The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1905, Page 89

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A

MISSIONARY

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MIONTHLY.

PusBuisueD BY THE EVANGELICAL LutTimeran SynopicaLt CONFERENCE or Nortm AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

: Vol. XXVII.

St. Louis, Mo., December, 1905.

No. 12.

Good Tidings.

“Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be
to all people.” Luke 2, 10.

“Good tidings!’ Wake, O men, and hear
What blessing to the world draws near.
The messengers of love,
Sent from their home above,
A glimpse of heaven’s glory bring,
While to their golden harps they sing —
“Good tidings!”

“Great joy!’? The sorrowing sons of earth,
Who sat {n darkness from their birth,
Shall see this radiant light
Pierce through their gloomy night,
And shall rejoice that angels bore
The heavenly message to earth’s shore—
“Great joy!”

“To alll’? To all of every land
This message brings the angel band.

Not the loved Jew alone,

But all—yes, every one i
Shall hear this news, shall share this joy,
Shall have this gift without alloy —

“All! alll”

‘tA Saviour!’’? Yea, from all their sin
His people shall He save, and win
Peace for His servants true —
His peace, forever new.
Give us Thy peace, O Christ, our King,
That we for aye with angels sing —
“Our Saviour!’’

————+ e+ _____—_

Good Tidings.

The Christmas tidings are good tidings. They
tell us that the Saviour is born. ‘‘Unto you is born
this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is
Christ the Lord.’’ It is just such a Saviour as sin-
ners need. A mere man could not save us from sin

and its punishment. God’s own power was neces-
sary to bear the dreadful burden of sin and the
heavy weight of its punishment. Our Saviour must
be God and man in one person. And behold! God
in His great mercy sent us just such a Saviour.
‘“God so loved the world that He gave His only-
begotten Son.’’? God’s own Son became man, born
of the Virgin Mary. The angel called the Child
born at Bethlehem ‘‘the Lord.’”’? That Child is true
man, born of the Virgin Mary, but He is also true
God, begotten of the Father from eternity. The
Child wrapped in swaddling-clothes and laid in a
manger was the Lord, the great Jehovah, God over
all, blessed forever. In that Child the Son of God
became the Son of man. For what purpose? In
order to be the Saviour of sinful man. He, the
God-man, took the sinners’ place and bore the sin-
ners’ punishment, and thus redeemed man from
sin and all its woe. ‘‘Unto you is born this day in
the city of David a Saviour.’’? A Saviour from sin
and everlasting damnation! Indeed, these tidings
are good tidings. What better tidings could there
be for lost and condemned sinners? In the manger
of Bethlehem we find redemption for the slaves of
sin, peace for the restless, help for the helpless,
salvation for the lost, heaven for the condemned !
There can be no better tidings than the Christmas
tidings: ‘‘Unto you is born a Saviour.’’

The Christmas tidings are good tidings. They
are ‘‘unto all people,”’ as the Saviour whose birth
they make known is the Saviour of all sinners, even
the chief of sinners. ‘“‘This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief,”
1Tim.1,15. The Saviour born at Bethlehem is the
Saviour of all men. If there were one exception,
then each sinner might think himself that one, and