The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1902, Page 45

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Che Auntheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusiisnED BY THE EVANGELICAL LutuEeran SynopicaL CoNnFERENCE or Nortu AMERICA.

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

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

Vol. XXIV.

Christmas.

"Jesus came! and came for me!
Simple words! and yet expressing
Depths of holy mystery —
Depths of wondrous love and blessing.
Holy Spirit, make me see
All His coming means for me;
Take the things of Christ, I pray,
Show them to my heart to-day.”

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Unto Us is Born a Saviour.

Christmas tells us of our Saviour’s birth,
and that makes it a festival of joy and glad-
ness. When Christ was born, the angel of
the Lord said to the shepherds: ‘‘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.’’? God gave to us His own
dear Son as a Saviour, and this glorious Christ-
mas gift is the source of all true Christmas joy.

Unto us a Saviour is born, a Saviour from
sin and all its woe. Such a Saviour we need;
for we are sinners and subject to God’s wrath.
No human power and no angel’s power could
deliver us from sin and damnation. God’s
own power was necessary to lift the great
mountain of sin from a perishing world. And
behold! God, in His great love, gave His
own Son as a Saviour. ‘‘God so loved the
world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.’ God’s own
Son became man and took the sinners’ place
and suffered in the sinners’ stead as the Lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
The Saviour of sinners is born. That is the
Christmas Gospel. And that makes Christmas
a time of gladness and joy.

Unto us a Saviour is born. He is our Say-
iour, the Saviour of all people; for the angel
said that the good tidings of great joy shall
be ‘to all people.’’ As all men are sinners,
so this-Saviour is the Saviour of all men.
There is not one exception. If there were,
we could not rejoice at the birth of this Say-
iour; for each one might consider himself that
one exception. But there is no exception.
Unto us, unto you and me and every sinner,
the Saviour is born.

St. Louis, Mo., December, 1902.

Yes, He is born. This is a fact which no] is infinitely above all other gifts, and he has

one can deny. Unto us a Saviour is born.
There can be no doubt whatever about this.
God Himself made known this joyful fact
through His heavenly messenger in the holy
Christmas night, and He still proclaims the
glad tidings in the holy Christmas Gospel:
Unto you is born a Saviour. God cannot lie,
and therefore this Christmas Gospel is a faith-
ful saying —a true saying, a saying worthy of
belief. St. Paul says: ‘‘This is a faithful say-
ing, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”’

Blessed Christmas tidings: Unto us is born
a Saviour! They bring a Saviour for young
and old, well and sick, high and low, rich and
poor, for every sinner. Accept Him as your
Saviour, and rejoice!

We wish all our readers a blessed Christmas.

God Wants You to Be Saved.

In the light of the Christmas Gospel you
can clearly see that God wants you to be
saved. He gave His own Son for your sal-
vation. What more could He do? You may
not want to be saved, but there is no doubt
that God wants you to be saved. The Christ-
mas Gospel must drive away every doubt.
Dr. Luther well says: ‘‘God is more earnest
for me to be saved than I am to be saved!
He so loved the world that He gave His Son.
He loved not saints, not the religious, not
those who loved Him, but ‘the world’ —
worldly men, profane men, hardened rebels,
hopeless wanderers and sinners! He gave not
a mere promise, not an angel to teach us, not
a world to ransom us, but His Son—His Only
Begotten! So much did God love the world,
smners, ME! I believe this, I must believe
it; I believe on Him who says it. How canI,
then, do otherwise than rejoice?”

Lest We Forget.

The giving of Christmas presents is so cus-
tomary now, that we are in danger of forget-
ting the unspeakable gift of God to man while
we enjoy the presents received from relatives
and friends. The gift of the Saviour—that

no true Christmas joy who rejoices not in this.
There is also danger that, in making our
Christmas presents, we forget the needs of
the Church. There are many who have not
the blessed Christmas gift which gladdens our
hearts. They still sit in the darkness of sin
and know not the Saviour. Let us not forget
that we may do something towards bringing
the unspeakable gift of a Saviour within their
reach by making known to them the Gospel of
Jesus. Let us give Christmas gifts to carry
on the mission work of the Church of Him at
whose birth we rejoice on Christmas Day.
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Faith in the Christmas Tidings.

“The Christmas tidings,’’ says Luther, ‘‘re-
quire faith which accepts them as true, and
firmly holds against all doubts, that the Saviour
is surely born. This faith quiets the heart, so
that thou wilt not charge God with falsehood
through thy unbelief, as they do who refuse to
believe and thus lose their Saviour. Where this
faith is wanting, Christ, as the Son of God, is
denied by those who will not confess their sins,
nor acknowledge Him as their Saviour, as well
as by those who feel their condemnation and
confess their guilt, but do not faithfully receive
the consolation that Christ is their Saviour.”

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The Sun of Righteousness.

A heathen in India made many journeys
over different parts of his country, and visited
many temples with a view to find rest for his
soul. Failing to find what he sought so eagerly,
he, at length, heard the Gospel of the Saviour
born at Bethlehem. By faithinthisSaviourhe —
found rest and peace. After some time he was
asked why his fasting, prayers, and pilgrimages
could not drive the darkness from his mind.
He replied: ‘'Of a night the moon shone, the
stars gave their light, and the burning moun-
tains cast forth flames of fire—yet itremained -
night. But when the sun rose the moon, stars,
and mountains lost their splendor, and it be-
came day. Thus it was with me. In spite of
all I could do, the gloomiest night reigned in
my soul, until Jesus, the Sun of Righteous-
ness, srose— the night was changed into day.’