The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1907, Page 73

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The Zutheran

A MISSIONARY M

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PuBLIsHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LuTHERAN SyYNODICAL Coxgenes qe Gr 4

Entered at the Post Office at St. Louls, Mo., as second-class matter.

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AMERICA.
R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor. =
No. 10.

. atone: Mo. 5 Oo ctober, 1907.

Jesus, With Thy Church Abide.

Jesus, with Thy Church abide,

Be her Savior, Lord, and Guide

While on earth her faith is tried:
We beseech Thee, hear us!

Arms of love around her throw,

Shield her safe from every foe,

Comfort her in time of woe:
We beseech ‘Thee, hear us!

Keep her life and doctrine pure,
Grant her patience to endure,
Trusting in Thy promise sure:

We beseech Thee, hear us!
May she one in doctrine be,
One in truth and charity,
Winning souls to faith in Thee:

We beseech Thee, hear us!

T. B. Pollock.

—_—___———_o-0-—___

Reformation Day.

he last day of this month is Reformation Day.
It is a day which reminds us of the great blessings
which God conferred upon the Church through His
servant, Dr. Martin Luther. The greatest of these
blessings is the restitution of the Gospel.

The Gospel is the divine doctrine of the gra-
cious forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus
Christ unto eternal life. This precious doctrine,
the sinner’s only comfort, God has revealed to man
in the Bible, and the Bible was in the world before
Luther’s time, and it contained the Gospel then as
* well as now. But the people had no access to that
precious book. ‘Even those who were called to be
the teachers of the Church had mostly never seen it,
much less had they ever read it. They were blind
leaders of the blind. ‘They taught doctrines of

human invention, and led the people in ways in
which peace and salvation cannot be found. Souls
were pointed, not to Christ, the only Savior, but to
human saviors who can do sinners no good. They
were told to trust for salvation, not in the finished
work of Christ, but in their own works and in the
works of the saints. Thus souls were left in dark-
ness and despair; for there is no peace to be found
in the way pointed out in the Romish church.

Luther experienced this when he, anxious for
salvation, did as he was bidden to do in the Romish
church. He sought peace and the assurance of sal-
vation in human works and righteousness. But it
was all in vain. He found no peace for his troubled
soul until God in His great mercy opened to him
the Bible, from which he learned the Gospel way
of salvation. He learned that the sinner is justified
and saved by grace through faith in Jesus, “in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His
grace.” By faith in this Gospel he obtained peace
and the assurance of salvation, and his soul was |
filled with joy. He himself says, “I felt as if I
were new-born; I had found the gates of paradise
wide open.”

The Gospel which brought him such great bless-

ings Luther made known for the salvation of others.

He proclaimed and defended it in his preaching and
in his writings. Thus he became the Reformer of
the Church, God’s own messenger, of whom it is
written; “I saw another angel fly in the midst of
heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto
them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation,
and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with
a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to Him,”
Rev. 14, 7.