The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1901, Page 42

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42

The Lutheran Pioneer.

The Purposes of the Law.

We cannot keep God’s Law as it should be
kept. This God well knows, and yet He has
given us the Law. No man can gain eternal
life by keeping God’s Commandments, yet the
Law has its good purposes. Since we cannot
fulfill the Commandments, it is plain that we
cannot earn heaven by our works, and that
thus our only hope of salvation is Christ the
Saviour, who has perfectly kept the Law in

* all its demands for us. But if the holy Law
of God is not given us that we be saved by
keeping it, what, then, is its purpose?

According to the Holy Scriptures the Ten
Commandments are to serve a threefold pur-
pose, to-wit, as a curb, a mirror, and a rule.

Horses and mules are unreasoning creatures,
and therefore we use bridles, as curbs, when
we wish to drive them. A horse without a
bridle would be quite unmanageable. And so
it is with the natural man, he needs a curb to
check him, to hold him ‘back. Were he not
held in with bit and bridle he would let his
sinful desires have full sway, all outward dis-
cipline and decency would be swept out of the
world, and it would become a cesspool of in-
iquity and the scene of the coarsest outbursts
of sin. Now the Law acts as such a bit and
bridle by means of its threats of God’s venge-
ance. The civil government executes these
threats in part, and many a man is held back
from outward sinning by the fear of shame
and punishment. Of course, in thus checking
outward sin, the Law in no wise changes or
betters the heart of the natural man, as little
as the muzzle on a mad dog cures him of his
madness. ‘The heart remains as evil as ever,
and the wicked, sinful thoughts are by no
means kept down. Though the voice of con-
science speaks to men and chides them, and
thus holds them back from many an outward,
gross sin, it cannot prevent them from inwardly
trespassing the Law of God in thoughts and
desires.

Along the Lotver Mississippi the land ad-
joining the river is so low that high embank-
ments, called levees, are necessary to protect
it against the waters of this mighty stream.
Now, when the river rises these levees keep
the water in bounds and save the rich plan-
tations from the ravages of destructful inun-
dation. So also God’s holy Law is a mighty
safeguard against the wild waters of sin which
are ever ready to pour themselves with de-
atructive force upon the world. Butasat times
the rising river breaks through these protect-
ing embankments and the roaring waters burst
through the crevasses, destroying all before
them, so also the Ten Commandments are often
flagrantly transgressed and broken. But who
can fully conceive how immeasurably worse
it would be if it were not for this protecting
levee of God’s Law! It is bad enough as it

is, but the absence of the Law would make
- living in this world utterly intolerable, make

.-St. Paul gives us the second purpose of the
Law when he says, ‘‘By the Law is the knowl-
edge of sin’, Rom. 3,20. The Law is a true
mirror which perfectly reflects our image. If
we wish to know whether our face is clean or
not we look into a mirror, knowing that it will
truthfully give us the information we desire.
Now, the Law of God is a spiritual mirror
unto us, showing us our spiritual blotches and
blemishes. A careful examination of ourselves
in the mirror of God’s Law will reveal to us
our sins, bring us to the knowledge of the fact
that we are sinners. And I will here say that
to give us this knowledge is the chief purpose
of the Law. Asa mirror the Law awakens us

out of our false security, deprives us of the|~

false notion that we are, after all, not so very
bad, convinces us that we are really sick unto
death, uncovers the hideousness of our natural
depravity, and brings home to us with over-
whelming force the awful truth that we are by
nature children of wrath and deserving of eter-
nal death and damnation. And by thus con-
vincing us of sin and judgment and our help-
lessness it prepares our hearts for the blessed
Gospel of Christ, for it is only the terrified con-
science that bids welcome to the preaching of
Christ, the Refuge of sinners. It is only the
man who knows himself sick that welcomes the
heavenly Physician; it is only the man who
sees the hideousness of his nakedness that re-
joices in the possession of the garment of
Christ’s righteousness. While thus the Law
itself does not bring us to Christ, it by God’s
grace brings us to aliving knowledge of sin and
thus prepares the way for Christ, the Saviour
of sinners.

