The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1903, Page 5

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Ghe Autheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL Lutneran SynopicaAL ConFERENCE or NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XXYV.

The Invitation.

Come unto Me, ye weary,
And I will give you rest.
O blessed voice of Jesus,
Which comes to hearts oppressed!
It tells of benediction,
Of pardon, grace, and peace,
Of joy that hath no ending,
Of life which cannot cease.

Come unto Me, ye fainting,
And I will give you life.
O cheering voice of Jesus,
Which comes to aid our strife!
The foe is stern and eager,
The fight is fierce and long;
But He has made us mighty,
And stronger than the strong.

And whosoever cometh,
I will not cast him out.

O welcome voice of Jesus,
Which drives away our doubt,

Which calls us very sinners,
Unworthy though we be

Of life so free and boundless,

To come, dear Lord, to Thee.
Selected.

——- Po oe

Trust in Jesus!

St. Louis, Mo., Heb eu 1908.

on the cross for our sins— the Just for the
unjust — you cannot be saved. If you trust
in your tears, prayers, works, feelings —if
you trust in such things, you are certainly
wrong, and walk far from the way of sal-
vation. Such things are not your Saviour.
Neither is the Virgin Mary nor any other saint
your Saviour. Do not trustin them. Jesus is
your Saviour. Trust in Him only, for out of
Jesus there is no salvation whatever. ‘‘There
is none other name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved.’’ Therefore:
Come to Jesus; trust in Him. ‘'Whosoever
believeth in Him shall not perish, but have
everlasting life.’’

—__—> - o> 0 - =

Luther on True Peace.

“‘The man who possesses peace is not the
man whom no one disturbs —this is the peace
of the world; he is the man whom all men and
all things disturb, but who bears all patiently
and with joy...-

“The cross of Christ has been distributed
throughout the whole world, and everyone
meets with his own portion of it. Do not,
therefore, reject it, but rather accept it as

A doctor, who had been convinced of his] the most holy relic, to be kept not in a gold

sin and need, and who was anxious to find
salvation, once visited a Christian patient.

or silver chest, but in a golden heart; that is,
a heart imbued with gentle charity. For if,

“I want you just to tell me,’’ he said to the by contact with the flesh and blood of Christ,
sick one, ‘‘what it is, this believing and get-/1n_ wood of the cross received such conse-
ting happiness — faith in Jesus, and all that} oration that its relics are deemed supremely

sort of thing that brings peace.’’

precious, how much more should injuries, per-

His patient replied: ‘‘Doctor, I have felt secutions, sufferings, and the hatred of men,

that I could do nothing, and I have put my

-case in your hands—I am trusting you. This

is exactly what every poor sinner must do
with Jesus. He must trust in Him, and in
Him alone. He has done all that was to be
done for our salyation. ‘Therefore the Bible
says, ‘Whosoever believeth in Him’ —that is,
trusteth in Him— ‘shall not perish, but have
everlasting life.’ ’’

From that sick-room the doctor went a happy
man— trusting in Jesus and rejoicing that His
sins were washed away in the blood of the
Lamb.

Dear reader, trust in Jesus for salvation.
If you do not trust in Jesus only, who died

whether of the just or of the unjust, be re-
garded as the most sacred of all relics—relics
which, not by the mere touch of His flesh, but
by the charity of His most bitterly-tried heart
and of His divine will, have been well em-
braced, kissed, blessed, and abundantly con-
secrated; for thus was a curse transformed
into a blessing, an injury into justice, and
passion into glory, and the cross into joy.’”

—<~—5 oa or

Ir Luther had done nothing in a lifetime
but produced his Catechism, the world could

not sufficiently thank or repay him.
Mathesius.

No. 2.

Boundless Grace.

How boundless is the grace of God! He is
‘not willing that any should perish.’’ There-
fore He ‘‘so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.’ His love is for the whole world, and
His Son is given as a Saviour to all sinners,
and His Gospel is to all men. Consider what
that means. Look at the worst of men: at
those in the hiding places of iniquity ; at those
who dwell where vice rules and misery has
her home; at those whose faces bear the seal-
marks of Satan—all these God would have
“come unto repentance.’”’ And, therefore, He
would haye us bear to them the message of
His love—the Gospel of Jesus, in whom God’s
boundless grace is revealed to sinners.

———~ + oe

From Luther’s Letter to a Friend.

“Wearied at length with your own righteous-
ness, rejoice and confide in the righteousness
of Christ. Learn, my dear brother, to know
Christ, and Christ crucified; and learn to de-
spair of thyself, and sing to the Lord this
song: ‘Lord Jesus, Thou art my righteous-
ness, but I am Thy sin. ‘Thou hast taken
what belonged to me; Thou hast given me
what was Thine. Thou becamest what Thou
wast not, in order that I might become what
I was not myself.’’’

———.- oo oe

An Appropriate Prayer.

In a mission church among the heathen on
the South Sea Islands, at the close of a reli-
gious service, the following prayer is said to
have been offered, which might be appropri-
ate on the lips of many in civilized countries:
“<Q God, we are about to go to our homes.
Let not the words we have heard be like the
fine clothes we wear, soon to be taken off
and folded away in a box till another Sun-
day comes around. Rather let Thy truth be
like the tattoo on our bodies, ineffaceable till
death.’”