The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1907, Page 81

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The Lutheran Pioneer,

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PuBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SYNODICAL CONFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XXIX.

St. Louis, Mo., November, 1907.

No. ll.

Jesus Only.
In vain we seek for peace with God
By methods of our own:
Jesus, there’s nothing but Thy blood
Can bring us near the throne.

‘Tis Thy atoning sacrifice

Hath answered all demands;

And peace and pardon from the skies
Are blessings from Thy hands.

Tis by Thy death we live, O Lord;
’Tis on Thy cross we rest.
Forever be Thy love adored,

Thy name forever blest!
Selected.

———————+-e-_____—_

Grasping at Straws.

In a letter recently received a traveling mission-
ary in one of our Western states relates the follow-
ing incident:

“On my way to one of my preaching stations
I recently waited for my train at a railway station,
when my attention was attracted by a number of
persons passing in and out of a tool-house. I crossed
the track and entered the house. There I saw the
body of a man found early that morning at the foot
of a steep embankment, not far from the station.
In one hand was grasped a straw. The man evi-
dently had grasped it while falling, thus trying to
get hold of something by which to save himself.
There he lay dead, with a straw in his hand. Of
this incident I am often reminded as in my mis-
sionary work I meet persons who are clinging to
some false hope for salvation.”

Such persons are grasping at straws, which can-
not save them from eternal death. They imagine

themselves good, or at least better than many other
people, better also than many professing Christians,
and they trust for salvation to their own goodness,
their own morality, their own works and merit.
These are straws, mere straws! They are grasping
at straws.

Again, there are some that trust for salvation in
their religious exercises. They go to church, they
go to communion, they say their prayers, they give
something to the treasuries of the church. They,
however, do all this not out of love to God with
thankful hearts as His redeemed and blessed chil-
dren, but they do it all in order to earn heaven.
They think the mere doing of these things will in-
sure to them eternal salvation. These are straws,
mere straws! They are grasping at straws.

The fact is, there is salvation in Christ only, “in
whom we have redemption through His blood, even
the forgiveness of sins.” “Neither is there salvation
in any other; for there is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved,” says the apostle. Those that trust for sal-
vation in any other than in Christ, in any other
work than in Christ’s work, in any other righteous-
ness than in Christ’s righteousness, are simply
grasping at straws and are lost. That old sailor
was right who, in his dying hour, when his comrade
tried to comfort him by reminding him of some
good deeds he had done for others, replied: “No,
Jack, I cannot cling to these straws; they cannot
save me from drowning; I cling to Jesus and His
blood. ‘That plank carries!”

Unwess our hearts are constantly fired through
the Word, with preaching and singing, we are sure
to fall away from Christ.— Luther. —