The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1898, Page 5

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY

MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LuTHERAN SynopicAL CoNnFERENCE OF Norto AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XX.

St. Louis, Mo., February, 1898.

No. 2.

Safety and Rest.

Psalm 23,1; Canticles 5, 16; Psalm 121, 5.

The Lord ‘‘my Shepherd’? is,
He gave His life for me;
He took my place upon the cross,
And bore my penalty.
To Him alone the praise,
For all that He has wrought;
And soon, throughout eternal days,
Vll praise Him as I ought.

The Lord, He is ‘‘my Frienj,’’
On Him I cast my cares;
However great, however small,
He every burden bears.
For love like His can know
No change —no weariness;
Oh, may this heart with joy o’erflow,
These lips His praise express!

The Lord ‘‘my Keeper”? is,
He guards me, hour by hour,

And keeps me safe from every harm,
E’en safe from Satan’s power.

I trust my all to Him,
He’ll never let me stray;

My hand in His, this, this enough,
However dark the way!

I can not keep myself,
But [ am safe with Thee;
My life is “hid with Christ in God;’?
Oh, sweet security!
My faithful Shepherd-Friend,
To Thee my voice I raise;
For Thou wilt keep me ‘‘to the end,”
Thine, Thine alone the praise!
Selected.
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How to Enter Heaven.

Christ has opened heaven for all men, but
not all men enter that happy place. Why not?
Many do not believe that there is a heaven
of everlasting bliss. They seek their heaven
here on earth. They walk in the way of sin,
which leads to everlasting damnation.

There are others who do not deny that there
is aheaven, and who hope to enter that happy
Place. But they deceive themselves. There
18 only one way that leads to heaven, and they
Teject that one way, choosing for themselves
Some other way, which will never take them
there. Some think they have a ‘‘good heart’

and hope to enter heaven on account of their
having such a good heart. Now, what does
the Bible say of man’s heart? It says, ‘‘Out
of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies,’’ Matt. 15,19. That is a de-
scription of every man’s heart. Such a heart
is certainly no good heart. The fact is, that
man’s heart is totally corrupt, there is nothing
good init. It is a very cess-pool of sin. He
that trusts in his ‘‘good heart’’ deceives him-
self. ‘The imagination of man’s heart is evil
from his youth,’’ says the Holy Spirit, who
knows our hearts better than we do.

Again, there are many that hope to enter
heaven by their so-called good works. Ifa
man could keep the law of God perfectly, he
could hope to enter heaven by his own works.
But this man can never do. He is a sinner
by nature. He is ‘‘dead in trespasses and
sin.”? Good fruits can never grow on a dead
tree. Man has broken every commandment
of God, and can never keep God’s law per-
fectly. The Bible says, ‘‘The carnal mind is
enmity against God; for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be.”” Again
it says, ‘All our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags.’”? Those that trust in their own right-
eousness and their own works, put their trust
in a lot of dirty rags. They are not on the
way to heaven; for salvation is ‘‘not of
works,’’ says the apostle.

How can we, then, enter heaven? Which is
the way that leads to the happy place? ssT
am the way,’’ says Christ, ‘‘no one cometh to
the Father but by me.’’ There is only one
way to heaven, and that is Christ. Why?
Because He alone is our Saviour, who re-
deemed us from sin and hell’s eternal woe.
‘Neither is there salvation in any other; for
there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved.’’
Christ is the way to heaven, the only way;
every other way leads to hell. How, then, can
we enter heaven? Simply by walking in that
one and only way that leads to the happy
place, that is, by believing, by trusting in
Christ as our Saviour. All that believe in
Him, are on the way to heayen and are saved ;
all that believe not in Him, are not on the way

to heaven and are condemned. No matter in
what else a man puts his trust, if he trusts
not in Christ, he will not enter heaven. 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 3, 36.

Happy are they that believe in Christ. They
are on the way that can lead to no other place
than heaven. It is the way by which they
will surely enter the happy place. They need
not doubt whether they will get there. No.
By walking in this way they are sure of get-
ting there. ‘The way leads to no other place.
Christ is the way, and He could never lead us
to any other place than heaven. Believe in
Him, and you will surely enter the home of
everlasting joy and bliss. This happy assur-
ance will make you zealous in all mission work,
by which Christ is made known to them that
know Hm not, and sinners are brought into
the only way by which they can enter heaven.

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Speak for Jesus!

A Christian, who understood his calling
here, was working in the same shop with a
constant swearer. He bore it patiently, and
then, grieved at his heart, he took him apart
and said to him, ‘‘Suppose you had a friend
especially dear to you, would you like to hear
his name constantly made a by-word?”’

“No, I wouldn’t,” was the honest reply.

“Then,’’ said the Christian, ‘‘let me tell
you, in the uprightness of my heart, that there
is none so dear to me as Jesus, whose name
you so constantly ill use. He died for my
many sins, and I love Him; so each time you
use His name in such a way, you hurt me.’’

The words were so real that the swearer’s
face twitched with emotion under them, and
he never again was heard using the name of
Jesus in vain.

Oh, for more of that genuine love to Him
who ‘‘died for our many sins’’—that it might
make us more real sufferers with and for Him
here, destroy our Pharisaism, and win sinners
to His adorable name.