The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1894, Page 5

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusiisHep By THE EVANGELICAL LutneRAN SynopicaAL CONFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XVI.

St. Louis, Mo., February, 1894.

No. 2.

Behold the Man!

Jesus, Saviour, Son of God,

Bearer of the sinner’s load;

Thou the sinner’s death hast died,

Thou for us wast crucified;

For our sins Thy flesh was torn,

Thou the penalty hast borne

Of our guilt, upon the tree,

Which .the Father laid on Thee!

Saviour, Surety, Lamb of God,

Thou hast bought us with Thy blood;

Thou hast wiped the debt away,

Notliing left for us to pay;

Nothing left for us to bear,

Nothing left for us to share,

But.the pardon and the bliss,

But the love, the light, the peace.

Bonar.

———————-_ - 0 oe

The Lenten Season.

In all. the Gospel sermons of the Church
year we are told of the sufferings and death
of our Saviour. And whenever the Lord’s
Supper is celebrated in our churches, we are
reminded of Christ’s sufferings and death, by
which we were redeemed. For in that Holy
Supper all communicants receive with the
bread the true body of Christ which was given
for them, and with the wine the true blood of
Christ which was shed for the remission of
their sins.

But a special season of the Church year has
been set apart, in which all members of the
Church are called upon to meditate especially
upon the sufferings and death of the Saviour.
This season comprises the forty days before
Faster and is called the Lenten Season.

This season we observe, not because God
has so commanded, but because we are con-
vinced of the usefulness of devoting a special
time of the year to the special contemplation
of the sufferings and death of our Saviour.
We receive great spiritual blessings by going
with the suffering Saviour on His way of sor-
rows from Gethsemane to Calvary, and by con-
templating with contrite and prayerful hearts
the great work of the only Mediator between
God and man. We learn to know more fully
what a horrible thing sin is. Men ‘often speak

lightly of sin and practice it as if it amounted

to nothing, but it is a horrible thing and hor-
Tible are its results. God hates sin and must
punish sin. When therefore the sin-hating
God saw His Son bearing the sins of the world,
He poured upon Him all the wrath that sin
deserved. What a dreadful thing must sin be,
since it brought upon Christ those bitter suffer-
ings, that great agony, that shameful death
upon the cross! How great must be God’s
wrath over sin, since He spared not His be-
loved Son when He saw Him laden with the
sins of the world!

And how great must be God's love to sin-
ners! Christ is the Holy One, and there is
no sin in Him. But He took our sins upon
Himself and _bore the punishment which we
deserved. ‘‘The Lord hath laid upon Him

the iniquity of us all,’’ says the prophet. And’

the apostle says, ‘‘He bore our sins.’” And
what moved God the Father to send His Son
into this world to bear our sins and to suffer
and die in our stead? The Bible says, ‘‘God

so loved the world that He gave His only-
begotten Son.’? _And what moved the Son of
God to offer Himself a sacrifice for our sins?
He ‘‘loved us and washed us from our sins in
His own blood,” says the Bible. Was ever
love like this? Such love must move the sin-
ner’s heart to trust in that Saviour for forgive-
ness of. sin and life everlasting, and to love
Him who loved us first.

As we come to know more fully the great-
ness of the Saviour’s love, shall not the very
thought of self perish, and Christ be allin all?
His honor, His kingdom, His glory, and the
salvation of those He died to save, should be
the themes and thoughts of.our grateful hearts.
The observance of the Lenten season should
make us more diligent in Christ’s service, more
zealous in our mission work.

——q@ oa oe

; The Season of Lent.

In this season of the year it is customary
for the Church, both in her hymns and ser-
mons, to dwell especially upon the passion of
Christ. We also will follow this custom. In-
deed, we consider it very appropriate that the
narrative of the sufferings of our Lord should,
at a certain fixed period of the year, be read

in the churches to the people, word for word,
from beginning to end, and that it be fully
explained to them, so that they may under-
stand its use, and derive from it much con-
solation. — Luther.

Which was the Fool?

There was a certain nobleman who kept
a fool, to whom one day he gave a staff, with
a charge to keep it-till he should meet with
one who was a greater fool than himself.
Years passed by, the nobleman fell sick, even
unto death. He said to his fool, ‘‘I must
shortly leave you.”’

‘And whither are you going?’’~ said -the
jester. ‘‘Fnto another world,’’ replied his lord-
ship. ‘‘And when will you return? * Within a
month?’ ‘*No.’’ ‘‘Within a year?’’ .‘‘No.’”
“When then?’’ ‘‘Never!’’ ‘‘Never?’’ said the
fool. ‘*And what provision have you made for
your entertainment, whither you are going ?”’”
asked the fool. ‘‘None at all!’’ .‘* What, none
at all?’’ said the fool. ‘‘Here, then, take my,
staff; for with all my folly I am not guilty of
any such folly as this!”"—From the German.

A Gentle Reminder.

An old man and a young man were riding
in a stage coach. The old man was grave
but sprightly, short of stature, spare, with a,
smooth forehead, a fresh complexion, and a
bright and piercing eye. The young man
swore a great deal; until once when they
stopped to change horses, the old man said.
to him, ‘‘I perceive by the registry books that
you and I are going to travel together a long
distance in this coach. I have a favor to ask
of you. I am getting to be an old man, and
if I should so forget mys self as to swear, you.
will oblige me if you will caution me about it.”
The young man instantly apologized, and there
was no more Swearing heard from him during:

that journey.

—_—_——-o<P oe $

Sr. Amsrose saith, ‘God hath promised’
pardon to the penitent, but He hath not
promised to-morrow to the negligent.””