The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1903, Page 22

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22

The Lutheran Pioneer.

itude, we should call.upon heaven and earth,
upon all God’s creatures, to sing praises unto
our Creator and Preserver.

And our gratitude and praise should not be
We should thank

The First Article.
(The Conclusion.)

In its concluding words the explanation of
the First Article tells us why God gives us| a mere matter of the lips.

temporal blessings and what we owe Him for} our God with heart and voice and hands. We|

these gifts. should serve and obey our heavenly Father.

When Jacob had faithfully served Laban| We should use His gifts to His honor and ac-
many years, he had the right to demand a fit | cording to His will. Paul exhorts us, Rom.
reward for his services. But the Lord tells| 12,1: ‘‘I beseech you therefore, brethren;
us, Luke 17, 10: ‘‘ When ye shall have done all by the mercies of God, that ye present your
those things which are commanded you, say,| bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
‘We are unprofitable servants: we have done | unto God, which is your reasonable service.””
that which was our duty to do.’’’ Though we | Our bodies and souls, our eyes and ears, our

should have done all that God requires of us,
kept all His commandments, served Him with
all our strength, given Him all our time and}
labor, we would, for all that, be unprofitable |
servants, servants who would have brought
the Lord no profit; we would only have done
our duty. Not our merit, then, is it that in-

reason, our all shall be enlisted in God’s
service.

Finally, our explanation adds: ‘'This is
most certainly true.’’ It is true, I believe it
with my whole heart, that God is my Creator,
my Provider, and my Protector. It is true,
and I heartily believe it, that all that God has

duces God to pour His blessings upon us.

Neither is it our worthi-
ness that prompts God to
make us the recipients of
His gifts. We must say
with Jacob: ‘‘I am not
worthy of the least of all
the mercies, and of all
the truth, which Thou has
showed unto Thy sery-
ant,’? Gen. 32, 10. We
are not worthy of the least
of God’s kindnesses, for
we are all sinners.

Why, then, is: God so
good tous? Purely out of
fatherly, divine goodness
and mercy. ‘‘It is of the
Lord’s mercies that we are
not consumed, because His compassions fail
not. They are new every morning: great is
Thy faithfulness,’’ Lam. 3, 22. 23. Though
we have no right to expect anything and have
merited nothing, God has given us life and
being and provides for us day after day. And
His mercy never fails, He helps us in our
wretchedness and supplies our needs and
wants. As a father pitieth his children, so
the Lord pitieth us, of His bountiful richness
provides for us, and with His mighty arm pro-
tects us. ‘He crowneth us with loving-kind-
ness and tender mercies,” Ps. 103, 4. —

What do we owe God for all His goodness?
Tuther answers: ‘‘¥or all which it is my duty
to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.’’
An ungrateful person is by everybody re-
garded to be a despicable creature. A person
who is ungrateful to his benefactor is despised
by everybody. God is our greatest benefactor,

_ therefore He deserves our heartfelt gratitude.

We should allow no day to pass without ex-
pressing our thankfulness to Him for His good-
nd mercy. ; eos

id we should also praise Hin, we should

aud and magnify His-loving-kindness. Not
satisfied with merely expressing our own grat-

| given and is still giving me is the outflow of

A Praying Mohammedan.

His goodness and mercy and is not merited by
me, neither in whole nor in part. Wherefore

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of
creation!

O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy Health
and Salvation!

Join the full throng;

Wake, harp and psalter and song;

Sound forth in glad adoration!
F.J. L.

.

——~+ oo >

Seeking a Blessed Immortality with-
out Christ.

The Mohammedans are a poor deluded
people. They know nothing of Christ, the
Saviour; nothing of the forgiveness of sins
through Him; nothing of the grace of God in
Him. Seeking a blessed immortality they
have therefore fallen upon the imaginations
and inventions of man. One such invention
is the visiting of the sacred shrine at Mecca.
There are, indeed, six other sacred shrines at
different places in Western Asia and South-
eastern Europe; but these are less highly
prized. It is the Mohammedan’s highest reli-
gious ambition to have said his prayers at
Mecca and then to wander afoot from there

to Medina, a distance of about three hundred
miles, to repeat his prayers at the tomb of
|Mohammed. The earnestness of these hea-
thenish religionists may well furnish food for
| reflection to many a Christian ; for they under-
take many sufferings and do not fear death
in order to gain a blessed immortality, which,
| however, they seek in vain. To what un-
| reasonable service their heathenish fanaticism
| leads them may be seen from the following.
| As soon as winter is fairly over, the fever
of travel seizes upon thousands and thousands
|of Moslem souls. Their aim is to reach one of
| the seven sacred shrines, especially the one at
| Mecca, where their prophet, Mohammed, is
| said to have been born. The pilgrims come in
large companies, called caravans, or, if need
| be, in ships to the nearest port, which, in the
| case of Mecca, is Jeddah. They will, at the
time of sunset, never neglect to arrange little
| sanctuaries by spreading upon the ground, or,
| as the case may be, upon the deck of the ship,
their little “ prayingrugs,’’
upon which, in prayer,
they prostrate themselves
in the direction of their
most holy city.

The scene at Suez when
a pilgrim craft is about
starting is said to be such
that it never will be for-
gotten when once wit-
nessed. The multitude is
one mass of excitement
and confusion. The por-
ters (hamals), who fight for
the luggage, begin the tu-
mult. Women shriek, chil-
dren cry, men scold and
swear. Such as are unable
to accompany the band of pilgrims are sullen
and scowling; friends are weeping, for many
who now depart will never return.

And what is the great aim of these enthu-
siasts? They are chasing after a blessed im-
mortality. For the greater part they are con-
cerned very little about the prospect of a safe
return home. If they do return, well and good,
for then they enjoy the distinction of having
graduated in the great college of sanctity, and
will, as ‘‘hajis,’® be regarded by all with much
admiration. However, those will be happiest
who have not only worshiped before the Black
Stone in the ‘‘Beit Allah’’ (house of God) at
Mecca, but have also gone far into the desert
to the prophet’s tomb at Medina.

One of the most striking of the Moham-
medan ceremoniesis that of ‘stoning the Great
Deyil.”? What pilgrim would miss this? Not
one. All set out, soon after reaching the Holy
City, for the base of ‘‘Holy Ararat,’’ about six
miles distant. A small, rough buttress at the
base of the mountain is known as ‘‘Shaitan el
Kabir,” or Devil’s Pillar. The stoning of the
“Great Devil’? begins early in the morning:
This ceremony is a very religious observance
among them, but one that costs many & par-