The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1909, Page 3

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The Lutheran Pioneer. 3

of tables.” And Acts 22, 16 it is written: “Arise,
and be baptized, and wash away thy sins.” The
same word that is translated with wash in these
two passages is given as baptize, Matt. 28, 19. Bap-
tism, then, is a washing with water. But how is
the water to be applied, and in what quantity is
it to be used? Christ does not tell us, and where
He makes no law, it is wrong for man to make any.
That which is essential is the application of water
to the body of the person to be baptized, but whether
this application be by pouring, sprinkling, or im-
mersing is immaterial. If people wish to baptize
by immersion, they are at perfect liberty to do so,
but they must not do so under, the delusion that it
is the only proper mode of Baptism.

Our Catechism also tells us that the water in
Baptism is “connected with God’s Word.” Christ,
namely, tells us that we are to baptize “in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost.” ‘The mere application of water is in itself
no Baptism, but the water must be applied in the
name of the T'riune God, by His order and com-
mand. And the Baptism thus administered is
really administered by God Himself, the officiating
person being an instrument only. While it is a
human hand that pours the water on the child’s
head, yet the child is baptized by God Himself, in
whose name Baptism is administered.

However, to be baptized in God’s name has even
a deeper signification, —it means that we are bap-
tized into God’s name, into communion with God.
In Holy Baptism we become partakers of all that
God has done for us. The love of God the Father,
the grace of Jesus Christ, and the communion of
the Holy Ghost, become our own and we are
made God’s own.

My loving Father, Thou dost take me
To be henceforth Thy child and heir;
My faithful Savior, Thou dost make me
The fruit of all Thy sorrows share;
Thou, Holy Ghost, wilt comfort me
When darkest clouds around I see.

F. J. L.

—_——o-2-o__——_

‘A Wall, O Lord, Around Us Build!”

A TALE OF THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR.

It was a dreary November evening in the year
1630, the same year in which the brave and pious
Lutheran King of Sweden, Gustayus Adolphus, had
landed on the German coast to help his brethren
in the faith in their defense against the Catholic

legions, which, under their leader, the cruel and
heartless Tilly, pressed them hard and threatened
to overwhelm them. Twelve long years already had
this fearful religious war raged throughout Ger-
many. The soil was soaked with the blood-of the
slain; the fields were devastated, the towns depopu-
lated, and the whole country sighed and moaned
under the burdens of war. The chronicles of those
times are filled with the sad stories of atrocities and
barbarities committed by the armies against the
unfortunate inhabitants.

On the above-named November evening there
sat an old woman in a farmhouse on the outskirts
of a Saxon village. Her son, a young man of about
twenty years, had just brought home the news of
a rumor that had spread in the village that a de-
tachment of the much-feared Spanish troops was
approaching, and would probably pass through the
village during the night. Terror and anxiety
reigned. The young man besought his mother to
take refuge in the mountains. But she said that
they were in God’s protection, and that, if He willed
it so, they would be saved, and exhorted him to seek
consolation in prayer.

She lighted the lamp, took her prayer-book, and
began to sing her favorite hymn, “A Wall, 0 Lord.
Around Us Build.” At this the son revolted, tell-
ing his mother that by her foolish singing and by
the light of her lamp she would certainly show the
enemies the way to their house, and uselessly ex-
pose them. But she persevered and continued to
sing, “A wall, O Lord, around us build!”

The son grew angry and said, “How can the
Lord build a wall around us? Stop that SOL)
mother; the time of miracles is past.”

“The Lord can, if He so will,” she quietly an-
swered, and continued to sing and ‘to pray through
the whole long night, “A wall, O Lord, around us
build ”

When the morning broke, the son took eourare

“and went to the door; but when he tried to open it,

he found that it would not give way. A heavy
snow-drift had obstructed it and perfectly buried
the house, concealing it from the enemies, who,
during the night, had passed through the village,
carrying plunder and murder into almost every
house. But the house of the praying and trusting
old mother was protected by the snow wall which —
the Lord had built for the safety of His children. .

A 11m is like a snowball ; the longer it is rolled,
the larger it is. — Luther.