The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1899, Page 37

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MI

SSIONARY

MONTHLY.

Pusuisnep By THE EvANGELICAL LuTuEeRaN SynopicaAL ConFERENCE oF Nortn AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XXI.

St. Louis, Mo., October, 1899.

No. 10.

The Church.

Great is the Lord our God,
And let His praise be great;

He makes the church His own abode,
His most delightful seat.

In Zion God is known,
A refuge in distress:

How bright has His salvation shone
Through all her palaces!

When kings against her joined,
And saw the Lord was there,

In wild confusion of the mind,
They fled with hasty fear.

Oft have our fathers told,
Our eyes have often seen

How well our God secures the fold
Where His own sheep have been.

In ev’ry new distress
We'll to His house repair;
We'll call to mind His wondrous grace,

And seek deliv’rance there.
Selected.
> o-oo

Reformation Day.

The 31st of October is called Reformation
Day. On that day, in the year 1517, Dr. Mar-

tin Luther nailed his 95 theses against the

church door at Wittenberg. That was the
beginning of the Reformation, through which
God restored to His Church the pure Gospel
of man’s salyation. Reformation Day is the
Festival of the restored Gospel.

The Gospel is plainly revealed in the Bible.
There we are told that Jesus, who suffered
and died for the sins of the world, is the only
way to heaven, and that by faith in Him the
sinner is pardoned and saved. This Gospel
the apostles proclaimed as the only remedy
for sin. In this Gospel thousands believed
and found salvation. For the truth of this
Gospel many shed their blood and died a mar-
tyr’s death. But when the Romish church
ruled supreme, this Gospel, the sinner’s only
comfort, was taken away from the people.
It was hidden under the rubbish of soul-
destroying doctrines. Sinners were not told
of Christ’s work of a complete redemption,
but they were told to redeem themselves by
their own works. They were directed, not to
Jesus as the only Saviour, but to the virgin
Mary and to other saints. Jesus was pictured

to the people as a terrible judge to whom sin-
ners dare not come with a trusting heart.

whenever he heard the name of Jesus.

comfort, and: peace, and rest, and salvation.

souls. It was through Dr. Luther, that God
restored the pure Gospel to His church.

the way which the Romish church pointed
out to him.

sect.
pope and his priests.

Christ as it is revealed in the Word of God.
Luther found no peace until God opened to him
the Bible. From this precious Book he learned
the Gospel of Jesus, and by faith in this Gos-
pel he found peace, and rest, and salvation.

Having experienced the saving power of
the Gospel in his own heart, Luther made
known this Gospel for the salvation of sinners
and defended it against the attacks of all its
‘enemies. ‘Thus he became the Reformer of
the church. By the preaching of the Gos-
pel God Himself carried out the work of the
Reformation through his servant Dr. Martin
Luther. Luther says, ‘‘I did nothing but
teach and preach the pure doctrine of Christ
and translate the Gospels, and then laid me
down and slept and rose again. The Holy
Spirit did the rest through the Gospel.”

Thus the victory was won. We still enjoy
its fruits and its blessings. Let us thankfully
celebrate Reformation Day. That day is the
Festival of a restored Gospel. Let us also re-
member that the Gospel which God restored
to us must be preached to ‘‘every nation, and
kindred, and tongue, and people.”? The Lu-
theran Church must be a mission church. If
we are true children of the Reformation, if
we prize the pure Gospel which God has gra-

Luther tells us that before God opened to
him the Gospel, he trembled and was terrified
No
man can fully describe the darkness in which
the poor people groped, seeking in vain for

Great was the joy of thousands when the
bright light of the Gospel shone into this
darkness, bringing comfort to their troubled

Anxiously seeking salvation, Luther went

He became a monk and a priest
and tried hard to find peace for his troubled
soul in all the false services of the Romish
But peace and salvation can never be
found in the false doctrines taught by the
Peace and salvation
can be found only in the pure Gospel of

ciously committed to us, then let us devote
our prayers and our money to the support
and to the spread of that Gospel.

The Bread of Life.

An Arab once lost his way in a desert.
His provisions were soon exhausted. For two
days and two nights he had not a morsel to
eat. He began to fear that he should die of
hunger. He looked eagerly, but in vain, along
the level sand for some caravan of travelers
from whom he might beg some bread. At last
he came to a place where there was a little
water in a well, and around the well’s mouth
the marks of an encampment. Some people
had lately pitched their tents there, and gath-
ered them up and gone away again. The
starving Arab looked around in the hope of
finding some food that the travelers might
have left behind. After searching a while he~
came upon a little bag tied at the mouth, and
full of something that felt hard and round.
He opened the bag with great joy, thinking it
contained either dates or nuts, and expecting
that with them he should be able to satisfy
his hunger. But as soon as he saw what it
contained he threw it on the ground and cried
out in despair, ‘‘It is only pearls!’’ He lay
down in the desert to die.

Pearls are very precious. If the man had
been at home this bagful of pearls would have
made his fortune. Bread is more precious to
a hungry man than pearls, and the Bread of
Life is more precious still. Christ is the Bread
of Life. ;

——— + oo oe

The Happy Christian.

An aged Christian, who had served the Lord
for sixty years, was asked, when near his de-
parture, if he had any doubts. ‘‘Doubts!””
he responded. ‘How can I have doubts?
I have the eternal promise.”

‘Have you any darkness ?””

‘How can I have darkness? I dwell in the

sunshine of His glorious countenance.”

‘Are you afraid to die?”
“Afraid to die? No! death will be my birth-
day in the palace of glory.’? — Selected.