The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1892, Page 37

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PARLE

The Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL Luraeran SynopicaL Conrerence or Nort AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XIV. a

Sonne NTOm Octo bomlaoe.

No. 10.

We Won't Give Up The Bible.

We won’t give up the Bible,

God’s holy Book of truth,

The blessed staff of hoary age,

The guide of early youth,

The lamp that sheds a glorious light
On, else, a dreary road,

The voice that speaks a Saviour’s love
And leads us home to God.

We won’t give up the Bible;

But could you force away

What is as our own life-blood dear,

We still with joy could say,

The words which we have learned while young
We'll follow all our days,

For they’re engraven on our hearts,

You cannot them erase.

We won’t give up the Bible,

We'll shout it far and wide

Until the echo shall be heard

Beyond the rolling tide,

Till all shall know that we, though young,
Withstand each treacherous act,

And that from God’s own sacred word
We’ll never, never part.

67172 oa.

An Open Bible.

On the 31st of October the Lutheran Church
celebrates the anniversary of the Reformation ;
for on that day, in the year 1517, Luther nailed
his 95 Theses against the door of the Castle
church at Wittenberg. On that day, God,
through Dr. Martin Luther, began the refor-
mation of His Church, the blessings of which
we still enjoy in our church and in our schools.
One of these great blessings is an open Bible.

Before Luther’s time the Bible was closed
to the people; it was buried away in dusty
libraries and in dead languages. The com-
mon people could not read the Bible, and even
the priests, who were called to be the teachers
of the people, knew very little of that blessed
Book. Many of them could neither read nor
write. ‘Che darkness of superstition and igno-
rance reigned supreme, and it was in the in-
terest of the Romish church to keep away the
Bible, the light of God, lest the people might
see that they were led away by false and soul-
destroying doctrines.

The Bible was not only closed to the people,
but it was said to be a book which could bring
no good to the people, a dark book which the
people could not understand. Luther says:
‘‘Observe what the devil has done through the
papists. It was not enough for them to throw
this book under the table, and to make it so
rare that few doctors of the Holy Scripture
possess it, much less read it; but, lest some
one should bring it to notice, they have branded
it with infamy, blaspheming God, and saying
that it is dark and that we must follow the
glosses of men and not the pure Scripture.
The calamity is so great that it cannot be
reached by words or thoughts. The evil spirit
has done his will and suppressed this book
and has brought in its stead so many books
of human doctrine, that it may well be said
that there is a deluge of books; and yet they
contain nothing but errors, falsehoods, dark-
ness, poison, death, destruction, hell and the
devil.”’

The time of deliverance came. ‘Through
the mercy of God in the glorious Reforma-
tion of Dr. Martin Luther the Bible was again
given tothe people. It became an open book.
From the Bible Luther had learned the way of
salvation and had found peace for his troubled
soul, and that precious Book, the Word of
God, was the mighty weapon with which he
fought against the enemies of God’s eternal
truth. He translated the Bible for the people
into German, and by his translation the desire
of other nations was awakened to have the
Bible in their own languages. With great joy
the people read and studied that blessed Book.
By searching the Scriptures they were con-
vinced of the errors of Rome and learned the
true way of salvation. ‘‘The Bible, like sun-
shine bursting through clouds, poured its light
upon the nations, and the prophecy was again
fulfilled: ‘They shall all be taught of God.’’’
Through the Reformation of Dr. Luther God
gave to the people an open Bible, and from
that open Bible flowed all the other blessings
of the Reformation.

We still have an open Bible. Every one
can read it in his own language. What a
great blessing this is! The Bible is the Rule
of Faith by which we can judge all doctrines

and guard our souls against error. -It is God’s
word which tells us the true way of salvation
and works in our hearts faith in our dear Say-
jour. It strengthens our faith and, brings us
consolation in all the cares and troubles of
this world. It is God’s rod and staff which
comfort us when we walk through the valley
of the shadow of death. Let us love the Bible!
And when we on Reformation day thank God
for the blessings of the glorious Reformation,
let us also thank Him for that great blessing
of an open Bible. And let us show our thank-
fulness at all times by reading and studying
that Bible, and by accepting its blessed truths,
and by laboring for the spread of those Bible-
truths as they are still held by the Lutheran
Church. God grant that in our homes, in our
schools, and in our churches we may at all
times have an open Bible.

+ 0 <0 >

Fruit From a Small Seed.

The child who, half a century ago, dropped
into the missionary-box a cent that was blessed
to the conversion of a Burman chief, sowed a
seed that was ‘‘less than all the seeds.”” But
it became a tree. A little tract, that cost just
one single cent, fell into the hands of that
young man, and he was so anxious to know
its contents, that he traveled from Burdwan,
250 miles, to Rangoon, on purpose to learn to
read it. The Christian teachers soon taught
him, and from the reading of that tract he
arose with a new heart in his bosom, and went
home with a basket full of similar tracts to
distribute among his people. He was a man
of influence, and crowds came to hear him
talk and explain the Gospel as he had heard it.
In one year 1500 natives were baptized in Ar-
rancan as the result of his labor.

— +1 a

The Empty Flour Barrel.

‘God always hears when we scrape the bot- /

tom of the flour barrel.’? So said the child of -
a poor widow to his mother one morning, after
she had prayed, ‘‘Give us this day our daily
bread.””? God always hears the prayers of His
children, and He knows when to answer. -

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