The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1894, Page 45

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The Lutheran Pioneer, :

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusiisHED BY THE EvaNncELicaL LutHEraN SynopicaL ConrEerEeNce or Nortn AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XVI.

Syn ILGwHE, IMIS, IDAaouaee, SOL

Christmas Carol.

Bright angel hosts are heard on high
All sweetly singing o’er the plains;
While mountains echo in reply
The burden of their joyous, strains.

Say, Shepherds, why this jubilee?

What doth your rapturous mirth prolong?
Say, say, what may the tidings be

Which still inspire that heavenly song?

Come, come, to Bethlehem, come and sce
The Child whose birth the angels sing;
Come, come, adore on bended knee
The infant Christ, the new-born King!

See-there within a manger laid
Jesus, the Lord of heaven and earth!
See saints and angels lend their aid
° To celebrate the Saviour’s Birth!
Selected.
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The Saviour Is Born.

This is the glad news which comes to us on
Christmas day and makes that day a day of
rejoicing to all that feel the need of a Saviour.

We all need a Saviour ; for we are by nature
lost sinners and have deserved God’s wrath
and everlasting punishment. The wrath of
God over sin must be borne by some one in
our place, if we were to be saved from ever-
lasting punishment. He that took our place
to suffer the punishment in our stead is our
Saviour. And who is He? He is God’s only-
begotten Son, who became man and was born
of the virgin Mary in the blessed Christmas
night. Therefore the angel of the Lord in
that night said to the shepherds: ‘‘Behold,
I bring you good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people. For unto you is born
this day in the city of David a Saviour, which
is Christ the Lord.”

The Saviour born at Bethlehem is God and
man in one person. Therefore the angel calls
the child born of the virgin Mary. Christ the
Lord. The Babe for whom there was no room
in the inn and who was laid in the manger
was God over all, blessed forever. What the
prophet Isaiah declared has been fulfilled 8
‘Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is
given; and the government shall be upon His
shoulders; and His name shall be called Won-

derful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Ever-
lasting I’ather, the Prince of Peace.’’ Isa. 9, 6.
The Babe of Bethlehem is our Lord and our
God, who for our salvation has become man.
No creature in heaven or on earth could be
our saviour; for no creature could fulfill the
law of God for us and suffer the great pen-
alty which we deserved by our transgressions.
God’s power only could lift the great moun-
tain of sin from a perishing world. And, be-
hold, God came to the rescue. ‘tWhen the
fulness of the time was come, 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. God’s own Son became man,
took our place under the law, fulfilled all its
demands and suffered its curse. Thus He be-
came our Saviour.

Well may we in the blessed Christmas time
rejoice at the birth of this Saviour. In Him
we have all that our souls need. In Him there
is comfort for the sorrowing, redemption for
the captives, help for the helpless, pardon for
the sinner, salvation for the lost, heaven for
the condemned. The Saviour is born! Be-
lieve in Him and rejoice! He is your Say-
iour, for He is the Saviour of all. There is
not one excepted. The angel plainly said:
“T bring you good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people.’’? There is none shut
out. Unto you, and unto me, and unto every
sinner a Saviour is born. Whosoever—be he
rich or poor, learned or unlearned, high or
low, colored or white, yea, be he the greatest
of all sinners—whosoever believeth in Him
shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

The Saviour is born! May we all receive
Him as our Saviour and thus enjoy a blessed
Christmas.

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Christmas in Mexico.

It is very sad to think that there are parts
of the world where Christmas is unknown. Is
it not also sad that in many countries the cele-
bration of the day is mingled with idolatrous
customs? A missionary gives the following
account of Christmas in Mexico. There are
many Catholic countries where it is no better.

Rev. Mr. Sawyer says: ‘‘For almost a week
before Christmas we heard singing in a house
on the hillside below our house here in Guana-
juato, as though they were holding cottage
prayer-meetings, or serenading somebody.
One evening we had to pass the house in re-
turning from church, and what do.you think
we saw? Nearly a dozen women, girls, and
boys standing in a group before the door of
the house, which was closed, and two boys
had upon their shoulders a decorated wooden
platform about the size of a small door taken
off its hinges, with the image of a man and a
woman sitting uponit. The group wauld sing
a song in their language, and then the people
inside the house would sing. Upon inquiry I
learned that the ‘images represented Joseph
and Mary going to the inn at Bethlehem, and
being turned away ‘because there was no room
for them in the inn.’

“This was kept up every night until Christ-
mas eve, when the order of exercise was
changed. Then, instead of singing, there was
music upon violins, harps, and cornets. Upon
passing the house I found the door wide open,
and the room nearly full of people, some sit-

ting, some kneeling, and a few standing near

the doors. Near the centre of the room stood
a little cot beautifully decorated, and what do
you think was lying upon it? A wooden image
of a very small baby which they were wor-

shiping, kneeling around it, and making music .

for it. They called the image the new-born
Saviour and worshiped it as such. This they
do every year for nearly two_weeks,”

—

Work without Merit.

Merit is a work for the sake of which Christ
gives rewards. But no such work is to be
found, for Christ gives by promise. Just as
if a prince were to say to me: ‘‘Come to me

in my castle, and I will give you a hundred

florins.’” Ido a work, certainly, in going to
the castle, but the gift is not given me as the

reward of my work in doing, but because the

prince promised it me.— Luther. :
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True Christmas joy is joy in the Lord.