The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1899, Page 45

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LT

Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusBLisHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SynopicaAL CONFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XXI.

Sie ouise NiO mecem ben coo!

No. 12.

Christmas.

Hearken to the angels singing,
News of joyful gladness bringing
To the weary earth!
On one theme with rapture dwelling,
To the startled shepherds telling
Of the Saviour’s birth.

Who is He, this Infant lowly?
Can He be the Saviour holy
Come from realms on high?
This the Christ? This lowly Stranger
Lying helpless in the manger,
With the cattle nigh?

Yes, ’tis He, the long expected,
Come to be by man rejected,
Come for man to die;
Thus to work His great salvation,
And by His humiliation
Justice satisfy.

And the song of angel-gladness,

Bidding men arouse from sadness,
Was the song of love,

To the human heart appealing,

By the Babe on earth revealing
Love of God above.

Mighty love, O melt and win us,

Rouse responsive love within us,
Even as we gaze

On Thy wondrous incarnation,

And with grateful adoration

Swell the angel’s praise.
+Selected.

—.,—- oo

Christmas Joy.

The true Christmas joy is a great joy, the
greatest, the most blessed joy that can fill the
heart of man. ‘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 is the message brought by an
angel in the holy Christmas night. The tid-
ings are tidings of great joy, for they make
known the birth of a Saviour. ‘True Christ-
mas joy is joy over this birth. And what
greater joy can there be? A Saviour is born!
That is just what we need. We are sinners,
and therefore subject to God’s wrath and
everlasting punishment. ‘There is none right-
€ous, NO, not one,’’ says the Bible. And again
it says, “The wages of sin is death.” With-

out a Saviour there is no ray of joy to glad-
den our lives, no star of hope to brighten the
hour of death. Without a Saviour we are lost
forever. What a great joy it is to hear that
a Saviour is born! ‘‘God so loved the world
that He gave His only-begotten Son, that who-
soever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life.” To him who knows
himself to be a sinner there can be no greater
joy than the joy over the Saviour born at
Bethlehem. In that Saviour he has the Re-
deemer from all sins, from death, and from
the power of the devil. Sin is mighty; death
is mighty, the devil is mighty; but mightier
than all is this Saviour. He takes away sin,
He conquers death, He destroys the power of
Satan. He that believes in that Saviour has
nothing to fear. He shall not perish, but shall
have everlasting life. He need not grope in
darkness to find the way to heaven. In the
Saviour he has the way that leads to the man-
sions of heavenly joy in our Father’s house.
His heart, therefore, knows no greater joy
than the Christmas joy over the birth of the
Saviour.

This Christmas joy is intended for all. The
angel said, “I bring you good tidings of great
joy, which shall be to all people.’” No one
has any ground for thinking that this joy is
only for better and holier people than he. It
is the Saviour of sinners that is born at Beth-
lehem; and as He is the Saviour of all sin-
ners, so the Christmas joy is for all. ‘‘This
is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accep-
tation, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners; of which I am chief,’’ says
the apostle. The Saviour came to save sin-
ners, even the chief of sinners. ‘here is none
excepted, no, not one. Man may shut him-
self out from this Christmas joy by his un-
belief, but God does not shut him out. He
has sent His Son into the world to be the
Saviour of all sinners, and He offers this joy
to all, The young and the old, the high and
the low, the colored and the white, the learned
and the unlearned, the rich and the poor, the
merry and the weeping—they all may share
this Christmas joy and give glory to God in
the highest, as there is now peace on earth
and good will to all men.

The Christmas joy is not for a certain time
only; it is for all time. During the time of
the Old Testament the saints of old looked
forward with joyful longing to the birth of
the promised Saviour. In this they found
their consolation, on this they based their
hopes of deliverance from all evil. And when
in the fulness of time the Saviour was born
the tidings of His birth were made known as
tidings of great joy and gladdened the hearts
of all that owned Him as their Saviour. More
than eighteen hundred years have passed since
that first Christmas night; but amid all the
changes that have occurred the Christmas joy
has remained the same. The world has at all
times needed and the world still to-day needs
the Saviour born at Bethlehem. The sweet
story of His birth is the old, but ever new
story which at all times fills the hearts of sin-
ners with joy. And as the Christian grows
older and looks with delight upon the joy of
the children in the blessed Christmas season,
he thinks of his own childhood days and of
the many changes that have occurred since
then, but amid all the changes, in days of
sorrow and of mirth, the Saviour’s birth has
been and still is for him the never failing
spring of Christmas joy.

“Rejoice, rejoice, ye Christians,
With all your hearts this morn!
Oh, hear the blessed tidings,

‘The Lord, the Christ is born,’
Now brought us by the angels
That stand about God’s throne;
Oh, lovely are the voices
That make such tidings known.”

—— > - oe

“Unto you, therefore, who believe, He is
Precious.”

If we have Christ, we have all: without
Christ, we have nothing. You can be happy
without money, without liberty, without par-
ents, without friends, if Christ is yours. If
you have not Christ, neither money, nor
liberty, nor parents, nor friends can make
you happy. Christ with a chain is liberty:
liberty without Christ is a chain. Christ with-
out any thing is riches: all things without
Christ is poverty indeed.