The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1903, Page 29

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Ghe Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LurnEeRaAN SynopicAL CONFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.

Vol. XXV.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., a8 second-class matter.

St. Louis, Mo., August, 1903.

No. 8.

In Me Ye Shall Have Peace.

Long days and nights upon this restless bed
Of daily, nightly weariness and pain!
Yet Thou art here, my ever gracious Lord,
Thy well-known voice speaks not to me in vain:
“Tn me ye shall have peace!’’

The darkness seemeth long, and e’en the light
No respite brings with it, no soothing rest
For this worn frame. Yet in the midst of all
Thy love revives. Father, Thy will is best.
‘(In me ye shall have peace!”

Sleep cometh not, when most I seem to need
Its kindly balm. O Father, be to me
Better than sleep; and let these sleepless hours
Be hours of blessed fellowship with Thee —
“(In me ye shall have peace!”’

Not always scen the wisdom and the love;
And sometimes hard to be believed, when pain
Wrestles with faith, and almost overcomes;
Yet e’en in conflict Thy sure words sustain —
“In me ye shall have peace!”’

Father, the flesh is weak: fain would I rise
Above its weakness into things unseen.
Lift Thou me up; give me the open ear
To hear the voice that speaketh from within —
“In me ye shall have peace!’’

Father, the hour is come; the hour when I
Shall with these fading eyes behold Thy face,

And drink in all the fullness of Thy love.

Till then, oh, speak to me Thy words of grace:
“Tn me ye shall have peace!”

[The above lines were found among Dr. Horatius Bonar's
papers after his death. It is believed they were the last ho
ever wrote.]

——<—- <P oo

Assurance of Faith.

A pastor visited a member of his church who
was rapidly approaching the eternal world. She
told him that her distressing cough had de-
prived her of sleep during the previous night,
and that she was suffering greatly. His reply
was, ‘‘Cheer up! for you will soon be where
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more
pain.’’

“Oh,’’ she exclaimed, with touching anx-
iety, “if I only knew that! How can I know
it?”

“Suppose,’’ the pastor answered, ‘when I
leave your house, I meet an acquaintance who

asks, ‘How is Mrs. § to-day?’ I tell her
that you coughed nearly all night and feel
very badly. She then says, ‘How can I know
that?’ What should I reply?’’

‘You would inform her,’’ she answered,
“that I told you.”’

‘*Precisely so, and God tells you in His
Word that if you believe on His dear Son,
you shall certainly be saved. ‘Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’
Mark well, God says to the believer, ‘Thou
shalt be saved.’ Now, if I can believe you
without a moment’s hesitation, will you not
believe the blessed God?”

‘tYes,’’ she said with a happy smile, ‘‘I be-
lieve what God says; He cannot lie.’”’ *

Such is the assurance of faith. The be-
liever knows that he has forgiveness of sins
and life everlasting. He knows he is saved.
He knows it upon the sure testimony of God,
who can neither deceive nor be deceived. His
promises are confirmed by an oath and sealed
with the seals of the holy sacraments. His
testimony is more worthy of credit than the
testimony of our own heart; more worthy of
credit than the testimony of the entire human
race of all generations combined. He has
given His sealed promise and His oath to save
with an everlasting salvation every soul that
trusts in Jesus Christ. How, then, does the
believer ‘now that he is saved? He knows it,
because God has said it; he knows it by be-
lieving the sure testimony of God’s Word.
By believing that Word he knows he was a
condemned and ruined sinner; by believing
that Word he knows Christ came to suffer
and to die for the redemption of a lost world;
and by believing that same Word he, trust-
ing in Jesus Christ, knows that he is saved.
That Word tells him: ‘‘God so loved the
world that He gave His only-begotten Son,
that WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD
NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.’’
Pondering such a passage, the believer says,
“tGod loved the world’ —TI belong to the
world, and so God loved me and gave His
only-begotten Son for me into sufferings and
death, to redeem me from sin and all its woe;
‘whosoever’ —no matter who he is and what
he is—‘whosoever believeth in Him, should

not perish’ — that word ‘whosoever’ surely in-
cludes me; so I, believing in Christ, shall not
perish, not be lost, but have— not doubtfully
hope or expect to have, but Have—everlast-
ing life— not life for a few weeks, or months,
or years only, but everlasting life. God says
it, and I believe it, and so Z know that I am
saved.’’ The believer, who thus rests upon
the promises of God, is safe; for God’s prom-
ises can never fail.

A young minister was in the habit of visit-
ing an aged Scotch woman in his congrega-
tion who was familiarly called ‘‘Old Nanny.’’
She was bed-ridden and rapidly approaching
the end of her ‘‘long and weary pilgrimage,”
but she rested with undisturbed peace and
full assurance of faith upon the finished
work of Christ. One day he said to her,
“Now, Nanny, what, if after all your confi-
dence in the Saviour, and your watching and
waiting, God should suffer your soul to be
lost?”

Raising herself on her elbow, and turning
to him with a look of pain and grief, she laid
her hand on the open Bible before her, and
quietly replied, ‘‘Ah, dearie me, is that all
the length you have got yet, man? God,”
she continued earnestly, ‘‘would have the
greatest loss. Poor Nannie would but lose
her soul, and that would be a great loss in-
deed, but God would lose His honor and His
character. Haven’t I hung my soul upon His
‘exceeding great and precious promises’? and
if He break His word, He would make Him-
self a liar, AND ALL THE UNIVERSE WOULD RUSH
INTO CONFUSION.””

“The Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth
on Him shall not be ashamed,”’. Rom. 10, 11.

—_— Po oe

A Good Confession.

In a letter, written in 1893, Mr. Gladstone,
the great English statesman, thus briefly ex-
pressed himself in response to an inquiry re-
lating to his Christian belief: “©All I think, all
I hope, all I write, all I live for is based upon
the divinity of Jesus Christ, the central joy of
my poor, wayward life.””