The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1896, Page 3

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‘The Lutheran Pioneer. 3

I Go By The Book.

Two men were standing on the deck of a
ship, which was on the stocks, and nearly
completed, ina shipyard. One of them was
the foreman, and the other was one of the
carpenters engaged in building the vessel.

“Well, David,’’ said the foreman, ‘‘I have
been thinking I would like-to talk with you
alittle. I hear you are one of those who say
they know for certain that they are saved,
and I am curious to learn how that can be.’’

“*Yes,’’ said the carpenter, ‘‘I thank God
I know that I have passed from death to life,
and that I am as sure of my acceptance with
God as I am of anything on earth.’’
~ _ “Well,”’ replied the foreman, ‘‘that is some-

thing that I can not see through—how any
man can know that he is saved as long as he
isin this world. It seems to me a very bold
position for one to take.’’ .

The foreman then went on to relate some-
thing of his own history —how he had once
been urged to join church, but had held back,
because he had no assurance of being a Chris-
tian; and how, from his uncertainty in regard
to himself, he had come to doubt about others,
and finally, to question the very reality of
Christianity.

“Well,’’ said David, ‘‘I know it is a reality ;
and I know, too, that there is such a thing as
knowing that one is saved. What is the
breadth- of this: water-way ?’’ mS

The foreman, astonished at the apparently
sudden change in the conversation, said:

“Why, fourteen inches all round, to be

sure; what makes you ask that, when you
know??? _

“But are you quite sure that it is to be
fourteen inches?’’ said David.

“Certainly.”

“But what makes you so sure?’’

“Why, I go by the book;’’ and as he said

* so, he pulled a small memorandum book out
of his pocket, in which were marked the sizes
and position of the various things on the deck.
“I’m sure its fourteen inches, for it is here
in the book, and I got the book from head-
quarters.’’

“Oh, I see,”’? said David. ‘‘Now, look
here, that is just exactly how I know I’m
saved; Igo by the Book;’’ and as he said so
he pulled a New Testament out of his pocket.
“T just go by the book; it came from head-
Quarters; it came from God; it is God’s
Word. I found in here that I was a lost,
condemned sinner, worthy of nothing but the
lake of fire; but I also found in the Book
that God loved me, lost and guilty as I was;
that He so loved me as to give His only be-
gotten Son to die in my room and stead, and
if I believe in Him 1 should not perish, but
have everlasting life; for it says here, ‘Jor
God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.’
(ohn 8, 16.) I took God at His word; and

I’m saved; and you, too, may be saved if you
will, simply as. you are, a lost, condemned
sinner, believe in Jesus; that is trust Him as
your Saviour, and you are saved; and then
you can say, without presumption, I know
I’m saved, ‘For, I go by the Book.’’? Here
the conversation ended.

And now, reader, let me ask if you go by
the Book? for this is the question that settles
all others. ‘‘How do I know that I am such
a great sinner, as you say lam? I don’t feel
so at all: I consider myself as good as most
men.”’ That is what you are saying, perhaps.

But do you go by the Book? If so, you
must instantly change your mind. For read
what is written in the Book: ‘‘It is written,
there is none righteous, no, not one. There
is none that understandeth, there is none that
seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way, they are together become unprofit-
able; there is none that doeth good, no, not
one.’’ (Rom. 3, 10—12.)

Again, ‘‘The carnal mind is enmity against

God: for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be.’’ (Rom. 8,7.) If you
go by the Book, you see where you are placed.
And which is most likely tobe correct, God’s
Book, or your own judgment? the Bible, or
your imagination? the image that is reflected
in the mirror of the holy law, or the picture
which your own flattering fancy has drawn
of you?
-~QOr, perhaps you are saying, ‘‘Oh, I do not
believe this idea of eternal punishment. My
idea is, if one does-as well:as he can, he will
come out all right, whether he believes just
as you do about Jesus Christ, or not.’” But
suppose you lay aside your idea, and just go
by the Book. Read what that says: ‘‘He
that believeth not the Son shall not see life ;
put the wrath of God abideth on him.’’ (John
8, 36.) ‘‘These shall go away into everlast-
ing punishment.” (Matt. 25, 46.)

Is it best to risk it on your own opinion, or
believe the Book? A ship commander found
a rock laid down in the latest chart which he
had never heard of before. ‘‘There is no
such rock,’”? he said, confidently. ‘‘I care
not if it is laid down in the book; I have
been over this course for thirty. years, and
I never found it; and I am willing to put my
experience against the book that there is no
such rock.’? And then, to_prove his. state-
ment, he turned the prow of his ship directly
upon the point marked dangerous in his chart.
And, alas! he found just too late that he was
mistaken, and the chart was right. :

How many men and women are putting
their judgment against God's, on the question
of eternal punishment for such as obey not the
gospel. Will you continue the risk, reader,
until your soul strikes the. rock, and you go
to the bottom, sighing as you go, ‘Oh, that
I had gone by the Book!’’ And will you not,
doubting and discouraged Christian, uncertain
whether or not you are saved, take the Book,
and go by it henceforth? . That Book says,

‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlast-
ing life.’”? Do you believe on the Son? Then

you may know, beyond all question, that you ~

are saved, if you will only go by the Book.
Have you been putting an ‘I feel’’ against
a ‘“‘Thus sayeth the Lord’?? Have you been
turning over the leaves of your own exper-
ience to find evidence of your acceptance,
instead of searching the leaves of Holy Writ?
Cast all these notions away, and say boldly,
henceforth, ‘‘I go by the Book.”’  ‘T. W.

— soo oe

“Don’t Cross a Bridge until you Come

to it.”

There were once a man and a woman who
planned to go and spend the day at a friend’s
house, which was some miles distant from
their own. So) ais

So one pleasant morning, they started out
to make the visit, but.they had not gone far
before the woman remembered a bridge they
had to cross which was very old, and was said
not to be safe, and she immediately began to
worry about it. i ;

“What shall we do about that bridge?’
she said to her husband: “‘I will never dare
to go over it, and we can’t get across the
river any other way.”

‘‘Oh,’”’ said the man, ‘‘I forgot that bridge;
it is a bad place; suppose it should break
through, and we should fall into the water
and be drowned!”? - aes

‘Or even,’’ said his wife, ‘‘suppose you
should step on a rotten plank, and break
your leg, what would become of me and of
the baby ?”’

“J don’t know,’’ said the man, ‘‘what would

become of any of us, for I couldn’t work, and —

we should. all starve to death.”’

So they went on, worrying and worrying,
till they got to the bridge, when, lo and be-
hold! they saw that since they had been there
last, a new bridge had been built, and they
crossed over it in perfect safety, and found
they might have spared themselves all their
anxiety.

Now that is just what the proverb means:
never waste your worrying on what you think
may possibly be going to happen.

Half the time the troubles we look for do
not come, and, as I said, it is never worth
while to waste worrying.

++ 0-9

The Right Way.

There are many ways devised by man for
seeking the Kingdom of God, but there is only
one way of jinding it, namely, to believe in
Christ and study the Gospel diligently with
watching and prayer, so that its divine truth
may take deep root’in the heart, and bear
fruit in the life. ~ :

FE Dr. Martin Luther.

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