The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1891, Page 5

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4 The Lutheran Pioneer.

A MI

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LurHeraN SynopicaL ConFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA.

SSIONARY MONTHLY.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XIII.

St. Louis, Mo., February, 1891.

No. 2.

Hymn for the Dying.

When my last hour is close at hand,
And I must hence betake me,

Lord Jesus Christ, beside me stand,
Nor let Thy help forsake me.

To Thee my soul I now commit,

And safely wilt Thou cherish it,
Until again Thou wake me.

Conscience may sting my memory sore,
And guilt my heart encumber;

But, though like sands upon the shore,
My sins may be in number,

I will not quail, but think of Thee,

Thy death, Thy sorrows, borne for me,
And sink in peace to slumber.

I have been grafted in the Vine,
And thence my comfort borrow;

For surely Thou wilt keep me Thine
Through utmost pain and sorrow;

Yea, though I die, I die in Thee,

Who, through Thy death, hast won for me
Heaven’s bright eternal morrow.

Since Thou from death didst rise again
In death Thou wilt not leave me;
Thy life declares my fears are vain,
And doubts no more shall grieve me,
For Thou wilt have me where Thou art,
And so with joy I can depart,
And know Thou wilt receive me.

And so I stretch mine arms to Thee,
Now, O dear Jesus, take me;
Peaceful and calm my sleep shall be,
No human voice shall wake me;
But Thou wilt ope-the heavenly door
. To life and joy forevermore,
Thou who dost ne’er forsake me.
Nicholas Hermann.

_—s.

““Not of Works.”

“I do the best I can,’’ or, “I hope to do
better,’’ are expressions which a pastor often
hears when speaking to persons about their
souls. It is the natural thought of a proud
heart to do something for salvation. Many are
80 very ignorant that they think though some
‘of their works are bad, others are good, and
that God will put the bad works into one scale
and the good ones into the other scale, and that
if there are more good works, they will be
saved, but if there are more bad works, they
will be lost. Of course, such persons always’

flatter themselves, that their good works will
outweigh the bad, and are thus deceived.

Many also compare themselves with their
neighbors, and think that they stand as good a
chance as most, and a better chance than some;

therefore they find no cause for fear.

Again, there are not a few to be found in
Christian congregations, who diligently attend
to religious exercises and to various forms of
Christian worship, and put their trust in these
doings, and think that heaven is thereby in-
sured to them.

But all such false refuges are swept away by
one sentence of Scripture, that salvation is ‘‘not
of works, lest any man should boast,” Eph. 2, 9.
It is clear that if a person could be saved by
his own doings, those who think they have got
the required amount of good works might
reasonably boast over those who have not.
But the apostle Paul asks, ‘‘Where is boasting?
Itisexcluded. By what law? of works? Nay;
but by the law of faith. Therefore we con-
clude that.a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law,’’ Rom. 3, 27. 28.

It is a delusion, then, to trust to works of any
kind for salvation; and, as we have seen, it is
utterly condemned by the Word of God. Be-
sides, it is clear that if man could have done
one thing that God could accept at his hands,
he could do more, and Christ need not have
come into the world to save. Man could be
his own saviour, and the sufferings of Christ
would not be needed. Therefore we find.the
apostle Paul saying, that ‘‘if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain,” Gal.
2,21. If man can save himself, then there is
nothing in that mysterious incarnation of the
Son of God, nothing in that life of poverty and
want, nothing in that great agony in the garden
of Gethsemane, nothing in that precious blood
which flowed from the cross on Calvary’s hill.

Alas! whata fatal mistake some are making.
How often, we are met by those who appear to
be living proudly on their works! It was well
said by an old Christian, that the ‘natural
man’s good works are only splendid sins.’” The
fact is, that ‘‘a corrupt tree can not bring forth
good fruit.”” A man must be born again before
he can render to God acceptable service. Until
he has eternal life through faith in our Lord

Jesus Christ, he brings forth only fruit unto
death.

“By grace are ye saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.
Not of works, lest any man should boast,’’ Eph.
2, 8. 9.

> oo ee

“I haven’t felt my Sins enough!”

“T hear people say what an awful load their
sins were, and what misery they were in fora
long time before they got peace, and I haven’t
felt all that.’’ .

“What, then? do you suppose that helped to
save them?”’ !

“Perhaps, not; but Ialways thought we
must feel like that about our sins before we
could be saved.’’

“Tt is quite true that we must know that we
are lost sinners before we can believe in Jesus
as our own Saviour, for He is the Saviour of
sinners and not of righteous persons; but that
isa very different thing from supposing that
We must undergo a certain amount of misery
about our sins before He can save us. Suppose
you and I were asleep in two different rooms in
a burning house. You wake up, and finding
out your terrible position, you throw up the
window and shriek for help, but none seems
near. Every moment your anguish increases
and only when you are almost frantic with des-
pair, the fire-escape appears, and you are res-
cued. I am still sleeping on, and the first I
know of my danger is from the firemen getting
into my window and calling on me to descend
by the ‘escape.’ Is it necessary for me to wait
till I have gone through a like period of agony
to yours? No, of course not. I must believe
in the reality of the danger, or I will not leave
my room; but, if I believe that, and trust my-
self to the fireman's care, I shall be just as safe
as though I had in imagination passed through
all the torture of being burned alive. Just:so,
friend, if you are convinced that you are a lost
sinner, you may at once trust in the Lord Jesus,
who died for sinners; for years of misery you
might feel could not add to His power to save
you.” ; ;

MeN of prayer are men of power.