The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1895, Page 37

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

—6 The Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusiisHep BY THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SyNODICAL CONFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XVII.

No Other Name.

There is no Saviour but my Lord,
There is no Gospel but His Word;
Upon that Word I stay my soul

Till earth and heaven away shall roll.

There is.none other than His name,

To save from guilt and death and shame;
And in that name my heart shall trust—
Yea, when this frame shall sink to dust.

There’s no atonement but His cross,
All earthly means are death and loss:
And through that cross my soul shall stand
Among the just, at God’s right hand.

There-is no refuge but in Him,
Secure, when sun and stars are dim;
Tis there this guilty soul shall hide
And‘through eternal years abide.

No other name to man is given,
No name beneath the vault of heayen—
That name upon the cross engraved —

By which the guilty must be saved.
a Selected.
~~ 0 <9

Reformation Day.

The thirty-first of October is called Refor-
mation Day. On that day, in the year 1517,
Dr. Martin Luther nailed to the church door
in Wittenberg ninety-five short propositions,
or theses, in which he stated the plain teach-
ings of God’s Word on various subjects ‘and
exposed the errors of the Romish church. ‘This
was the beginning of the Reformation, by
which God restored to His Church the pure
Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in
Christ Jesus, the Saviour of sinners.

This Gospel had for centuries been hidden
under the rubbish of human, soul-destroying
doctrines taught by the pope and his priests.
The anxious sinner was not told to trust in
Jestis for salvation, but he was told to trust
in his own works, in his prayers to the virgin
Mary and to the saints, in the mass said by
the priests of the church. Jesus, the loving
Saviour, was represented to be a terrible judge
to whom the sinner dare not come with a trust-
ing heart. Luther tells us that before God
Opened to him the Gospel; he trembled and
Was terrified whenever he heard the name of
Jesus. As long as he went the way pointed

SEO UiseNoOmO@ clobemnlcost

out by the Romish church, he found no peace
and no rest. He longed for peace and for
the assurance of salvation. He went into the
cloister, he prayed and fasted until he looked
more like a corpse than a living man, he heard
and said mass, he went to Rome and climbed
up the so-called Pilate’s stairs on his bare
knees. Indeed, if ever a man was earnest in
seeking salvation in the way pointed out in the
Romish church, that man was Martin Luther.
He tried hard to merit salvation by his own
works and earnestly sought the assurance of
peace by his own righteousness. But all in
vain! The troubled soul of the anxious sin-
ner can never find peace and salvation in the
human doctrines of the Romish-church. .

The way of salvation is made known in the
Bible, which the Romish church kept hidden
from the people, in order to keep them in dark-
ness. But God opened the Bible to Dr. Luther.
From the Book of God* Luther learned that
Jesus is the only Saviour and that the sinner
is saved, not by any works of his own, but by
faith in the finished work of Christ. Thus he
found peace, and rest, and forgiveness of sins,
and life everlasting. :

When Luther, by the grace of God, came
to know Jesus as the only name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved,
he became a witness for Christ. The Gospel
whose saving power he had experienced in his
own heart, he loudly proclaimed for the salva-
tion of sinners and boldly defended it against
the pope and all other enemies. With voice
and pen he set forth the pure truth of God
and faithfully warned against all soul-destroy-
ing doctrines of men. ‘Thus God Himself
carried out the great work of the Reformation
by His faithful servant, Dr. Martin Luther.
“I did nothing,”’ says Luther, ‘‘but teach and
preach the pure doctrine of Christ and trans-
late the Gospels, and then laid me down and
slept and rose again. The Holy Spirit did the
rest through the Gospel.’’

Thus the victory was won, whose fruits and
blessings we still enjoy. We still have the
pure Gospel of Christ. Let us hold fast what
wehave. Letus also see to it that this Gospel
is brought to others that know it not. As true
children of the Reformation that prize the pure

No. 10.

Gospel which God has graciously restored to
the Church through Dr. Martin Luther, let us
devote our prayers and our money to the sup-
port and to the spread of that Gospel.

_——-- <P eo

Luther’s Liberality.

A young man who had completed his studies
and was about to leave Wittenberg, being pen-
niless and bowed down with grief, entered
Luther’s house and asked him for a little sup-
port in money. Luther had no money at all,
neither did his wife, who was present, have
any. Luther told the poor young man with
sincere sorrow that he was not able to help

hiti.~ ‘Zhe young: man wept.» He had already ~

asked so many people, but in vain. Luther
was his last hope. ‘‘Oh, God, where. shall
I find help,’’ he sighed, ‘‘I know of none
else.’’ Luther’s eye happened to fall upon
a beautiful silver cup in the open cupboard.
The Elector had given him this costly present
but a short while ago. “Luther quickly seizes
the cup and hands it to the student. The
student stands mute with astonishment and is
loth what todo. Catherine winks to her liege
lord not to insist on giving such a costly
present away. But see what Luther does.
He presses it together mightily with his hands,
thus ruining it for ordinary purposes, and
then gives it to the student, with the words:
‘There, take it! I don’t need a silver. cup,
take it to the gold-smith and keep what he
gives you for it.’

A man who was persecuted on account of
his faith came to Luther and appealed to him
for help. He had but one solitary Joachim-
dollar in his possession. But after a moment’s
thought he thrust his hand into his pocket and
cried: ‘‘Get out of this, Joachim, the Saviour
stands at the door!’’ and gave it to him.

$$ 0

Right Riches.

It is not a sin to possess property and a
family; but thou art forbidden to convert
thy possessions into thy masters; thou must
remain their master; and cause them to serve
thee.—Dr. Martin Luther. ;