The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1896, Page 17

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«The Lutheran Pioneer.

: A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PuBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LutHeraAN SynopicAL ConFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.

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

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

Vol. XVIII.

St. Louis, Mo. May, 1896.

No. 5.

Full Salvation.

I bless the Christ of God,
I rest on love Divine,

And with unfaltering lip and heart,
I call the Saviour mine.

His cross dispels each doubt;
I bury in His tomb

Each thought of unbelief and fear,
Each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of peace;
I trust His truth and might;
He calls me His, I call Him mine,
My God, my joy, my light.

My life with Him is hid,
My death has passed away,
My clouds have melted into light,
My midnight into day.
Selected.
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Ascension and Pentecost.

These two church festivals we this year cel-
ebrate in the month of May.

On Ascension Day we commemorate the
ascending of Christ into heaven and His sitting
at the right hand of God. After His resur-
rection the Lord sojourned yet forty days on
earth, showing Himself alive to His disciples
by many infallible proofs, and ‘‘speaking of
the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.”
“Then, after the Lord had spoken to them,
He was received up into heaven, and sat on
the right hand of God.’’? The work of re-
demption, which He came to do, was finished,
and so the Saviour ascended up into the glory
which He had from everlasting, entering that
glory with the very human body that was slain
for our sins. He went to prepare a place for
us, eternal in the heavens, where we shall see
Him and be with Him forever when our earthly
Pilgrimage is ended. It is not with sorrow,
therefore, that we look up to the heavens where
our risen Saviour has gone, but with-joy that
oe mo of redemption is finished and that
Beene a is Eerbaed for His people there,
“hee nae His labor and suffering and
iteett ye a He “is entered into heaven
for = fafpereet in the presence of God

: & Seated at the right hand of

the Majesty of the Most High, He is able to
save to the uttermost; and having entered
upon the full use of all power in heaven and
on earth, He is able as He is willing to be
present with us every day, to lead and com-
fort unto the end of the world. Ascension
Day, therefore, is a day of rejoicing, and the
Church on that day raises her song of triumph:
“Thou art gone up on high, Thou hast led
captivity captive, and received gifts for men.’’

The captivity which our ascended Saviour
led captive was our captivity, we being by
nature the captives of Satan, sin and death.
And the gifts which our ascended Saviour re-
ceived He received, not for Himself, but ‘‘for
men.’’ ‘These gifts are forgiveness of sin,
everlasting life and salvation. If we are to
enjoy these gifts, they must be brought to us
and must be made our own. This is the work
of the Holy Spirit, whom our ascended Lord
sent.according to His promise. ‘If I go not
away,” said He, ‘‘the Spirit will not come
unto you; but if I go, I will send Him unto
you.”? Ten days after He had been taken up,
this promise was fulfilled. The Holy Ghost
was poured out upon the disciples. The day
on which this occurred is called Pentecost,
and in view of the great importance of this
event the Church observes this day as one of
her great festivals.

On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was
poured out on the disciples in an extraordinary
manner; but He still continues His work on
earth, though now by ordinary means. These
means are the means of grace: the Word of
God and the holy Sacraments. By these means
the Spirit brings to us the precious gifts of sal-
vation and works in our hearts true faith by
which we take these gifts as our own. Pente-
costis, therefore, a day of rejoicing. We have
the blessed means of grace, and in them the
Holy Spirit comes to us also with precious
gifts unto everlasting life.

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The Holy Spirit's Work.

In our Catechism we confess: “I believe
that I can not by my own reason OF strength
believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to
Him; but the Holy Spirit hath called me

threugh the Gospel, enlightened me by His
gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in the
true faith.”

How important is this work of the Holy
Spirit! Only they that believe shall be saved.
Without true faith in the Saviour we must
perish in our sins. Only by the work of the
Holy Spirit through the means of grace we
are brought to this faith and kept in this faith
until the end. As we call to mind the impor-
tant work of the Holy Spirit, and praise the
mercy of our God for His mission, may we be
urged also to greater faithfulness in the use
of the means of grace by which the Spirit
works, and to greater zeal in bringing the
means of grace to those that are still sitting
in the darkness of sin and death, without
Christ and without hope in this world.

—_—o + 0~<o +

Not Seeing Death.

Two days before his death, on February
16th, 1546, Luther wrote for a friend into his
autograph book these words of Christ: ‘‘Verily,
verily, Isay unto you, If a man keep my say-
ing, he shall never see death,”’ John 8, 51.

To this Bible passage Luther added these
words: ‘‘How incredible does that seem which
the Lord here says. And yetitistrue. Ifa
man really takes the Word of God into his
heart, and believes it, and falls asleep and
dies over it, he departs without being aware
of death, and has certainly gone to his rest in
perfect peace through the Word which he has
thus believed.’’

Forty-eight hours after this was written
Luther himself died just such a death.

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First and Last.

‘The first shall be last.’,—Such words teach
thee to cast off all arrogance and self-right-
eousness, even if thou thinkest that thou hast
equaled an Abraham, David, Peter or Paul;
for others may reach a higher degree of humil-
ity and faith than thou hast. ‘Zhe last shalt
be first.”’— Such words teach thee to hope and
not despair, even if thon believest that thou
hast sinned like Pilate, Herod, Sodom and
Gomorrah.—Martin Luther. ;

‘

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