The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1903, Page 33

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Dhe Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY

MONTHLY.

PuBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LutHERAN SyNODICAL ConFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.
R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Doubt Not!

Wherefore dost thou doubt, O soul?
Wherefore dost thou doubt?

Cannot Christ, thy loving Lord,
Work life’s problems out?

Has He not delivered thee
Many a trying hour?

Is He not the same to-day
In almighty power?

Has His blood not purchased thee?
Art thou not His own?

Through the whelming waters deep
Dost thou go alone?

Wouldst thou know the reason why
All these things go ‘wrong’?

He will show thee by and by;
Change thy sighs to song.

He will surely bring to thee
Whatsoe’er is best;

Guide thee all thy journey through
To His promised rest.

Doubt Him not, O troubled soul!
Wherefore be afraid?
Arms of love encompass thee!

Be thou not dismayed!
Selected.

——— —- oo

Worthy in Christ.

——

Sinners often meet with obstacles in trying
to find peace, simply because they persist in
thinking of themselves instead of directing
their thoughts to Christ, and to the object of
His mission to earth, and to His finished work.
They hear Christ’s invitation to come to Him
for rest; but they complain that they are not
good enough to come. No, and they never
will be in themselves; but they forget that
Jesus has said, ‘‘I am not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance,’’ Matt.
9,18. ‘The Son of Man is come to seek and
to save that which was lost,” Luke 19, 10.
“This is a faithful saying,” says Paul, “and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus
came into the world tosave sinners; of whom
I amohief,”’ 1 Tim. 1, 15. Who was Paul and
what was he doing when Christ saved him?
He himself tells us he was ‘‘a blasphemer, and
& persecutor, and injurious,”? and “J verily
thought with myself,”’ he writes, ‘‘that! ought

to do many things contrary to the name of
Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in
Jerusalem; and many of the saints did I shut
up in prison, having received authority from
the chief priests; and when they were put to
death, I gave my voice against them. And I
punished them oft in every synagogue, and
compelled them to blaspheme; and being ex-
ceedingly mad against them, I persccuted
them even unto strange cities,” Acts 26,9—11.
Truly, Paul did nothing to make himself fit
or good enough to come, but he was “‘a brand
plucked out of the fire,’’? just as every other
saved sinner is; for all of us are far worse
than we think ourselves to be, even when most
deeply humbled under a sense of our guilt.

The fact is that out of Christ we have no
worth or worthiness at all, do what we may;
but in Christ the vilest of the vile are infi-
nitely worthy, there being ‘‘no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus ;’’ for they
are clothed with the righteousness of God’s
Son.

A wicked, swearing teamster, who had been
the terror of the neighborhood, was led by the
Spirit to the knowledge of his sins and to faith
in Jesus, and it was announced that he would
openly confess the Saviour before men and
partake of the Lord’s Supper.

Driving through a town where he was well
known, he was met by an old woman with the
question, ‘‘They tell me, Thomas, that you be
going to take the Sacrament on Sunday ; is it
true that you be?”’

“By the grace of Christ, my Saviour,’’ he
replied, ‘“‘I shall be a guest at His Table and
shall have the privilege of showing His death
with others who believe in Him.”’

“But, Thomas, do you think that you be
worthy ?’” said the old woman. ‘‘I don’t mean
to reflect on ye, but you know what kind of
man you have been, and what kind of life you
have led, and do you think, Thomas, that you
be worthy ?”’

‘(Ag worthy as any man in town,” was the
reply, ‘‘for Iam a poor, worthless sinner saved
by the grace of God through the precious
blood of Christ. I trust in Him alone and do
not doubt that He gives me His body and His
blood as a pledge of the forgiveness of all my

sins. Yes, I only trust in Jesus and in His
finished work.”’

Such is the language of faith leading the
sinner to lose sight of self in the believing
contemplation of the Saviour, who so gra-
ciously says, ‘‘Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out,’’ John 6, 37.

“But I am a great sinner, sayest thou?
Twill in no wise cast out, says Christ.
But I am an old sinner, sayest thou?
Iwill in no wise cast out, says Christ.
I have served Satan all my days, sayest thou?
Iwill in no wise cast out, says Christ.
But I have sinned against light, sayest thou?
Iwill in no wise cast out, says Christ.
But I have sinned against mercy, sayest thou?
Twill in no wise cast out, says Christ.
I have no good thing to bring, sayest thou?
Twill in no wise cast out, says Christ.”

The God- Man.

Jesus was a man, but He was more. He sat
weary at Jacob’s well, and, therefore, was a
man; but He lifted the redeemed soul of the
sinful woman into the joy of eternal life, and,
therefore, was God. He slept upon a pillow
in the ship, and, therefore, was man; but He
stilled the raging of the tempest with a word,
and, therefore, was God. He weptat the grave
of Lazarus, and, therefore, was man; but He
called the dead man from the tomb, and, there-
fore, was God. He is the God-Man, our
Redeemer. —J. H. B.

oe eo

A Blessed Service.

An aged pastor closed his last sermon with
the following precious words: “‘When the
wind blows cold He slways takes the bleak
side of the hill. The heaviest end of the cross
lies ever on His shoulders. These forty years
and more have I served Him, blessed be His
name! and Ihave had nothing but love from
Him. I would be glad to continue yet another
forty years in the same dear service here be-
low if so it pleased Him. His service is life,
peace, joy. Oh, that you would enter on it
at once! God help you to enlist under the
banner of Jesus even this day! Amen.””