The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1897, Page 45

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusiisHeD By THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SyNopicaL CoNFERENCE OF Nortn AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XIX.

St. Louis, Mo., December, 1897.

-No. 12.

The Christmas Story.

"See, we are not sleepy, mother;
Look how wide awake we seem;
Tell us something sweet to think of,
Tell us something sweet to dream.

“Tell the very sweetest story
That you ever heard or read,
And you’ll sce that we remember
Every single word you’ve said.’’
Then I told them of a midnight
- In the very long ago
When the sky was full of angels,
And from every shining row,
In a voice of heavenly music
Came a loving message, given
For the sake of one sweet baby
That had come that night from heaven;
That was born so poor, so lowly
In a stable far away,
And was laid into a manger
On a bed of straw and hay;
That had come to be the Saviour
Of all sinners here below,
To redcem from sin and Satan
And: from hell’s eternal woe.
Four blue eyes and two sweet voices
Waited till my tale was done —
Then they cried, ‘‘Why, that was Jesus!
_ Christmas, Christmas time is come!’

_—— or oe

The Christ Child.

It is a wonderful Child whose birth is made
known by an angel in that joyful Christmas
message: ‘‘Unto you is born this day in the
city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the
Lord.”? Of this Child the prophet says, ‘‘His
name shall be called Wonderful.”’

Wonderful indeed! For who is this child?
The angel says it is Christ. So this Child is
the Messiah, promised to our first parents as
the woman’s seed that should bruise the head
of the serpent. Wonderful Child! foretold
again and again, from generation to genera-
tion, so that men might be prepared for His
Coming,. and know that He was to be the son
of Abraham, and the son of David, o virgin’s
son, to be born in Bethlehem. Wonderful
Child! Promised for four thousand years,
and longed for by a multitude of believing
hearts!

Wonderful indeed! Who is this Child?
The angel says it is the Lord. So this Child
is the great Jehovah. He is God and man in
one Person. Wonderful Child! ‘‘True God,
begotten of the Father from eternity, and also
true man, born of the virgin Mary.’’ God’s
own Son took upon Him our human nature
and became like unto us, only without sin.
The Child for whom there was no room in
the inn, and who was wrapped in swaddling
clothes and laid in a manger was the Lord,
God over all blessed forever. ‘The Child that
was sheltered in a stable and cradled ina crib
was the Maker of all, the Creator of heaven
and earth. ‘The same was in the beginning
with God. ‘All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that
was made.’? Wonderful Child!

Wonderful indeed! Who is this Child?
The angel says it is the Saviour. So this
Child is the Saviour of the world. Wonderful
Child! He brings joy and light and salvation
and life into this world of sorrow and dark-
ness and sin and death. He takes the sin-
ners’ place, and bears the sin of the world
and the punishment which sinners deserved.
He is ‘‘made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might re-
ceive the adoption of sons.’’? Wonderful
Child! Through Him sinners are made the
sons and daughters of God, and joint-heirs with
Himself. Wonderful Child! Precious Child!

Wonderful indeed! Precious indeed! That
Child is our Prince of Peace—take it away,
and we are plunged into a gulf of woe! That
Child is our Salvation—take it away, and.we
are at once exposed to all the wrath of a just
and holy God! ‘That Child is our Sun: of
Righteousness — take it away, and we are
left in the midnight darkness of despair!
That Child is our Treasure—take it away,
and we are beggars forever!

Rejoice, then, dear reader! ‘‘Unto you is
porn this day in the city of David a Saviour.”’
Welcome to your heart the wonderful and
precious Christ Child as your only Saviour.
You will then enjoy a happy Christmas.

“OQ dearest Jesus, holy Child,
Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.”

True Christmas Joy.

‘True Christmas joy is not the vain, carnal
joy of the world. No. Itis joy in the new-
born Saviour. The sinner feeling the burden
of his sin and trembling at the wrath of a just
and holy God, hears the glad Christmas ti-
dings: ‘‘Fear not; for behold, I bring you
good tidings of great joy, which shall be to
all people. For unto you is born this day in
the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ
the Lord.’’ This he believes. In that Saviour
he trusts for salvation. In Him he finds for-
giveness of all his sin and life everlasting.
Thus his heart is filled with the true Christ-
mas joy. It is joy in the Saviour. ’

Let us, then, go to Bethlehem and find the
true Christmas joy. No sooner did the
shepherds hear of the Saviour’s birth, than
they ran to see him. Let us also say, ‘'We
would see Jesus.”? And where shall we see
Him but in the Gospel which is preached in
the Church of God? If we go there to see
Him, we shall find that the Church of God is
still a Bethlehem, ‘‘a house of bread.’’? God
will feed our souls with the ‘‘bread which
came down from heaven, and which endureth
to eternal life.” ‘Then we shall experience
true Christmas joy, and the Christmas season
will be a season of true gladness and happi-
ness to our souls.

Unto You is Born a Saviour.

“These words,’’ says Luther, ‘‘should melt
heaven and earth, and change for us death
into sugar, and all misfortunes, of which
there are here more than can be told, into
pure, sweet wine. For what man is there
who can properly conceive of this, that the
Son of God is born man, a Saviour for us?
Such treasure the angel gives not only to His
mother, the virgin Mary, but to all of us men.
‘Unto you,” he says, ‘is born a Saviour, which
is Christ the Lord.’ ’”

_—_—s ober eo

Here is good advice: ‘‘Be a light that
burns and shines, and reveals good works;
not a painted fire, beside which one may
freeze to death.’?