The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1901, Page 33

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SynopICAL CONFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XXIII.

; St. Wowie Mo., September, 1901.

No. 9.

Our Faith.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Come unto me and rest;

Lay down, thou weary one, lay down
Thy head upon my breast.”

I came to Jesus as I was,

Weary, and worn, and sad;

I found in Him a resting-place,

And He has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus’ say,
“Behold, I freely give

The living water; thirsty one,

Stoop down, and drink, and live.”

I came to Jesus, and I drank

OF that life-giving stream;

My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
_And now I live in Him.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,

“I am this dark world’s Light;
Look unto me, thy morn shall rise,
And all thy day be bright.’

I looked to Jesus, and I found

In Him my Star, my Sun;

And in that Light of life 1’ walk,
Till traveling days are done.

—_—> ~~ oo

God is Reconciled.

Bonar.

Mr. Brown had been very sick for several
weeks. One day his Christian neighbor came
to see him and said, ‘‘I understand you have
just made your will. You regard yourself as
a dying man, do you not?”’

‘Oh, yes, I can’t hope to live but a little
while longer.’’

‘Well; you have set your house 'in order,
then, so far as this world is concerned; the
question now is, are you ready for the next?”

‘tNo, indeed, ‘I am not,’’ replied the sick
man, who till now had trusted in his own mo-
rality, but who on his dying bed realized that
he had nothing to hold on to, and that he was
not prepared to meet a just and holy God.
“J have nothing,” he said, ‘‘to give God that
seems to me of the least value in His sight,
I have neither time nor strength to serve Him.
Tell me, what can I do to reconcile God whom
T have offended by my sins?”’

“Well, my friend, the glad news I have to
bring you is, that while it is true you can’t do
anything, it is equally true, you need not do
anything.”’ ‘
‘Why, what do you mean?”

“Just what I say, my dear sir. Now mark,
here is your mistake. You know that you are
a sinner, and that you deserve punishment at
the hands of God, and you think you must do
something in order to change God’s mind and
to reconcile Him to yourself.”’

‘Yes!’ :

“But this is the truth about it. Ever since
the Lord Jesus took your sins and mine upon
Him, God has been reconciled. What is needed
now is, not for God to be reconciled to us, but
for us to be reconciled toHim. St. Paul says,
‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them.’ You see from this that God's object
in coming into the world in Christ was to rec-
oncile us to Him. Paul calls the Gospel the
‘word of reconciliation,’ and he says, ‘We
pray you in Christ’s stead, Be ye reconciled
to God.’ The Gospel tells us that God ts rec-
onciled through the sufferings and death of
His Son, and beseeches us to be reconciled
unto Him by accepting that Son as our Saviour.
In Christ there is free-forgiveness-for every

sinner, and there is nothing for you to do, my,

friend, but to accept God’s free forgiveness
offered to you without money and without
price. Will you do it?”’

‘Tg that all I have to do? Of course I will
be reconciled. I never before knew this was
the way. And this is the Gospel? I never
understood it before. O God, I thank Thee,
I thank Thee!*’ he cried out, and grateful
tears rolled down his wan cheeks upon the
pillow. God in mercy had swept away his
“refuges of lies,’? and led him into rest.

The next day after this conversation he said
to a visiting friend, ‘‘I-am ready to die now.
Allis peace. My burden is gone. The sooner
the end comes now the better for me. God is
reconciled to me in Christ Jesus, and I am rec-
onciled to Him by faith in my dear Saviour.”

His was a happy and peaceful end.

God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them; and hath committed unto us the
word of reconciliation. Now then we are am-
bassadors for Christ, as though God did be-
seech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead,
Be ye reconciled to God,”” 2 Cor. 5, 19. 20.

Knew His Voice.

In the description of the Good Shepherd
Jesus said: ‘‘The sheep follow him, for they
know his voice, but they know not the voice
of strangers.’’ This fact was once illustrated
in an incident in India where ‘‘a bad man
wanted a fine sheep which belonged to an-
other person. He went before a judge and
got other bad men to help him say that the
sheep was his. The true owner came too, and
brought the sheep, and his friends came with
him and told the judge that they knew the
sheep belonged tohim. How could the judge
decide? He did not know the men, and how
could he tell which were liars?

‘But he did know how.the sheep are taught
in those Eastern countries, so he said: ‘Let
the two men go into those two rooms — one on
the right side, the other on the left side—and
let the one on the left call the sheep.? But
the poor sheep did not know the voice of a
stranger, and did not stir. ‘The true owner
heard the sound, and did not wait to be told
what the judge meant. He gave a kind of
‘chuck,’ and the sheep bounded away to him
atonce. ‘The sheep knows his voice,’ said the
judge. ‘Let him take it away, for it is his.’”’

ae

What One Bible Can Do.

One hundred and eight years ago Pitcairn
Island had no inhabitants. At that time nine
wicked sailors, who had sent their captain
adrift in an open boat on that wide, ‘lonely
southern ocean, landed here to hide away
from punishment.

In ten years they were all dead but one, six
of them having been murdered. The one left,
to take care of their wives, whom they had
taken from Tahiti, and their twenty little chil-
dren, was John Adams. The only book he
had was a Bible, and he went to it to find out
what to do for these poor little ones.

That precious Bible was the saving of them
all. It brought John Adams to repent of his
crimes, and to love the Lord. He became a
new man and a good and kind friend. The
children all called him father, and he taught
them to read and write, and to obey and trust
the Saviour. — Mission Dayspring.