The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1891, Page 29

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

A MI

SSIONARY MONTHLY.

PosuisHeD BY THE EVANGELICAL LurHERAN SyNoDICAL CoNFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

ol. XIII.

St. Louis, Mo., August, 1891.

No. 8.

God provideth for the Morrow.

**Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the mor-
row shall take thought for the things of itself.” Matth. 6, 34.

Lo, the lilies of the field,

How their leaves instruction yield!
Hark to nature’s lesson given

By the blessed birds of heaven!
Every bush and tufted tree
Warbles sweet philosophy:

Mortal, flee from doubt and sorrow:
God provideth for the morrow.

Say, with richer crimson glows

The kingly mantle than the rose?
Say, have kings more wholesome fare
Than we poor citizens of air?

Barns nor hoarded grain have we,
Yet we carol merrily;

Mortal, flee from doubt and sorrow:
God provideth for the morrow.

One there lives whose guardian eye
Guides our humble destiny;
One there lives; who, Lord of all,
Keeps our feathers lest they fall;
Pass we blithely, then, the time,
Fearless of the snare and lime,
Free from doubt and faithless sorrow:
God provideth for the morrow!
Selected.
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Made Under The Law.

Christ was made under the law in our stead. | come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am
All men are under the demands of God’s holy |not come to destroy, but to fulfill,’’ (Matth.

law, the sum of which is given in these words
of Christ: ‘‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
With all thy mind. Thou shalt love thy neigh-
bor as thyself.’ The law demands of every
man that he, with a perfectly pure and un-
defiled heart, love God above all things and
his neighbor as himself. And because no man
has fulfilled these demands, therefore all men
re under the curse of the law. ‘Cursed is
every one that continueth not in all things
Which are written in the book of law to do

ae (Gal. 8, 10). All men are under this
Trible Curse, for ‘all have sinned and come

ar of the glory of God,” (Rom. 3, 23);
®re is none righteous, no, not one,” (Rom.
ae The law pertains, not only to the out:
Conduct, but to the heart of man. ‘Take

for example the fifth commandment. It says,
“Thou shalt not kill.”’ From the Bible we
learn that we transgress this commandment
without taking human life; for ‘“‘whosoever
hateth his brother is a murderer,’’ (1 John 3, 15).
The commandment is transgressed by the sinful
thoughts and desires of the heart. And so it
is with all the commandments of God’s law.
Every commandment, therefore, declares-man
to be guilty, and man’s own conscience tells
him that he is guilty, and the law of God
thunders forth its curse and condemns man
into eternal damnation.

Is there no help? Yes, thanks be to God!
Christ was made under the law. He was made
under the demands of the law. ‘God sent
forth his Son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of
sons,” (Gal. 4, 4. 5). The demands of the
law must be fulfilled, and since we could not do
this, the Son of God took our place. He, in
His great love to sinners, became man and was
made under the law, in order to fulfill all its
demands in our stead. In the book of Pealms
the promised Messiah says, ‘Lo, I come: in
the volume of the book it is written of. me, I
delight to do thy will, O my God; yea thy law
is within my heart,”’ (Ps. 40, 7. 8). And when
He had come He said, ‘“Think not that Iam

and His redemption from the curse of the law
are freely offered to every sinner in the gospel.
Blessed are they that accept this Gospel with
true faith. There is ‘‘no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus,’ (Rom. 8, 1).
“Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to every one that believeth,’ (Rom. 10, 4).

ee ore

- The Gospel for every Creature.

“Go ye,’’ Christ said, ‘into all the world
and preach the Gospel to every creature’’—go
to the gallows, and preach it to the man with
a rope on his neck and his feet on the drop—
go to the jail, and preach it to the scum of the
city—go to the dens of iniquity, and preach it
as freely and fully as in her highest and holiest
congregation. Divine, saving, gentle mercy,
turns no more aside from the foulest wretch,
than the wind which kisses her faded cheek,
or the sunbeam that visits as brightly a mur-
derer’s cell as a minister’s study. Nay—though
His the holiest of all kingdoms—while the
Pharisee stands astonished to be shut out, mark
how when the poor harlot approaches who,
weeping, trembling, dares hardly to lift her
hand to knock, the door flies open; and she
enters to be kindly welcomed—washed, and
robed, and forgiven.

2 + oo +

5, 17). Christ was free from sin in His nature Our Danger.
and was not subject to the law of God, but He
took our place under the law and perfectly ful-
filled its demands for all sinners.

Not only the demands of the law must be
fulfilled, but its curse must be borne if sinners
are to be saved. Christ was, therefore, made
under the curse of the law. He took that curse
upon Himself and, in the stead of all sinners,
bore it in His sufferings and in His death.
“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the
law, being made a curse for us,” (Gal. 3, 18).
“Fle was wounded for our transgressions, he
was bruised for our iniquities,”” (Isa. 53). Thus
He took away the cumin perfectly satisfied

] justice of God.
Ses mark well, dear reader, Christ's
perfect obedience to the demands of the law

Our danger is spiritual sleep. The air of
this world is drowsy. It is well known that
those who travel in the frosts and snows of
-winter often feel it difficult to keep awake: the
blood is driven to the brain and vital organs,
which become overloaded and oppressed. But
should they lie down to sleep in such an atmo-
sphere, they close their eyes to open them in
this world no more; they sleep the sleep of
death. The moral atmosphere of worldly so-
ciety is not less chilling and benumbing to the
soul than are the frosts and snows of winter to
the body. Our safety depends upon obedience
to the exhortation, ‘‘Be not conformed to this
world; but be ye transformed by the renewing
of your mind.”’— Selected.