The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1908, Page 27

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

27.

fied in the sight of God without works. We read
Gal. 5, 4: “Christ is become of no effect unto you,
whosoever of you ON justified by the Law; ye are
fallen from grace.” Then the person no more
desires to stand before God by grace; he, so to say,
goes to law about the matter and must take what
the law allows him, which is, as every Bible reader
ought to know, a place in prison till the last penny
be paid. Glory be to God that He wishes to deal
with us without the Law, so that we may boldly
appeal from the Law to the throne of grace!
J. Pu. 8.

San aie

The Debt Is Paid.

The shop in a mountain village was kept by an
old woman, who would carefully mark on the back
of her shop door how much each eustomer owed her.
There, in white chalk, was written the name of each
debtor with the exact amount of the debt. When
the debt was paid, the chalk marks were rubbed out.

Among the old woman’s customers was one
whose conscience sorely troubled her on account of
the debt of her sins, and who dreaded the opening
of the books when small and great shall stand before
the great white throne and be judged. She knew
that her sins could never be blotted out by her own
doings, and that unless they were blotted out she
must be everlastingly lost.

“Why do you mourn so?” a friend one day said
to her. “Why do you not believe what God says
of the work of our Savior? Has He not raised His
Son from the grave and so declared that our debt
is paid?. You never trouble about your debt at the
shop after the money is put down and the .chalk
marks on the shop door are rubbed out. Can you
not also rest in what Christ has done to pay the
debt of sin? I will go to the shop and see what the
old woman has against your name, and will pay it
all; she will then rub out thé chalk marks, and
when you next go there, she will tell you that not
a mark stands’ against your name, and you will be-
lieve her and be glad that the debt is paid. Will
you not?” ;

“Yes,” replied the woman, “and I shall thank
you ever so much.”

“Well,” continued her ecient “so it is with the
debt of your sins, which you yourself could never
pay. That debt is paid with the precious blood of
God’s own Son. He Himself says of i blood :
“shed for you for the remission of sins.” And that

payment has been accepted by God the Father; for
by raising Jesus from the dead He declared Him-
self perfectly satisfied with what His Son has done.
The debt is paid. Why are you not satisfied? Why ~
do you not believe what God says in the Gospel?
The moment you believe the Gospel you will be glad
over the assurance that your debt is paid.”

The anxious sinner soon did believe. Her trou-
bled soul found peace, and her heart was filled with
joy and thanksgiving.

——— 22 ____

God Not Dead.

At one time I was sorely vexed and tried by my
own sinfulness, by the wickedness of the world,
and by the dangers that beset the Church. One
morning I saw my wife dressed in mourning. Sur-
prised, I asked her who had died. “Do you not
know?” she replied; “God in heaven is dead.”
“How can you talk such nonsense, Katie!” I said;
“how can God die? Why, He is immortal, and will
live through all eternity.” “Is that really true?”
she asked. “Of course,” I said, still not perceiving
what she was aiming at; “how can you doubt it?
As surely as there is a God in heaven, so sure is it
that He can never die.” “And yet,” she said,
“though you do not doubt that, yet you are so hope-
less and discouraged.” Then I observed what a
wise woman my wife was, and mastered my sadness.

Inither.

Neither Hope nor Fear.

Robert Owen, the well-known infidel, once visited
a gentleman who was a believer. In walking out
they came to the gentleman’s family burial place.
Speaking of death, Owen said, “I am not afraid to
die; if some of my business were settled, I should
be perfectly .willing to die at any moment.”

“Well,” said his Christian companion, “you say
you have no: fear of death, have you any hope in
death ?” :

-After a solemn pause, the infidel replied, “No P

“Then,” replied the Christian, pointing to an
ox standing near, “you are on a level with that
brute; he has fed till he is satisfied, and stands in
the shade, ARES, off ute flies, and has neither
hope nor fear.”

—_————_>-2-—__—__

THE grave, on receiving Christ, imagined it had
received a victim; but, on the morning of the third”
day, if discovered it had received a conqueror