The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1889, Page 37

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PosiisHED BY THE EvaNGeLicaAL LurHeraAN SynopicaL ConFERENCE oF NortH AMERIOA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XI. ‘Siiloulse Momo ctobenmiaco!

No. 10.

“The Dot Upon the I.”

In Russia’s far-off frozen clime
There lived a lovely child,

The Lord to deeds and words of love
His tender heart inclined.

He loved to hear his parents read
In God’s most holy word,

And treasured up within his breast
The blessed truths he heard.

This little boy was very sick,
And when about to die

He called his father to his side,
And said, ‘‘I want to buy

“Bibles to send to heathen lands,
Where they know not the Lord:
That they may all read for themselves

In His most holy word.

“T cannot send whole Bibles there,
Perhaps not one short word;
But I would like to give some help
To spread its truths abroad.

“Those three bright pennies in my box
I think a type would buy

*To print in Christ’s most holy name
The dot upon the i.’’

That stricken father did not fail
Those little coins to send,

O children, think how many coins
In wanton waste you spend.

Christ will receive the smallest gift.
When follies tempt your eye,
Think of the little Russian boy’s
Small dot upon the i.
Children’s Work for Children.

The Way to Heaven.

Among the many blessings which God gave
to His Church through the Reformation of
Dr. Martin Luther is the knowledge of the
true way to heaven. The way to heaven is
pointed out in the Bible. And the Bible ex-
isted before Luther's time: Yes. But for ages
this blessed Book of God was hidden from the
people. Very few even of the learned knew

i the Book. ‘Those who were called to be the
» teachers of the church had mostly never seen
it, much less bad they ever read it. The’people
* generally did not know that there was such a
book, Gross errors, which could give the

troubled heart: of the poor sinner no peace,
were preached as Gospel-truth. The repent-
ing sinner was not told to trust in Jesus for
his salvation, but he was told to trust in his
own works, in his prayers to the virgin Mary
and to the saints, in the mass said by the
priests of the church. The Bible, the light of
God, being taken away, darkness had spread
over the Church, and in this darkness the
people groped about and found no peace for
their souls. They were not -led on the true
way to heaven, but into ways in which they
must be lost. Luther himself passed through
much agony before he found the true way to
heaven: He went into the cloister, he prayed
and fasted until he looked more like a corpse
than a living man, he heard and said mass, he
-went to Rome and climbed up the so-called
Pilate’s stairs on his bare knees. He tried to
merit salvation by his own works and to get to
heaven by his own righteousness. He went
the way which the Romish church told him to
go, but he found no peace until at last that
verse of the Bible was revealed unto him:
‘©The just shall live by faith.” From the Bible
he now learned that a sinner is not saved by
his own works and holiness, but by grace
through faith in the merits of Christ, the only
Saviour of sinners. Having found this true
way to heaven, he got rest, and peace, and
comfort, and happiness. This Gospel he pro-
claimed to the people. He préached Christ as
the only Saviour in whom sinners can find sal
vation. In all his sermons and writings it
was his aim to make plain the way to heaven
by grace through faith in the merits of Christ
Jesus.

So you see, my dear reader, the Reforma-
tion was not begun on account of any trifling
question, but on account of that all-important
question: Which is the way to heaven?

Thank God! we still have the pure Gospel.
In our church the true way to heaven is still
pointed out to sinners anxious for their souls’
salvation. ‘Let us rejoice on the festival day
of the Reformation; for by the Reformation of
Dr. Martin Luther God restored to His Church
the pure Gospel-truth. Let us see to it also
that we, like the great and good Luther, and
like all other true believers before and since,

Jesus, our Lord.
dear Luther, earnestly labor for the spread of
the pure Gospel, bringing others into the true

Saved by faith!

vation!

she knew it.

walk in the only true way to heaven, trusting
for our salvation in the mercy of God in Christ
And then let us, like our

way to heaven.

——2 ~~ oo >

Christ the Rock.

“*By grace are ye saved through faith; and
that not of yourself: It is the gift of God.”
Saved for nothing! Oh,
blessed be God for such an absolutely free sal-
A free Christ to a sinner in absolute
poverty! A free Rock to a poor sinking soul!
“You are sinking fast,’’ said a minister to a
poor aged and dying lady. ‘‘No, sir,’’ was her
reply; ‘‘I cannot sink through a Rock.”’? She
was simply and sweetly resting on Christ, and
Now, who can sink through a
rock? But it is easier to sink through a rock
than to sink through Christ into perdition.
Some ‘‘hope to be saved” and are in more or
less darkness on the all and absolute sufficiency
of Christ, and free justification by faith alone.
Men on a Rock do not ‘‘hope’’ to be on it. ©
They know they are on it. Those whom Christ
pronounced ‘‘saved’’ in the days of His flesh
knew it, and believed it. And surely believers
have the same word of Jesus to this day for
their salvation. ‘He that believeth on me
hath everlasting life.’’ ‘‘These things have
I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye
have eternal life’? (1. John 5, 13). Now can
I look at these words and believe them fully,
and yet not know, on Christ’s testimony, that
“T have eternal life?’’ Impossible.

———_——— + 0 <> ¢

Forgive and Forget.

A little girl I know, has a needlebook with
two covers. On one is worked, with blue silk,
in tiny letters, Forgive and Forget; on the other, </
in crimson, Bear and Forbear. ‘These two sen-
tences are worth being written, not in silk only,
but in gold; and my young friend’s book has
more wisdom ouiside it than is to be found in-~
side many printed volumes. ;

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