The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1909, Page 9

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

The Lutheran Pioneer,

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusiisueD By tue EvancenicaL Lutneran SyNopIcaL CoNFERENCE oF Nortit AMERICA.

kR. A. BISCHOFY, Eprror.

Entered at the Post Office at St. Lous, Mo., as second-class matter.

Vol. XXXI.

ST. LOUIS, MO., FEBRUARY, 1909.

No. 2.

Will You Be There?

Beyond this life of hopes and fears,
Beyond this world of grief and tears
There is a region fair;
It knows no change and no decay,
No night, but one unending day;
O say, will you be there?

Its glorious gates are closed to sin,
Naught that defiles can enter in
To mar its beauty rare;
Upon that bright eternal shore
Earth's bitter curse is kndwn no more;
O say, will you be there?
No drooping form, no tearful eye,
No hoary head, no weary sigh;
No pain, no grief, no care;
But joys which mortals may not know,
Like a calm river, ever flow;
O say, will you be there?
Those who have learned at Jesus’ cross
All earthly gain to count but loss
So that His love they share;
Who, gazing on the Crucified,
By faith can say, “For me He died,”
These, these shall all be there!

—_______ + 0

The Key of Heaven.

Unele Brown and his wife had been at church.
When they came back home, Uncle Brown tried to
unlock the door of their house, but could not, be-
cause he had the wrong key, as his wife soon noticed.

“Why, John,” ‘she said, “you have the wrong
key; how can you expect to open that door?”

But Uncle Brown was obstinate, or ‘thick-
headed,” as his wife said. He kept on for some
time, trying the wrong key, but all in vain; the
door remained closed until the right key was used.

Later in the evening, when they talked about
Brown’s experience, his wife said, “It makes me
think of what the preacher said about Christ being
the key of heaven. Many people use a wrong key
to open heaven. Those that try to get to heaven
by their own works surely use the wrong key and
will never get there.” ‘

Mrs. Brown was right. Man’s own works are
the wrong key and will never open heaven.

It is true, if man could keep the Law of God
perfectly in thought, word, and deed, he could then
be saved by the Law and could get to heaven by his
own works. But that is impossible. We are sin-
ners by nature, and therefore “by nature children
of wrath,” Eph. 2, 3. “The carnal mind is enmity
against God; for it is not subject to the Law of
God, neither indeed can be,” Rom. 8, 7. “They are
all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy;
there is none that doeth good> no, not one,”
Ps. 14, 3. “For all have sinned, and come short
of the glory of God,” Rom. 3, 23: As sinners and
transgressors of the Law we are under the curse
of the Law. For it is written: “Cursed is every
one that continueth not in all things which are
written in the book of the Law to do them,” Gal.
3, 10. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die,” Ezek.
18, 4.. “The wages of sin is death,’ Rom. 6, 23.
So you sce, if a man wants to get to heaven by his _
own efforts, by his own works, he is trying the
wrong key, and that key will never open heaven
for him:

Christ has opened heaven for us. His righteous-
ness is the right key, the only key of heaven. Be-
cause sinners could not save themselves, God, in
His great mercy, sent His own Son into the world
to be their Savior. “When the fullness of the time