The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1904, Page 59

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hates sin; He is just and must punish sin; He is
true and has threatened to punish the transgressor.
Therefore every transgression must first be atoned
for before it can be forgiven. ‘‘Without shedding
of blood is no remission,’’ Hebr. 9, 22.

That the people of Israel might be constantly
reminded of the necessity of atonement for sin God
instituted the sacrifices of the Old Testament. The
sacrificial victim, be it a lamb, goat, bullock, or
dove, took the place of the sinner, whose blood
should have flowed. To show that only the pure
could atone for the impure, the sacrificial victim
must be without blemish. He that brought the
sacrifice laid his hand upon the victim’s head, con-
fessed his sins, and thus symbolically imposed his
sins upon the sacrifice. The blood of the sacrifice
was then sprinkled upon the altar. The most im-
portant sacrifice was offered by the high priest on
the great Day of Atonement. With the blood of
the sacrifice he entered the Holy of Holies, sprinkled
the mercy seat seven times, and implored the for-
giveness of God for the whole people.

All this was done that the people might retain
a sense of their guilt and to point them to Christ,
of whom all the sacrifices of the Old Covenant were
but types. The sacrificial victims were the sub-
stitutes of the sinners. But

Not all the blood of beasts,
On Jewish altars slain,

Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain.

Man had sinned, therefore man must atone for sin.
That God’s Son might atone for man’s sin, He took
upon Himself our flesh and blood and suffered and
died as our Substitute. And this suffering and
death of. Christ was an all-sufficient ransom for
our souls, since His blood was holy and precious.

The blood of Christ is holy blood, for it is the
blood of a Lamb without blemish and without spot.
Never did holy blood flow but on Calvary. Christ
knew of no sin, He was holy and pure. But God
made Him to be sin, that is, He imputed to Him
our sins, and then punished Him as though He
were the sinner. Christ bore the whole wrath of
God in our stead. ‘‘Surely He hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem Him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He
was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised
for our iniquities: -the chastisement of our peace
was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed,’’
Is. 53, 4. 5.

Christ's blood was the blood of God’s Son, and
therefore it was precious. Infinite was man’s guilt,
but infinite is the price wherewith man was bought,

The Lutheran Pioneer. 59

for ‘‘the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us
from all sin,”? 1 John1,7. Being the blood of God’s
Son it is sufficient to wipe ayey, the whole guilt
of man.

Jesus, the Lord, the mighty God,

An all-sufficient ransom paid:

O matchless price! This precious blood

For vile, rebellious traitors shed.

Surely, we have been bought with a price! How
thankful we should be to Him who has at such great
cost redeemed us and made us His own! ‘‘Ye are
bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your
body, and in your spirit, which are God’s,”’ 1 Cor.
6, 20. F.J.L.

Nn

A Useless Member.

The following story, from an exchange, may be
used as a parable and applied as needed. ‘‘Yes,”’
said Aunt Sarah, surveying her bandaged wrist, ~
“‘the doctor says it’s a bad sprain; and the minister p
says I know now how the church feels, in not hav-
ing the use of all its members. The minister didn’t
mean that just for.a joke, either; he looked at me
as if he wanted to see how I’d take it. I had sense
enough, too, to feel I deserved to have him say
it for me. A word like that comes home pretty
straight when one of your own members is useless
and worse. :

“I’ve never thought just what being a member
of the church meant before, though I’ve been one
for thirty-five years. I’ve never felt obliged to do
what the church wanted done. I felt it was a favor,
my doing it at all, and half the time I let some one
else do it instead. When I was through with work
at home, and with what things I liked to do out-
side, then I was willing to do something in the
church — if it was the kind of work that suited me.
I guess I’ve been about as useless a member to the
church as the sprained hand is to me, all stiff and
crippled, and refusing to bend more than an inch’
or two. :

‘There’s lots of things I need to do, but I can’t
use this member to do them—that’s certain. That’s
the way the minister felt about me, I guess. I’ve
been a useless member for thirty-five years, that’s
the long and short of it; and, if the rest of the
members had been like me, the church would haye
been as paralyzed as old cousin Josiah Jones, who
can’t move hand nor foot. I’m ashamed of myself
—I truly am—and things are going to be different
from now on,’? and Aunt Sarah nodded her head
with a firm determination as she looked at the .
church spire from her window. Z :