The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1902, Page 38

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38

The Lutheran Pioneer.

The First Article.

During the past few months we have con-|love, and delight.

les with Him, and to be happy in His com-
pany. He should be our rest, confidence,

Whatever a loving child

sidered the first words of the Creed, the} would be to a kind, considerate father, that
words, ‘‘I believe in God.’’ Taking up each| we should spiritually be unto our heavenly

word separately, we have tried to get at the
meaning of this simple but comprehensive
sentence. We are now ready to take up the
study of each one of the three Articles in
turn, and so will now begin with the First
Article which treats of the Person and Work
of the First Person of the Holy Trinity, God
the Father.

Of the Person of the First Person in the
Godhead we confess in the Creed,

‘*7 believe in Gop THE FATHER ALMIGHTY.’’

We give the First Person of the Trinity the
endearing name Father. This is the name
the Bible gives Him, and it does so for several
reasons. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Addressing the Son, the First
Person of the Godhead says, ‘‘Thou
art my Son, this day have I begotten
Thee,’’ and at the Baptism of Jesus
and, later, at the Transfiguration, the
same Person declares, ‘‘This is my
beloved Son.’’ So also Christ always
refers to the First Person of the God-
head as His Father.

But we also call the First Person

‘‘Father,”? because He is our Father.
Says the prophet: ‘‘Have we not all
one Father? hath not one God created
us?’? Mal. 2,10. We owe our life
and being to God, and, therefore,
He is our true Father. But alas!
we cannot say that we are His true
children by nature, for by sin we
turned our backs upon our heavenly
Father and left our home; we denied our true
Father and became the children of the devil.
But io His dealings with us after our defection
God showed that He still loved His disobe-
dient children. He sent His only begotten
Son that through Him we might receive the
adoption of sons. In Christ the Beloved, God
hath again accepted us as His dear children.
Because of His perfect redemption Christ can
send the joyful message to all His disciples,
4*T ascend unto my Father, and your Father.’’
Christ’s redemption has reconciled God to the
‘whole world of sinners, and they that accept
Him are numbered with the family whose
Father is God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ..

What a world of consolation in this simple
statement, ‘‘God is our Father.’’ We, being
evil, love our children; how much more shall
our heavenly Father love us, and keep us
under His watchful eye! Our Father is alla
fatlier can be, and more. We are poor and
needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon us. It
were well if we did our children’s duty as well.

_ But we, as children, only too often forget

ther. If we treated our God as good
dren do a loving father, we should long to

Father.

Of our heavenly Father we further confess
| that He is almighty. We are poor, weak crea-
| tures, and are very prone to doubt the strength
| and power of God. We think our own thoughts
| of God, and straightway we doubt. Therefore
it is necessary that we be always reminded of
our heavenly Father’s omnipotence. Our God
and Father is almighty ; He takes up the isles

as a very little thing, and the mountains He}

weighs in scales. If we would set our troubles
in the light of God’s power, love, and wisdom,
they would seem small to us. And why should
we not so regard them, being reminded as we
are so continually of our Father’s almighty
|power? Why do we not compute our troubles

A Beautiful Garden.

by our almighty Father’s measurement, and
then see how small and insignificant they be-
come? Estimating God’s strength by human
standards is one of the foolish things we must
put away, lest we offend and dishonor our
heavenly Father. Let, then, the confession of
our lips, ‘‘I believe in God the Father Al-
mighty,’’ be the sincere expression of a child-
like trust and confidence in our omnipotent
Father who is willing and able to doa father’s
full duty by us. F. J. L.

— s ~<a 6

Could not Keep the Good News to Herself.

A girl of New Zealand was sent to England
for an education. While there, she became
a Christian. When she was about to return
home, her associates tried to dissuade her from
going. All their endeavors were in vain, how-
ever. ‘‘Do you suppose,” said she, ‘that I
could keep the good news for myself? Do you
think I could be content with having gotten
pardon, peace, and eternal life for myself and
not be anxious to tell my dear parents how
they too may obtain these blessings? Do not

try to prevent me; I must go to tell my people
the good news.”’

Our picture illustrates the beautiful garden

A Beautiful Garden.

described by Dr. Luther in his letter to his
little son John, then four years old. It is
a most charming letter. The great historian
Froude calls it the prettiest letter ever ad-
dressed by a father to a child. From it we
may see the childlike nature of the great Re-
former. He writes to his little boy about the
beauties and glories of heaven in the follow-
ing words:

“GRACE AND PEACE IN Curist. My pDEar

LITTLE son!

“T am very glad to know that you learn your
lessons well, and love to say your prayers.
Keep on doing so, my little boy, and when I
come home I will bring you something pretty
from the fair. I know a beautiful garden,
where there are a great many children in fine
little coats, and they go under the trees and
gather beautiful apples and pears,
cherries and plums; they sing and
run about, and are as happy as they
can be. Sometimes they ride about
on nice little ponies, with golden bri-
dles and silver saddles. I asked the
man whose garden it is, What little
children are these? And he told me,
They are little children who love to
pray and learn, and are good. Then
I said: My dear sir, I have a little
boy at home; his name is Johnny
|--—Luther; would you let -him-come into
the garden too, to eat some of these
nice apples and pears, and ride on
these fine little ponies, and play with
these children? The man said: If
he loves to say his prayers, and learn
his lesson, and is a good boy, he
may come. And Philip and Jocelin may come
too; and when they are all together, they can
play upon the fife and drum and lute and all
kinds of instruments, and skip about and shoot
with little crossbows. He then showed me 8
beautiful mossy place in the middle of the
garden, for them to skip about in, with a great
many golden fifes, and drums, and silver cross-
bows. The children had not yet had their din-
ner, and I could not wait to see them play,
but I said to the man: My dear sir, I will go
away and write all about it to my little son,
John, and tell him to be fond of saying his
prayers, and learn well, and be good, so that
he may come into the garden; but he has an
aunt, Lena, whom he must bring along with
him. The man said, Very well, go write to him.
Now, my dear little son, love your lessons, and
your prayers, and tell Philip and Jocelin to do
80 too, that you may all come to the garden.
May God bless you. Give Aunt Lena my love;
and kiss her for me.

‘Your dear father,
‘Mantin LuTHer.’’
———— +o or oe

Tue Bible gives us not only examples to

follow but also examples to shun.