’’
(2 Cor. 5, 14). And ‘‘he that is dead is freed:
from sin.’’ Hence the believer who stands at
the foot of the cross can calmly say to the law
and to justice: You have inflicted your pen-
alty, and poured out your wrath upon me once,
and ‘‘there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus’? (Rom. 8, 1).

—>~< oo

Be in Earnest.

Just think of what has been done in order
that you might be saved. God gave His Son;
Jesus died on the cross—the just for the un-
just; the Saviour for the sinner; His blood
was shed, and His blood it is which cleanseth
us from all sin, 1 John 1,7. What a price has
been paid! ‘The Spirit of God strives with
you—will you resist Him? Oh, what risks
you run by not being in earnest about your
soul! Get down on your knees before God,
and own and confess to Him your true state
and condition as a sinner, and accept His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, as your Saviour, and
thou shalt be sayed. ‘Then be in earnest to
live so as to adorn the doctrine of God, your
Saviour, in all things. sagt tent Mages

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Serge Tie nk