The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1900, Page 41

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Che Autheran Pioneer,

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LurHEeran SyYNoDICAL ConFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.

Vol. XXII.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

St. Louis

s, Mo., November, 1900. No. 11.
Now, no man will come to Jesus, no man|to wash His feet with her tears. She was

Are You Ready?

I sat in my study, weary
After the toil of the day,
And thinking more of the earth-life
Than the heaven that seems far away,
When my little boy came with his Bible
To ask what is meant in God’s Word
Where it biddeth all men to be ready
For the coming of the Lord.

I told him the wonderful meaning
In the words that perplexed him so,
And I saw the look in his blue eyes
Graver and graver grow.
Suddenly, ‘'Papa,’’ he asked me,
“If you heard the Lord at the gate
Calling you, would you say, ‘I am ready!’
Or would you want Him to wait th

O how could I answer the question
That thrilled me as never before ?
I seemed for a moment to sce Him
And hear His dread knock at the door—
The Lord I had so long neglected—
And hear, ‘‘Are you ready ?”” from Him,
And I saw the grave eyes of my darling
Through eyes that grew suddenly dim.

I knew that the voice of my Father

Had spoken in warning to me
Of the danger there is in delaying,

Through the lips of the child at my knee,
And I cried, ‘‘Help me, Lord, to be ready!”’

And knew He would answer the prayer
That went up from my heart as I folded

His sweet little messenger there.

Selected.

—_.—- oo oe

Come to Jesus.

This is the Gospel invitation that comes to
us during the entire Church Year. Every Gos-
pel lesson calls upon sinners to come to Jesus
that they may have life. In the Gospel we
hear the voice of Jesus: ‘‘Come unto me all
ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will
give you rest.’

How do sinners come to Jesus? They come
to Jesus by believing in Him as their Saviour.
‘(And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of
life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger ;
and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.’’
From this we see that coming to Jesus is the
same as believing or trusting in Jesus.

.| pay no heed to the Gospel call: Come to Jesus.

will put his trust in that Saviour, unless he is
convinced of his sin, unless he feels that he is
a sinner and needs a Saviour. Only the man
that knows and feels that he is sick will call
the doctor, only the man that knows and feels
that he is drowning will grasp the rope that is
thrown out to him to save him. So only he
that knows and feels that he is a lost and con-
demned sinner will come to Jesus for salva-
tion. Most men do not feel themselves “theavy-
laden’’ with sin, and therefore they reject the
Saviour. The Gospel lessons of the Church
Year offer to them life and salvation, but they

known all over the city as a great sinner, but
when she came to Jesus for salvation He re-
ceived her with the kind words: ‘‘Thy sins
are forgiven thee.’’ He did not cast out the
robber who was sentenced to death for his
crimes, and who in his last hour came to Him
for salvation. He gave him everlasting life
in Paradise. So every sinner that comes is
welcome.

The end of the Church Year reminds us of
the end of the time of grace. The day is near
at hand on which Christ will come to judge the
quick and the dead. To those who have re-
jected the only Saviour it will be a day of
wrath and terror, but to those who have come
to Jesus by faith it will be a day of great joy.
They shall see what they have believed and
shall enter into the full and undisturbed en-
joyment of everlasting bliss. Heed, then, the
Gospel invitation: Come to Jesus.

But there are many who know and feel that
they are sinners, and yet they do not come to
Jesus. What is the matter with them? They
do not want to come just as they are. They
think they are, too bad and must make them-
selves better before they can come. This isa
sad mistake, by which the devil tries to keep
sinners from coming to Jesus. He knows that
as long as a sinner wants to make himself bet-
ter before he will come to Jesus, he will never
come. Man cannot make himself better by his
own strength; for we are sinners by nature.
Our whole nature is corrupt and sinful. We
are ‘‘dead in trespasses and sin,”’ says the
apostle. ‘‘We are all as an unclean thing, and
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,’’ says
the prophet. How foolish is it for man to
try to make himself better, since he has no
strength to do it! Do not try to patch up that
sinful nature of yours, but come to Jesus just
as you are.

Jesus will not cast out the sinner who comes
to Him just as he is. He came into the world
for the very purpose of saving sinners. “This
isa faithful saying, and worthy of all accepta-
tion, that Jesus Christ came into the world to
save sinners.’’ He endured the most bitter
sufferings and died the most shameful death
upon the cross for the redemption of sinners.
After having done all this for sinners, He will
surely not cast out any one that comes to Him
for salvation. He Himself says, “Him that
cometh to me’? —no matter who he is and
what he is—‘‘I will in no wise cast out.’” He
did not cast out the woman thaticame to Him

——. ~~ oo

§ Reading the Bible.

When Mr. Hone, who wrote the Everyday
Book, and was of skeptical views, was travel-
ing through Wales, he stopped at a cottage to
ask for a drink of water, and a little girl an-
swered him, ‘‘Oh, yes, sir; I have no doubt
mother will give you some milk. Come in.”

He went in and sat down. The little girl
was reading the Bible. Mr. Hone said, “Well,
my little girl, are vou getting your task?””

‘No, sir; I am not,’’ she replied. ‘I am
reading the Bible.”’

“Yes,” said he, ‘‘you are getting your task
out of the Bible.”

“Oh, no,’? she replied, ‘‘it is no task to
read the Bible; I love the Bible.”

‘‘And why do you love the Bible?”’ said he.

Her simple, childlike answer was, “I thought
everybody loved the Bible.’’

Her own love to the precious volume had
made her innocently believe that everybody
else was equally delighted to read God’s Word.
Mr. Hone was so touched with the sincerity of
that expression that he read the Bible himself,
and, instead of being an opponent to the things
of God, came to be a friend of divine truth.