The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1897, Page 2

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2 The Lutheran Pioneer.

The Flight into Egypt.

In our picture we see the Holy Child Jesus, | be very good in themselves—their goodness
with Joseph and Mary, on the way to Egypt. will not keep them for us. They may even
Why was the Child taken to Egypt? The angel be very useful to us, but their usefulness will
of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, | not secure them. That which we have with
saying, Arise, take the child and His mother, | God, far above storm and flood, is that which
and fice into Egypt, and be there until I bring | alone is ours.

thee word; for Herod will seek the child to
destroy it.
mother by night and departed into Egypt.

From the wise men of the East,
who came to worship the Babe of
Bethlehem, King Herod had heard
of the birth of the new born King
of the Jews, and foolishly fearing
for his crown, he soon sent men
and had all children in Bethlehem

So he took the child and His} to the north of Cape Town.

1
/us and ruin. What we possess of the < wave. ‘‘They are gone,”’ he wrote, ‘‘they are

that alone is ours. The things which go may] gone; and blessed be God, I can say ‘gone’
without a murmur.”’ Thus perish all earthly
things ; the treasure that is laid up in heaven
is alone unassailable. — P. B. P.

Are You Ready?

A vessel was once wrecked some thirty miles} The average age of man is said to be thirty-

The passengers | three years.

One fourth of all that are born

and crew just escaped with their lives, and| die before their seventh year, and one half

before their seventeenth year. Of
one hundred persons only six live
to be sixty years, and of five hun-
dred only one lives to be eighty

years old. Sixty persons die every

killed, from two years old and

under. Thus he sought to destroy

the new born King.

- But Herod was only the instru-

ment of Satan, who well knew that
the set time of the redemption had
come, and that the Babe of Beth-
lehem was the promised Saviour.
Satan feared for his kingdom.
Through Herod he sought to de-
stroy the Child Jesus.

However, Satan’s and Herod’s
raging against the new born Say-
iour was all in vain. God took
Care of Him, and brought Him to
a place of safety until Herod was
dead. Then the angel of the Lord
again appeared to Joseph and told
him to return with the Child and
His mother to the land of Israel.

Satan and the world at all times
rage against Christ and against
those that by faith belong to Him.
But we need notfear. They rage
in vain. ‘‘He that sitteth in the
heayens shall Jaugh; the Lord
shall have them in derision.’’? The
Church is built upon a rock, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail
against her. How comforting it
is for the Christian to know that
the-God that guided the Christ
Child is his guide also. He is
his refuge and strength, and under His al-
mighty protection the Christian is safe against
all enemies.

ss ~-oPo —o

Heavenly Treasure.

It is a grand thing to know that we have
that which can never be taken from us. That
was what Mary had. ‘‘One thing is needful,’’
said our Lord, ‘‘and Mary hath chosen that
good part, which shall not be taken away from
her.’”” All things around us are so changing

_ 4nd perishing that they seem never to continue

in one state. We are like people at sea —
ways at the mercy of wind and! wave, and
h but an inch or two, at the most, between

The Flight into Egypt.

nothing more.

Amongst the passengers was |

minute, one every second.
Stop and think! Every second
a soul passes into eternity, and
there will come a second in which
it will be your soul. Are you ready
. for the great change? ‘The ques-
tion is easily settled. The Bible
says: ‘tHe that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting Jife; and he
that believeth not the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him,’’ John 3, 36.

God Governs the World.

When Whitelock was about to
go to Sweden as Cromwell’s mes-
senger, in 1655, he was much dis-
turbed in mind the night before
he left, while he thought of the
troubled state of the English
nation. A servant slept in a bed
near by, who, finding that his mas-
ter could not sleep, said: ‘‘Pray,
sir, will you give me leave to ask
you a question ?’’

“Certainly.’’

‘‘Pray, sir, don’t you think God
governed the world very well be-
fore you came into it?’’

‘*Undoubtedly.’’ :

‘And pray, sir, don’t you think
He will govern it quite well when
you are gone out of it?”’

“*Certainly.”’

‘Then, sir, pray excuse me, but don’t you

a missionary, who lost, amongst other goods, think you may as well trust Him to govern it
some eight hundred volumes of books, and, {as long as you are in it?”

what was worse, a large number of manu-
scripts, amongst which were the notes of
his reading for many years. ‘The loss was
irreparable. ‘The printed books he could re-
place, but the manuscripts never. ‘The loss
was almost crushing; but it had a teaching.
The good man felt that he had been leaning
on these too much. They had been too much
to him. But soon after one volume was washed
on shore, undamaged. It was a large Bible,
which had been wrapped in leather, and this
seemed to speak to him and say that his better
wealth was safe beyond the reach of wind and

To this question Whitelock had nothing to

reply, and, turning about, soon fell asleep.
—_—_—=>- 0 =a oe ee .

Deatu, which is to men a penalty of sin,
through the most tender and kind mercy of
God becomes to Christian men an end of sin,
and a beginning of life and righteousness.
For to him who already has righteousness and
life, death becomes a minister of life—a loom
wherein life is woven; which surely we need
not fear, since through no other passage can
we reach that life. This is the might of faith.
It mediates between death and life, transmut-
ing death into life and immortality. —Zuther.