The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1896, Page 25

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Che Autheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY

MONTHLY.

PusiisHep By THE EvANGELICAL Lurueran SynopicaL CoNnFERENCE or NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XVII.

St.

Louis, Mo., July, 1896.

No. 7.

Sow thy Seed.

“Sow thy seed, be never weary,
Let no fears thy soul annoy;

Be the prospect ne’er so dreary,
Thou shalt reap the fruits in joy.

God but uses thee as sower,
Puts the seed into thy hand;
Sow thou then, let Him be mower,
Till thou reap in fatherland.”

——> oa.

Christ is the Way.-

“YT am the way,”’ says Christ. He does not
say, I am one of the ways to heaven. No. He
says: ‘‘I am the way.’’ There is only one way
to heaven, and that way is Christ. _ He is the
only way to our heavenly home; for no one
cometh to the Father but by Him. And why
is Christ the only way to heaven? Because He
alone is the Saviour. Man is so deeply fallen
that he can not lift himself out of sin. Jesus,
and Jesus only, is the sinner’s Redeemer.
He took our sins upon Himself and suffered
the punishment, thus redeeming us from sin

‘and eternal woe. He alone did this, and there-

fore He alone is the way to heaven. ‘‘Neither
is there salvation in any other; for there is
none other name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved.’’ How fool-
ish for people to try to get to heaven in some
other way than by faith in Christ! ‘‘I am the
way,’’ says Christ. ‘ There is no other way to
heaven; every other way leads to hell. The
selfrighteous, who trust in their own works,
deceive themselves. Their righteousness is no
way to heaven. They are on the way to hell
as well as other sinners that believe not in
Christ. ‘‘I am the way,’ says Jésus. Those
that believe in Him are on the way to heaven
and are'saved; those that believe not in Him,
no matter in what else they believe, are not
on the way to heaven and are condemned.
For it is plainly written: ‘‘He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that
believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but
the wrath of God abideth on him,’’ John 8, 36.

“Tam the way,’? says Christ. He does not
say, Tam part of the way. No. He says,

Tam THE Way.”” He is the oncy way, and He

is ALL the way to heaven. He has paid att the
debt we owe; He has suffered att the punish-
ment we deserved; He has done att the work
God required to be done, ‘‘that He might be
just, and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus,’’ Rom. 3, 26. Therefore Christ is
ALL the way to heaven. Mark well! Not half
the way, nor two-thirds of the way, nor nine-
tenths of the way, but att the way. It is not
the work of Christ and something added that
brings us to heaven, but the work of Christ
alone, apart from anything and everything we
can do or feel, as having the slightest merit in
the sight of God. How foolish for people to
try to get to heaven by partly trusting in
Christ’s work and partly in their own doings!
They are like the man who tried to cross a
stream by walking on a sound plank and on
a rotten plank at the same time. He fell into
the water. So they who partly trust in the
righteousness of Christ and partly in their
own righteousness will surely fail of eternal
life. For Christ says, ‘‘I am the way.”” He
is the only way, and He is all the way to
heaven. ‘Trust in Him, in Him alone, and
you shall be saved.

“J ‘am the way,’’ says Christ. Happy are
they that by faith walk in this way. They are
on the only way that leads to heaven. But,
alas! there are many that know not Christ
and therefore know not the way to heaven.
Hence those that have been brought to Christ
by the grace of God will be zealous in mission
work, by which Christ is made known to men,
and sinners are brought into the only way
that leads to heaven. :

<i ee

The Believer Hates Sin.

The apostle St. Paul says, ‘‘Where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound.”
But the believer will not think that since he
is saved wholly by grace, he may sin, so that
grace may much more abound. No. The
apostle continues: ‘What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may
abound? God forbid. How shall we, that
are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Know ye not, that so many of-us as were

baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into
His death? Therefore we are buried with Him
by baptism into death; that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also shall walk in the new-
ness of life,’? Rom. 6, 1—4.

And again the apostle says to the baptized
believers: ‘‘Sin shall not have dominion over

-you: for ye are not under law, but under

grace. What then? Shall we sin, because
we are not under law, but under grace? God
forbid,’’ Rom. 6, 14. 15. ‘Being made free
from sin, ye became the servants of righteous-
ness,’’ Rom. 6, 18. j

The Christian is dead unto sin and lives unto
God, whose beloved child he has become in
baptism. Being God’s child, he is the servant

of righteousness, and not the servant of sin._

Being God’s child, he gladly obeys the will of
that dear Father whom he loves, because He
first loved him.

A boy whose father had forbidden certain
fruit in his garden to be touched, was urged
by his companions to take it, because, as they
argued, ‘‘He loves you so much, he may not
punish you at all.’’ The little fellow replied,
‘*] know that he is my father and that he loves
me, and that is the very reason I will not take
his fruit. I am his child and I love him, and
therefore I will not grieve him by doing what
he has forbidden me to do.””

Believers hate sin, because God hates it,
because it murdered their Lord, because it
grieves the Holy Spirit, because it wounds the
heart that loves them. ‘

—————— - ~<a ee

Accept Christ.

You may think to live very well without
Christ, but you can not afford to die without
Him. You may stand very securely at present,
but death will shake your confidence. Your
tree may be fair now, but when the wind
comes, if it has not its roots in the Rock of
Ages, down it must come. You may think
your worldly pleasures good, but they will
then turn bitter as worm-wood in your taste:
worse than gall shall be the daintiest of your
drinks, when you shall come to the bottom of
your poisoned bowl.