The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1889, Page 41

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHILY.

PusuisHep BY THE EVANGELICAL LuTHeRAN SyNopIcAL ConFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XI.

St. Louis, Mo., November, 1889.

No. 11.

The Name Above Every Name.

There is a name I love to hear,
I love to speak its worth;

It sounds like music in mine ear,
The sweetest name on earth.

It tells me of a Saviour’s love,
Who died to set me free;

It tells me of His precious blood—
The sinner’s perfect plea.

It tells of one whose loving heart
Can feel my deepest woe,

Who in my sorrow bears a part
That none can bear below.

Jesus! the name I love so well,
The name I love to hear!

No saint on earth its worth can tell,
No heart conceive how dear.

This name shall shed its fragrance still
Along this thorny road;

Shall sweetly smooth the rugged hill
That leads me up to God.

And there, with all the blood-bought throng,
From sin and sorrow free,
I'll sing the new eternal song

Of Jesus’ love to me. Selected.

4 oo pt

Good Works or Christ—Which?

‘What shall I say when I come to the judg-
ment seat?’ anxiously asked a dying sister
whose life had been devoted to scrubbing floors
and washing children’s faces in one of the hos-
pitals in Philadelphia. ‘‘What shall I say?’’
she repeated. A little girl who happened to be
present replied, ‘‘Say nothing, but show your
hands.’”

We cut the above from one of our exchanges,
who evidently thinks that the little girl gave a
very smart answer. But any one who knows
the Word of God and is loyal to God’s Truth
will easily see that the little girl had been
brought up on the very worst of Sunday school
teaching, which tells children that they ‘‘must
be good’? in order to be saved. How foolish
this is! Why not tell them the truth—that
they are dead in sin, and must have life through

Christ, or they will perish forever? Why not
tell them that ‘‘the wages of sin is death; but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord’’? Had the little girl told the

dying sister to point at the pierced hands of
Jesus and cry out, ‘nothing in my hands I
bring,” she would have shown that she under-
stood the Gospel of the grace of God. Not our
good works, but Christ only is the way to heaven.
He Himself says, ‘‘I am the way, and the truth,
and the life: no man cometh unto the Father,
but by me,” (John 14, 6). ‘He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that
believeth not the Son shall not see life; but
the wrath of God abideth on him,” (John 8, 36).
Clearly there is no salvation apart from faith
in Christ. ‘‘Neither is there salvation in any
other: for there is none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must
be saved,” (Acts 4, 12). ‘‘By grace are ye
saved through faith; and that not of your-
selves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest
any man should boast,”” (Eph. 2, 8.9). ‘‘Not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us,” (Tit. 3, 5).
“The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us
from all sin,’ (1 John 1, 7). Surely no man
will ever be in heaven, unless he can join in the
song, ‘Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us
to God by thy blood,” (Rev. 5, 9). Itis either
the blood of Christ, and faith in that blood, or
everlasting damnation. For not our good works,
but Christ only is the way for heaven.

We recently read of another little girl, who
had well learned the Gospel plan of salvation.
One day her teacher said to her:

“Annie, what will you do when you die and
are called upon to stand before the judgment
seat of God to answer for all the sins done here
upon earth???

Her face glowed with emotion as she an-
swered :

“Christ died for sinners. J will hide behind
Him. God will not look at me.
at Christ.”’

Beautiful thought, to hide behind Christ, to
lose ourselves in Him, and casting aside our
own impure works to rest solely and entirely
upon His finished work for salvation!

————»> +a om

Porycarr LEYSER, the great Lutheran theo-
logian, was accustomed to say. that he had never
listened to an Evangelical minister even in the
smallest village, from whom he had not received
some special benefit.

God?”’

He will look |

Martin Luther and the Roll.

After a time of great trial, Luther tells us he

was seeking rest in sleep; and he saw, as sleep
came to him,—in his dream he saw, —Satan
standing at the foot of his bed. And Satan jeer-
ingly said to him: ‘Martin, thou art a pretty
Christian! Hast thou got the impudence to as-
sume that thou arta Christian?’’ ‘‘Yes,’’ said
Martin, ‘‘[ama Christian, Satan; because Christ
has allowed me, as any sinner may, to come to
Him.” ‘‘What!” eaid Satan, “thoua Christian?
Thou art @ pretty Christian, Martin! See what
thou hast done!’’ And Satan took a roll and be-
gan to unroll it; and there at its head, Martin
Luther saw some sins set down that had passed
away into the dim distance of. childhood. He

had forgotten them. Martin shrank as it struck

his sight: but the roll was unrolled leaf after.

leaf, foot after foot; and, to his horror, he saw

sin after sin, he never knew any thing about at
all, written down there, complete in every de-

tail,—an awful list; and in his dream, he says,
the sweat of mortal agony stood on his brow.

He thought, ‘‘In truth, Satan has got right on

his side. Can such a sinner as this be just with
He said, ‘‘Unroll it! unroll it!’’ and
Satan jeeringly unrolled it and Luther thought

it would never end.—At last he came nearly to

the end; and, in desperation, he cried, ‘‘Let
us see the end!’’ But, as the last foot of the
paper rolled out, he caught sight of some writ-
ing, red as blood, at the foot; and his eye
caught the words, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” And the
vision of Satan floated away, and Luther says
he went-to sleep. Ah, yes, dear friends, that
is it. ‘‘The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son,
cleanseth from all sin.’’

— oo oe

“Sons of the Word.”

John Williams, the well known missionary
and martyr of Erromanga, so thoroughly drilled
the converts in the knowledge of the Bible, and
filled them with the love of the Bible, that in
after years when a vessel was coming near their
island, and the officers called to some of them in
a boat to ask who they were, they replied with
united voices, ‘‘Sons of Word.”