Finally, the Law of God is to serve us Chris-
tians as arule, or guide. A Christian is God’s
child, and as such it is his earnest desire to
please God, hisheavenly Father. ‘‘Let us love
Him who first loved us,”’ is the true Christian’s
motto. But how Can he better show his love
towards his heavenly Father than by doing
that which God desires him todo? The ques-
tion, then, is: What is well-pleasing to God?
David answers this question for us. After
asking the question, ‘‘How can a young man
cleanse his way?’’ he answers, ‘‘By taking
heed thereto according to Thy Word.’’ The
Word of God to which David here refers as a
rule and guide of life is the Law as laid down
for all men in the Ten Commandments. If we
continually keep the Law of God in our hearts
we have therein a rule of life that is ever true
and faithful in telling us what is God’s will.
Hence if we would please God we must not
adjust our life to the traditions of men, the
precepts and decrees of councils and popes,
but to the infallible rule of God’s Law.

And this a true child of God will do, not
because he fas to do so, not because he ex-
pects to be rewarded for doing so, but because
he would thus show his love and gratitude
towards Him who has delivered him from the
curse and bondage of the Law, and made him
a free child of God and an heir of heaven.

But while thus striving to make the Law his
rule of life, the believer will ever be conscious
that he can never perfectly abide by this chosen
tule. He will daily deplore his many devia-
tions from the divine Law, and never hope,
even only in part, to be saved by his own
works. Nay, he will not place his confidence
in the works of the Law, but solely in Christ,
who has perfectly kept the whole Law in his
stead. With Luther he says:

But love and grace with Thee prevail,
O God, our sins forgiving;
The best and holiest deeds must fail
Of all before Thee living;
Before Thee none can boasting stand,
But all must fear Thy strict demand,
And live alone by mercy.
My hope.I rest, then, on the Lord,
And build not on my merit;
My heart shall trust His gracious Word,
His goodness stays my spirit.
His precious Word assureth me,
He will my Joy and Comfort be;
This is my firm reliance.
F. J. L.

o<=e

Farmer Brown’s Thanksgiving.

Farmer Brown was not in a mood to observe
Thanksgiving Day. Matters had not been
going to his liking. ‘The wheat fields had pro-
duced but half a crop, the fruit trees had been
robbed by insects and worms. Potatoes were
plentiful, but they brought no price. There
had been a falling off in the demand for
cattle, and hay was cheaper than it had been
for years. Farmer Brown was in a bad humor.
*‘We farmers will all land in the poor house
yet,’’ he would say again and again. He was
almost provoked on seeing the President’s
yearly message regarding the observation of
Thanksgiving Day, and when his pastor an-
nounced the usual service on that day he made
up his mind that he, for one, would not attend.

Two days before Thanksgiving Farmer
Brown received visitors from the city in the
person of his niece and nephew, Maud and
Walter. The young people had seen but little
of country life. They were delighted at the
new scenes, and the strange experiences.
They had come from an humble home, and
were not used to the abundance that was found
at their uncle’s home. They compared Uncle
Tom’s garners of wheat with their little flour
bin; his smoke-house full of meat with their
almost empty cellar; his barn full of hay and
horses and cattle, and Aunt Mary’s stacks of
quilts and comforters, and shelves and pan-
tries full of canned fruits, preserves, jellies,
and jams, with the scarcity in their home, and
they felt that uncle and aunt were surely very
wealthy and highly favored people. Maud
was surprised to hear Uncle Tom complaining
about hard times, and declaring that he was not
going to the Thanksgiving service this year.

On the evening before Thankegiving Uncle
Tom was unusually talkative, and took time
to converse with his niece and nephew. He
asked many questions about their father who