The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1897, Page 5

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— «The Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PuBLisHED BY THE EVANGELICAL Lurueran SynopicaL ConrerRENcE OF NorTH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

5 "sen Entered at the Post Oftice at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter,

Vol. XIX.

St. Louis, Mo., February

, 1897.

No. 2.

Glad Tidings.

Hark! the Gospel news is sounding.
Sinner, listen to the call!

Hear God’s message, true and simple:
Jesus died to save us all!

Jesus left His home in glory,
And became a man below;
Trod the earth of sin and sorrow,
Meekly trod the path of woe.

Oh, the wondrous love of Jesus,
Thus to leave His home on high,
And to come to earth to suffer,
Us to raise to joys on high!

Come! oh, then, and fully trust Him;
For He died thy soul to save;

And He now is calling for thee:
Listen to His call of love!

<=e- ——___

God’s Way of Salvation.

When God’s way of salvation is set forth
in the very language of holy Scripture, men
often sneeringly say, ‘‘Is that all?’? How
little do those who ask such a question- know
about God’s way of salvation. They do not
consider that their question is an insult to
God and His Christ.

“God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish but have everlast-
ing life,’? John 3, 16. Here we have God’s
blessed way of salvation in all its heavenly
simplicity. God gave His only begotten Son,
His beloved Son, into sufferings and death
for the redemption of a lost and ruined world
of sinners. And yet the miserable sinner, on
hearing of this way of salvation, can presume
to ask, ‘‘Is that all?”’

The eternal Son of God came down into
this dark and sinful world; took upon Him
the form of a servant; made Himself of no
Teputation; suffered the agony which made
Him sweat great drops of blood; went to the
Cross, bearing the burden of the world’s: sin,
and there endured the wrath of sin-hating
God, — the wrath which else should have con-
sumed us in the flames of an everlasting hell!
No man or angel can ever conceive What it
coat God to hide His face from His only be-
gotten and well beloved Son; oF what it cost

that blessed Son to undergo the awful judg-
ment of God,—to be made sin for us. And
yet the one for whom all this was done can
presume to ask, ‘‘Is that all?’’

The sinner should give thanks to God for
His way of salvation. No other way would
have suited our case, which is one of utter
ruin and helplessness. Having ‘‘all sinned
and come short of the glory of God;’’- be-
ing ‘‘dead in trespasses and sin, children of
wrath ;’’? with ‘‘every mouth stopped and all
the world become guilty before God ;’’ what
hope could there be for us, if a single effort
on our part be necessary for salvation, since
we are ‘‘sold under sin’’ and ‘‘all our right-
eousness are as filthy rags.” ere eae!

Everlasting praise be given to the God of
love! It was when we were yet sinners Christ
died for us (Rom. 5, 8); and His voice is heard
calling us to life in the precious words, ‘‘Look
unto me, and be ye saved,’’ Isa. 45, 22. In
God’s way of salvation we see justice satis-
fied—all its righteous claims fully met, and
mercy flowing out to the guilty sinners. If
you cry from the depths of your need, ‘* What
must I do to be saved?’’ the voice of love
and truth replies, ‘‘Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved,’’ Acts 16, 31.
The sinner believes, and he 7s saved — he looks
to Christ as his Saviour, and he lives.

How simple is the manner of taking God's
great salvation prepared in Christ for all sin-
ners! May the Lord help you to take that
simple believing look at Christ as your Saviour,
so that you may be now and for ever saved.
“Phere is life in the look ut the Crucified One;

There is life at this moment for thee;
Then look, sinner, look unto Him and be saved,
Unto Him who was nailed to the tree.

“Oh, take, with rejoicing, from Jesus at once
The life everlasting He gives;
And know with assurance thou never canst dic
Since Jesus thy righteousness lives.”

——s <oaor oe

He is not prepared for the conflict of life
who takes not that Friend who will forsake
him in no emergency, who will divide his sor-
rows, increase his joys, lift the vail from his
heart, and throw sunshine around the darkest
scenes.

Churning- Day.

They dearly loved the house-mother’s churn-
ing-day — these three blue-eyed little children
— because that was one of the few times that
the busy mother could-tell them stories; some-
times about the wonders of the Black Forest;
sometimes fairy tales; sometimes stories of
when she was a little girl; but the stories
they loved best were of the old days when
Spain did not allow any people in that coun-
try to have any Bibles, or to worship God in
the simple Bible way. It made them thrill
all over to hear of men and women, and even
little children, that would die, burning at the
stake, rather than kneel to the image of saint.
or virgin. .

‘*T wish I had lived then,’’ cried Hans,
clenching his small fist; ‘‘I’d show the Span-
iard a thing or two; I would have died shout-
ing rather than to give up to him.”’

'*Ah, Hans, Hans!’”’ said the mother, rest-
ing on her dasher, ‘‘dost thou not know that
God asks -of -thee something harder than
that?’

‘Harder than being burned, mother!”” ex-
claimed timid Ernest; ‘how can that be pos-
sible?”’

‘Ay, does He! He means thee to live for
Him, boys. Dying was over in a few minutes ;
but living for Him means hard trying every
hour of every day—oh, so many hours, so
many days!”’

Then the dasher began its noisy journey
again and Mother Gretchen’s three little boys
watched it with very sober faces.

From the German.

+ + oo

Equal Before God.

The Duke of Wellington went to receive
the sacrament after one of his victories, and
as he was kneeling in the church a poor man
came and knelt beside him.

The church warden said: ‘‘Go away, this
is the Duke of Wellington.’’

The great conqueror of Waterloo said: ‘‘Let
him alone; we are all equal here.’””