The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1905, Page 90

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90

the tidings would not be good tidings. But there is
not one excepted. The Saviour born at Bethlehem
““came to seek and to save that which is lost.’’ All
are lost. ‘‘There is none righteous, no, not one,’’
says the Bible. There is no exception: all are lost.
So the Saviour came to save all. There is no ex-
ception: He is the Saviour of all. The Saviour
born at Bethlehem ‘‘came into the world to save
sinners.’? All men are sinners. ‘‘For all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God,’’ says
the Bible. There is no exception. Al] have sinned.
So the Saviour came to save all: There is no ex-
ception. Therefore the angel who brought the
Christmas tidings plainly said: ‘‘I bring you good
tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.’’
To all people—to the learned and the unlearned,
to the high and the low, to the rich and the poor,
to the young and the old, to every sinner the Christ-
mas tidings bring the Saviour from sin and woe.
‘God so loved the world that He gave His only-
begotten Son, that whosoever’’—no matter who he
is and what he is—“whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life,’’ John
8,16. The Christmas tidings are indeed good
tidings. There are none better. They make known
the birth of a Saviour who is the Saviour of all
sinners.

These good tidings are for you. Believe them,
and your heart will be filled with true Christmas
joy. The Saviour whose birth they make known
they at the same time offer to you as your Saviour.
Receive Him in true faith, and you find in Him all
that your soul needs for time and eternity.

These good tidings are for all people. Let us,
then, as we have opportunity, spread the Christ-
mas tidings for the salvation of sinners. Enjoying
the peace and salvation which the good tidings
bring, let us make known these tidings to others,
that they also may find God’s peace and good will
in the Saviour born at Bethlehem for all sinners.

The Holy Christmas Night.

Without the shining Christmas night of Bethle-
hem our whole life would be deep darkness. With-
out Christmas, no Good Friday; without Good
‘Friday, no Easter; without Easter, no Pentecost,
no Gospel, no baptism, no salvation, no heaven,
no happiness. Here we would be lost, because
we would have no God; there we would be con-
demned, because we would be without heaven.
That would be the fate of all of us, without the
holy Christmas night at Bethlehem. Thought,
dark as midnight, depart! Thought, pale as death,

The Lutheran Pioneer.

flee from us! Thought, terrible as the terrors of
hell, leave us! —No, our fate is not to despair, for
unto us the Saviour is born in the holy Christmas
night.— WV. F.

— > —____

Unto You is Born a Saviour.

This little word, ‘‘you,’’ ought to cheer our

hearts. For of whom and to whom does the angel
speak? Most assuredly not to wood or stones, but
to men. And not to one man or two, but to all

that are men, as he says this joy‘‘ shall be to all
people.’?’ Whosoever is a man, himself born of
woman, may and ought to accept this new-born
Saviour. Angels do not need Him. Devils do not
want Him. But we need Him, and for our sake He
has become true man. Ours is this Christ, with
body and soul, with everything He has, so that we
may trust in this and defy our enemies, that Christ
is our brother, our treasure, more fully ours than a
husband belongs to his wife, or a son to his father.
And if He be ours, we are His. Wherever He is we

also are to be, and whatever He has is to be ours.

Luther.
ee

Christ Our Light.

Pastor Frommel relates the following : —

I was called one Christmas Eve to the bedside
of an old man of eighty years, who lay dying.

He was poor, very poor. As long as he was
able, he had earned his daily bread by carpentering,
but now he was old, blind, and sick. As long as
he could see, he had searched diligently in God’s
Word. As long as he could go, in spite of his blind-
ness, he went Sunday after Sunday to church, a two
hours’ journey over the mountain, led by his little
grandson; but he had fallen once and was now so
lame that he could not leave his bed. I had often
sat by his side, yet in the twenty years that I had
known him he never uttered a word of complaint.
Deep peace rested upon his noble features, and his
highest joy was to speak of the mystery of God’s
love, to my edification. As the end drew near that
Christmas Eve, I asked him what text I should take
for his funeral sermon. Raising himself up and

‘turning his sightless eyes upon me, he said, ‘‘My

text is in the book of Micah and reads: When I sit
in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.”
“Christ is come to be thy light

Shining through the darkest night;

He will make thy pilgrim way

Shine unto the perfect day.

Take the message! Let it be

Full of Christmas joy to thee.’?