The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1908, Page 90

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90

The Savior is born! These good tidings of
great joy shall be to all people. Angels proclaimed’
them when the Savior was born, but it is not the
will of the Lord that angels should continue to
proclaim them for all time. He has given the
Gospel of salvation to His Church, and to the mem-
bers of His Church He says: “Go ye into all the
world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
They are to take up the joyful news and carry it
to them that-have it not, that they also may rejoice
in the Savior born at Bethlehem.

“He Is My Savior.”

“He is my Savior.” That was the answer
written by a deaf and dumb girl to the question:
“What do you know of the Lord Jesus Christ?”

Happy child! Her answer was the utterance
of a heart that knew and loved Jesus. Many a one,
more learned than that little girl in all the details
of the history of Christ, cannot write so trustingly :
“He is my Savior.” Heart knowledge is better than
head knowledge. A person may know much about
the Lord Jesus without knowing Him. A person
may know the story of His lowly birth, of His life
in poverty and want; of His bitter sufferings and
death, and yet be far away from Him. A person
may call Jesus a Savior, or the Savior, without
being able truthfully to say with a trusting heart:
“He is my Savior.” :

Only the sinner that has come to the true
knowledge of sin and of God’s wrath over sin, the
sinner that realizes his own lost and helpless con-
dition without a Savior from sin, death, devil, and
hell —only that sinner will with the arms of a
trusting faith embrace the Savior born at Bethle-
hem, and with a heart filled with true Christmas
joy will gladly exclaim: “He is my ‘Savior.”

A Conversation with the Child Jesus.

The churchfather Jerome, who died in the year
420, passed the last years of his life at Bethlehem,
near the place where the Savior was born. “Do
not take me away from the manger of Christ,” he

said, “there is nowhere a better place for me. Where
_ God has sent me His Son from heayen, at the same
place will I send unto Him my soul up to heaven.”
And in his old age he wrote: As often as I
look at this place, my heart has a conversation with

The Lutheran Pioneer.

‘
the Child Jesus. I say: “O Lord Jesus, how hard
is Thy couch for the sake of my salvation! How
may I ever repay Thee?”

Then I hear the Child answer: “I do not ask
for anything. Do thou sing: ‘Glory to God in the
highest, and-on earth peace, good will toward men,’
and be thou glad; I will become much more
wretched yet in the garden and on the holy cross.”

Again I say: “O dear Child, I must give Thee
something; I will give Thee all my gold.”

The Child ‘answers: “No, indeed! for the
heavens and the earth are mine already; mine is
silver and gold. I do not want anything — give it
to poor people, and I will look upon it as given to
myself.”

I say: “That I will do most willingly, but I
will give something to Thee also, else I must die
for sadness.”

Then I hear the answer: “Well, then, if thou
art bound to give something, I will tell thee what

.thou shalt give me: Give unto me thy sins, thy

evil conscience, and thy damnation.”

I say: “What wilt Thou do with it?”

The Child answers: “I will take it upon my
shoulder, that shall be my government and noble
deed; as Isaiah has said, ‘His government shall be
upon His shoulder’ —I will bear thy sins.”

Then I begin, adds Jerome, to weep bitterly,
and say: “O little Child, dearest Jesus, how hast .
Thou moved my heart! I thought that Thou
wantest the good I have, but Thou wantest the bad
I have. Take, then, what ts mine, and give me
what is Thine. Thus I am rid of sin and sure of
the life everlasting.” -

“Unto You is Born a Savior.’’

These words should melt heaven and earth, and
change death into sugar for us, and all misfortunes,
of which there are more than can be told, into pure,
sweet wine. For what man is there who can prop-
erly conceive of this, that the Son of God is born
man, a Savior for us? Such treasure the angel
gives not only. to His mother, the Virgin Mary, but
to all of us; “unto you,” he says, “is born a Savior,
which is Christ the Lord,” — Luther.

TueE birth of Christ is dearer and of far greater
benefit to me than would be all the treasures which
the Roman taxation of the Emperor Augustus -
brought together. — Burk.