The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1890, Page 13

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Che Autheran Pironeer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PosuisHED BY THE EvanceLicaL Lurueran SyNopicAL CoNFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XII.

St. Louis, Mo., April, 1890.

No. 4.

Easter Hymn.

Easter joy and Easter gladness!
Banish all thy care and sadness,
Put thy beauteous garments on,
Join the triumph of the Son.

Gone, the dread humiliation!

Gone, the pain of degradation!
Christ hath risen! oh, how glorious!
See Him o’er His foes victorious!

Tell the wondrous, joyful story,
How He passed from earth to glory!
Shout in loud and joyful chorus,
How He doth from death restore us!

Swell the anthem strong and stronger!
Let the peal ring loud and longer!
Till it reach from earth to heaven—
Man is saved, his sins forgiven!

Easter joy and Easter gladness!

Banish all thy care and sadness!

Let it sound from shore to shore—
Jesus liveth evermore! Selected.

———> _-0<>> e - =

Easter Lessons.

Easter day tells us that Christ is risen from
the dead. J'rom this we learn
First, that Christ is true God. St. Paul
says of Jesus that He was ‘‘declared to be the
Son of God with power, according to the Spirit
of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead,”
Rom. 1, 4. Christ Himself had told the Jews
that He as the Son of God would rise from the
dead on the third day. Speaking of the temple
of His body He said, ‘‘Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up,’ John 2, 19.
Again He said, ‘‘I lay down my life, that I
might take it again. No man taketh it from
me, but I lay it down myself: I have power to
lay it down, and I have power to take it again,”’
John 10, 17. 18. Had Christ been holden: of
death, His enemies might say that He had no
divine power, that He was not the Son of God.
But He, the Lord of life, could not be holden
of death.. The Lord is risen! He is risen in-
deed! All the wisdom of the wise, and all the
power of the mighty of earth can not conquer
death, but Christ, the Son of God, conquered

death and came forth triumphantly from the
grave. From this we see that the Saviour in
whom we believe is the eternal, almighty Son
of God. Woe to them who reject this Saviour!
They reject the only true God.

Second, from Christ’s resurrection we learn
that the work of our redemption is finished.
St. Paul says, ‘If Christ be not raised, your
faith is vain: ye are yet in your sins,’ 1 Cor.
15,17. Christ was our Substitute. The sins
of the world were laid upon Him, and the sin-
hating God poured out upon His sin-bearing
Son all the wrath which sinners deserved. He
“was delivered for our offenses.” Had he been
holden of death, we would yet be in our sins.
We would then not know whether the pur-
chase money laid down for our redemption was
sufficient and was accepted by the Father.
But the Lord is risen! He is risen indeed!
The purchase money has been accepted. By
raising Christ from the dead God the Father
declared Himself perfectly satisfied with the
work of His Son. ‘‘Christ was raised again for
our justification,’’ Rom. 4, 25. Christ was our
Substitute, and therefore His victory is ours.
All sinners that by true faith accept this fin-
ished work of redemption can cry out triumph-
antly, ‘Who shall lay anything to the charge
of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that
died, yea rather, that is risen again,” Rom. 8,
33. 34.

Third, from Christ’s resurrection we learn
that we also shall rise from the grave. St. Paul
says, “If Christ be preached that He rose from
the dead, how say some among you that there
is no resurrection from the dead?’’ Again he
says, ‘‘Now is Christ risen from the dead and
become the first fruits of them that slept.’’
Since Christ in His resurrection became the
first fruits, we know that the whole harvest
will be gathered in. He who by His divine
power took His own body from the tomb, will
by that eame power raise our bodies from the
grave. In the power of Christ's resurrection
we are born again toa lively hope. The light
of Easter day sheds the brightness of everlast-
ing life into the darkness of our graves. For
the Saviour says, ‘“Because I live, ye shall live
also,’ John 14, 19.

Peace.

“Jesus Himself came and stood in the midst

of them, and ‘said unto them, Peace be unto
you. And when He had so said, He showed
unto them His hands and His side.’’

Here was the source of their peace — the

wounded hands and bruised side of Jesus. It
was peace flowing from their crucified Redeemer.

They knew Jesus by his wounded hands and

His bruised side, and we must know Him thus
too, if we are ever to know Him at‘all. Peace
is here and here alone. Not in forms and cere-
monies, not in prayers and tears, not in any of

these things, but only in Jesus with the wounded

hands and bruised side. This will impart glad-

ness to the heart; for it speaks of wrath en-
dured, of sin forever put away, and of ever-
lasting righteousness brought in; it tells the

soul that all is finished, and that in Him it

stands complete before God. This gives glad-
ness; this, and only this, a finished salvation.
“Then were the disciples glad when they saw
the Lord.”

A perfect Work.

The work of the Lord Jesus Christ is so per- *

fect, “that nothing can be put to it.’ The
Galatian Christians attempted to add their ob-
servance of the law to the work of Christ, but
this was really to detract from the perfection
of the work of Christ. Hence the apostle cries
out with holy jealousy, ‘‘I do not frustrate the
grace of God; for if righteousness come by the
law, then Christ is dead in vain.’’ Little do
even Christians think of the constant tendency
in their hearts to take away from the perfect
work of Christ, by putting something to it.
They allow the doctrine, that the work is per-
fect —is finished; yet, through the deceitful-
ness of their hearts, they often practically deny.
it. ‘True Christian experience, real Christian
service, genuine Christian graces may be put to
the work of Christ, and thus, in reality, frus-
trate the grace of God and nullify the death
of Christ.

——»-oaP eo

WE do not belong to this life, but are called
to another, and a far better.— Luther.

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