The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1903, Page 26

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26

‘The Lutheran Pioneer.

The Second Article.

Many ‘are the benefits which we acknowl-
edge in the First Article. And all these God
has given us without any merit or worthi-
ness in us, for we are sinners. And being un-
worthy and undeserving of His benefits, we
have made matters yet worse by proving un-
grateful and disobedient even after experienc-
ing the heavenly Father’s goodness and love.
We are, indeed, most wretched creatures, de-
serving of punishment and condemnation, and
all the divine blessings of which we speak in
the First Article cannot alter the fact that we
are lost and condemned sinners. Our sins
have turned us away from God, and we have
all gone astray. Because of sin the wrath and
curse of a righteous God are upon us.

But yet God loved us. He desired to save
the lost and to remove from us the sentence
of death. To make this possible, He gave
His only-begotten Son, so that all who believe
in Him should not perish, but have everlast-
ing life. O wonderful love! God, the holy,
righteous, insulted God, loves the world, sin-
ners, rebels, and to save them gives His dear-
est and best, gives His Son, delivers Him into
poverty, shame, and death.

O wondrous Love! what hast Thou done!

The Father offers up His Son,

The Son, content, descendeth!

O Love! O Love! how strong art Thou!

In shroud and grave Thou lay’st Him low

Whose word the mountains, rendeth! i

What blessed tidings for us, for the whole
world of sinners! Here is truly a word worthy
of all acceptation: Christ Jesus has comé into
the world to save sinners.

Of Jesus Christ and His blessed work of
Redemption we learn in

- Tue Seconp ArrIcLe.

The first thing we learn in this Article are
the names of our Saviour and Redeemer. Be-
fore His birth the angel had said to Joseph:
“She [Mary] shall bring forth a Son, and thou
shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save
His people from their sins.”” The name Jesus
was given to the Saviour by divine command.
And why He was to be called Jesus, the angel
tells Joseph: ‘*For He shall save His people
from their sins.’” —The name Jesus means Say-
jour, Redeemer, Rescuer, or Helper. And
what more appropriate name could be given
Him, since it expressly states His purpose of
coming into the world?

Dear name! the Rock on which I build,
My Shield and Hiding-place.

My never-failing Treasury, filled

With boundless stores of grace.

The other name given our Saviour is Curist.
This name means: the Anointed. This name

has the same meaning as the Hebrew name

Messiah. Why our Saviour bears this name

elearn Ps. 45,7. There, namely, the Psalm-
ist says to the Saviour: ‘‘God, Thy God, hath
anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above
Thy fellows.?? Referring to the fact that in

the Old Testament prophets, priests, and kings
were anointed to their offices with the oil of
gladness, that is, the Holy Ghost, he says that
Jesus is anointed with the Holy; Spirit above
them. Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed, for
He is anointed with the Holy Ghost without
measure. And He is anointed to a threefold
office, namely, to that of Prophet, Priest, and
King. He is in the fullest sense Prophet,
Priest, and King in one person, for He teaches
us the way to heaven, reconciles us with God,
and rules, guides, and protects us. Moses,
Asron, and David were but shadows of Jesus,
the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed.
F. J. L.

——__—2- oo -

The Christian’s Experience.

The Christian knows from experience that
the Bible is God’s Word. That Book has
done for him what no human book can do.
He has experienced its divine power, and
can say with the man to whom Jesus gave
sight, ‘‘One thing I know, that, whereas I
was blind, now I see.” He can truthfully
affirm, ‘‘The things I formerly hated I love,
and the things I formerly loved I hate.’’

And as the Christian advances in years, the
Bible becomes more precious to him as God’s
Word. He experiences more and more the
divine power of that holy Book. In the trials
and sorrows and afllictions of life he finds
divine comfort in the Bible, and he can say
with the Psalmist: ‘‘Unless Thy Law had
been my delights, I should then have perished
in mine affliction.”’

Especially is the Christian’s experience of
value when his warfare is accomplished, and
his work on earth is finished. Then, while
sight and hearing and friends and the world
and life are failing, he finds what the Bible
is to him with its clear, strong assurance,
“The eternal God is thy refuge, and under-
neath are the everlasting arms,’’ and he can
say with the Psalmist: “Though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”’

“Bring me the Book,’ said Sir Walter
Scott on his dying bed. ‘‘What book?’’ in-
quired his son-in-law. ‘‘There is but one
Book,’’ replied the departing novelist, histo-
rian, and poet; and the Bible was placed rey-
erently in his hands.

Yes, there is but one Book whose light
pierces the awful darkness of the grave, and
guides the weary spirit of the believer home
to the bright land, where ‘‘God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes; and there
shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor
crying, neither shall there be any more pain;
for the former things are passed away,’’ Rev.
21, 4.

How precious is the Book divine,
By inspiration given!

Bright as a lamp its doctrines shine,
To guide our souls to heaven.

“Pray Without Ceasing.”

A Christian servant girl overheard a num-
ber of ministers discussing the text, ‘‘Pray
without ceasing,’’ and found that at length
they appointed one of their number to pre-
pare an essay upon the subject to be read at
their next meeting.

She modestly expressed surprise to a fel-
low servant that they should take so much
time about a passage of Scripture so plain
and simple; and her remark having reached
the ears of one of the ministers, he asked her
why she thought it easy to understand the text.

She replied with humility that it seemed to
her believers were compelled to pray without
ceasing, for everything they did reminded
them of the Saviour and salvation. ‘*When,
for example,’’ she went on to say, ‘‘I open
my eyes in the morning, I praise God who
hath shined into my heart to give me the light
of the knowledge of His glory in the face of
Jesus Christ. When I dress, I bless Him for
having clothed me in the spotless robe of His
dear Son’s righteousness. When I wash my
face, I thank Him for the precious blood that
cleanseth from all sin. When I kindle the
fire, I think of the cloven tongues like as of
fire, and the Holy Ghost who came down on
the day of Pentecost to dwell with the dis-
ciples of Jesus. When I sweep the room, I
ask that the Holy Spirit may remove from me
all defilement, and keep me clean through the
Word.. When I eat my breakfast, I turn my
mind to the Bread of heaven that daily nour-
ishes my soul; and thus in all my little duties
there is something that brings Christ before
me and causes me to pray without ceasing.’”’

That girl lived in close and constant com-
munion with Jesus, and therefore she knew
what it means to pray without ceasing.

———->~- oP ee

“Pana, Are You There?”

Dr. Trumbull tells of a little boy who slept
inatrundle-bed. He never went to sleep in the
dark without asking, ‘‘Papa, are you there?”’

‘Yes, my son.”’

‘“Will you take care of me to-night?”

‘*Yes, my son.’’

Then he would turn over and fall asleep.

“That little boy,’’? said Dr. Trumbull, is
now an old man of sixty-seven years, but he
never goes to sleep without looking into His
heavenly Father’s face and saying, ‘‘Father,
will you take care of me to-night?’’ And the
answer comes back in every experience of
darkness, ‘Yes, my ‘son,’’ and then, ‘He
giveth His beloved sleep.’’

Into the Father’s Hand.

A Christian sailor, when asked why he Te
mained so calm during a fearful storm at 5¢8;
answered: ‘Though I sink, I shall only fall
into the hollow of my Father’s hand, for He
holds all these waters there.””