The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1908, Page 10

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10

The Lutheran Pioneer.

Christ Only.

Trust in Christ only for salvation. They trust
not in Christ at all who do not trust in Him alone.
He that stands with one foot on a rock and with
another foot on quicksand will sink as surely as he
that has both feet on quicksand.

“My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.”

——————

The Lord’s Prayer.

THE SEVENTH PETITION.

But deliver us from evil.

What does this mean?

We pray in this petition, as the sum of all, that
our Father in heaven would deliver us from every
evil of body and soul, property and honor, and
finally, when our last hour has come, grant us
a blessed end, and graciously take us from this vale
of tears to Himself in heaven.

Great is the number of evils on earth, and many
are the tears caused by these evils, wherefore this
earth may truthfully be called a vale of tears. Lu-
ther in his explanation of this petition mentions four
kinds of evils: evils of the body and soul and evils of
property and honor. Who is able to enumerate the
evils of the body? The number of different diseases
is judged to be almost 3000. And how many per-
sons are blind, deaf, or suffer from the want of
a limb! And those who suffer from want of food,
drink, clothing, or shelter, do they not all suffer
evils of the body? And even worse than the evils
of the body are those of the soul, such as grief,
anguish, pangs of conscience, melancholy, sorrows,
and care. Then there are all the different kinds of
evils of property: floods, droughts, fire, bad weather,
war, and the like. Finally, Luther mentions the
evils of honor. Solomon says that a good name is
to be chosen rather than riches. The loss of our
good name is worse than the loss of money. There-
fore we also pray against the defaming of our good
name and reputation.

And when we now ask, Whence are all these
evils? the answer is: Sin is the mother of all evil,
and sin is of the devil. The devil and sin are, there-
fore, the two greatest evils, and against these we
pray in particular.

We ask God to deliver us from all these evils.
In the Litany we pray:
From all sin; from all error;
From all evil; from the crafts and assaults of the devil;
From sudden and evil death;
From all pestilence and famine;
From war and bloodshed;
From sedition and rebellion;
From lightning and tempest;
From all calamity by fire and water;
And from everlasting death: Good Lord, deliver us!

We ask God to spare us from those evils, if pos-
sible, entirely, but if He sees fit to afflict us with
a cross, that then He would either take it from us
again, or help us to bear -it, and turn it to our
benefit. And we know that God hears our prayer;
we know that God preserves us against many evils
in answer to our prayers. In answer to the
petition, “Deliver us from evil,” God has again
and again preserved us against impending evil, and
thus brought home to us the truth of His promise:
“There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any
plague come nigh thy dwelling,” Ps. 91, 10.

But not in every case does God hear our prayer
in this manner and preserve us against the threat-
ening evil-entirely. In His wise providence He often
sees fit to afflict us with a cross. “We must through
much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God,”
Acts 14, 22. “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth,” Hebr.
12,6. Yet even then we need not fear, for we know
that, in answer to our prayer, He will cither take the
evil from us, or else help us to bear it, and turn it
to our benefit. The leper’s prayer: “Lord, if Thou
wilt, Thou canst make me clean,” was answered by
his immediate cleansing from the dreadful disease ;
Paul’s prayer, however, to be delivered from the
“thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet”
him, was not answered by the removal of the cross,
but he was given the divine assurance, “My grace is
sufficient for thee.” Yet Paul’s prayer was just as
certainly heard as was that of the leper, for being
assured of God’s grace, the evil was no longer an
evil, but rather a wholesome cross, a benefit and a
blessing. Though the evil was present, yet it could
not touch him, Job 5, 19. Therefore, —

We cry to God in our distress,
His mercy hears our calling;
Our Savior sees our helplessness,
And keeps our feet from falling.

While God in His wisdom may not take the load
entirely from us, yet He will help us to bear it, give
us patience under the trial, and comfort us by His