The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1903, Page 45

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Che Lutheran Pioneer,

A MISSIONARY ONIN sks:
;

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

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

Vol. XXV.

Yo. 12,

Christmas.

Fear not! The Christmas message comes,
Good tidings of great joy!

It brings to you and all the world
A gift none can destroy.

For you is born in Bethlehem
A little helpless Babe,

The Christ, your Lord, your Saviour, King!
He comes the world to save.

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A Faithful Saying.

A faithful saying is a saying which is true,
and which is therefore worthy of belief. Such
a saying is the Christmas message which tells
us of the birth of the Saviour of sinners.
St. Paul says, ‘‘It is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners,’’ 1 Tim.
1,15. ‘‘Christ Jesus came into the world.”’
He came from the glory which He had with the
Father from all eternity. St. John, speaking
of the Son of God, says, ‘‘In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.’’ ‘‘And the Word
was made flesh.’’ It was the Word that was
made flesh; it was the Son of God that be-
came man, born of the Virgin Mary. ‘‘When
the fullness of the time was come, God sent
forth His Son, made of a woman, made under
the Law.’? Therefore the angel who brought
the Christmas tidings to the shepherds in the
holy Christmas night called the Child born at
Bethlehem, ‘Christ the Lord.’’ That Child
for whom there was no room in the inn and
who was laid in the manger was the great
Jehovah, the Maker of all things, God over
all, blessed forever. The Babe at whose rough
couch we worship in the blessed Christmas
time is the God-man in whom we see God

IManifest in the flesh.

This is a great mystery, above all human
understanding, and therefore rejected by
those who in the pride of their own wisdom
know not God, nor the works and ways of
God. They laugh ast the birth of a virgin
mother, and will not believe that the holy
Child born of the virgin is the Son of God.

But no matter what foolish man may say or
think, the Christmas saying is a faithful say-
ing, a true saying, worthy to be believed for
our comfort.

Yes, for our comfort. For, if it were not
true, if the Child born at Bethlehem in the
blessed Christmas night was not the Son of
God, then we have no Saviour and are lost
forever. By sin we were subject to God’s
wrath and everlasting damnation. We could
not help ourselves, neither could a mere man
be our Saviour. God’s own power was nec-
essary to lift the great mountain of sin from
8 perishing world, and to save us from ever-
lasting woe. In our helplessness God Him-
self came to the rescue. God so loved the
world, that He gave His only-begotten Son to
save us from utter ruin and endless misery.
God’s own Son became man, and took the
sinners’ place under the Law, and bore the
sinners’ transgressions, and endured the sin-
ners’ punishment. To this end did He come,
and therefore the angel making known His
birth said, ‘‘Unto you is born this day, in the
city of David, a Saviour.” This is indeed
good news, but not too good to be true; for
‘tit is a faithful saying,’’ a true saying, ‘‘that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin-
ners.””

The self-righteous will nothing of all this.
They imagine that they can save themselves,
and therefore reject this saying of the birth
of a Saviour. But no matter what foolish
man may say or think, the Christmas saying
is a faithful saying, a true saying, a saying
worthy of belief.

In this faithful saying every sinner may
find peace and salvation. ‘Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners,’’ all sinners,
even the chief of sinners. Therefore the angel
said that the Christmas tidings of great joy
“shall be unto all people.’’ There is none
excepted, not one. The Saviour born at
Bethlehem is the Saviour of all. He is your
Saviour. Believe in Him and rejoice!

In this faithful Christmas saying the be-
liever has the assurance of God’s love in the
darkest hour of grief and sorrow and afflic-
tion. Much of life is dark. There is much
sorrow and trouble and heartache, and we

are often tempted to doubt God’s goodness.
But the faithful saying that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners brings light into
the darkness. In the light of this saying all
doubts are stilled. He that gave His own
Son to be a sacrifice for our sins surely loves
us, and His ways are ways of mercy. Many
mysteries still remain, but in the light of the
faithful saying one thing is clear: God’s pur-
pose towards us is one of love, and, clinging
to this, we shall some day see face to face
and know as we are known.

In the faithful Christmas saying we find in-
spiration for mission work. We carry on mis-
sion work to make Known the glad tidings
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners. This is not a doubtful saying, in-
vented by the human mind. No. It isa faith-
ful saying, a true saying. It is God’s own
message, and it will manifest its divine power
in church and school. Our labor cannot: be
in vain.

Let us, then, rest our hearts upon the ‘‘faith-
ful saying’’ that ‘‘Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners,” a saying which is
‘worthy of acceptation’” by all men.

0

God Is Love.

Do you doubt it? Behold the lowly Babe
of Bethleliem, whose birth we celebrate in the
blessed Christmas time! That Babe in the
manger is God’s own Son sent into the sin-
cursed world out of love to sinners. Not be-
cause God saw any worthiness in us did He
send His dear Son to be our Saviour, but be-
cause He loved us so. Not because we de-
served it did God’s Son become man and
take our place in poverty, and sufferings, and
death, but because He loved us so and desired
to save us from sin and everlasting damnation.
«God is love.’? This is the sweet truth which
we learn at the manger of Bethlehem. The
Christmas bells ring it out to the world and
ring it into our hearts, ‘‘God is love!” “God
is love!’ ‘God so loved the world, that He
gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life,’? John 3, 16.