The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1909, Page 10

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10

The Lutheran Pioneer.

was come, God: sent forth His Son, made of a
woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that
were under the Law, that we might receive the
adoption of sins,” Gal. 4, 4. 5. God’s own Son
became man and was made under the demands and
under the curse of the Law for us. For us, all the
demands of the Law were perfectly fulfilled by
Him who was “holy, harmless, undefiled, and sepa-
rate from sinners,” Hebr. 7, 26, who “did no sin,”
1 Pet. 2, 22, who could testify of Himself: “I do
always those things that please my Father,” John
8, 29, and of whom the Father solemnly declared :
“This is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased,” “Matt. 3, 17. He also in His sufferings
and death bore in our stead the curse of the Law,
which we have deserved by our transgressions. For
it is written: “Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the Law, being made a curse for us,” Gal.
3, 13. Thus Christ redeemed all sinners and gained
for them a righteousness by which they can enter
heaven. -

This perfect righteousness of Christ is offered
to every sinner in the Gospel. It is for him to
take it with the hand of faith, that is, to believe in
Jesus as his only Savior. Good works will surely
follow such faith, but these good works are not the
key of. heaven; for faith, out of which these good
works grow, has the right key of heaven already,
namely, Christ and His righteousness. The Apostle
Paul therefore says : “By grace are ye saved, through
faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of
God; not of works, lest ‘any man should boast,”
Eph. 2, 8.

Those that get to heaven have nothing to boast.
Standing before the throne of the Lamb, they give
all honor and glory to Him for their salvation, sing-
ing the new song: “Thou wast slain and hast re-
deemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kin-
dred, and tongue, and people, and nation,” Rev. 5, 9.

Dear reader, will you be there?

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved,” says the Bible.

Of Holy Baptism.

II. Wxo Is ro BE Barrizep?

The apostles generally baptized adults only.
They went out into the world and called the nations
into God’s kingdom by the preaching of the Gospel,
and as a rule they baptized such only as had be-

“come acquainted with-the Christian faith and were

able to confess the same. Only in exceptional cases
did they baptize children. They were missionaries
sent out to gather congregations from among Jews
and Gentiles. Our missionaries among the heathen

- : . . . ‘
do just as the apostles did. Our missionaries among

the heathen do not simply go out and baptize people
wherever they find them unbaptized. What the
heathen need first of all is the preaching of the
Gospel; they must be instructed in Christian doc-
trine before they are baptized.
instruction on the part of the missionaries, and
after they have confessed their faith in Christ, they

‘are baptized.

But where the apostles had prepared the grown
members of a family for Baptism, they also bap-
tized the children. And here we also follow in tho
footsteps of the apostles, by baptizing the children
of Christian parents and all other children of whose
Christian rearing we are reasonably certain. Where
the grown members of a family are Christians, we
may and must also baptize the children, since in
such a case the command of Christ can be obeyed:
“Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you,” Matt. 28, 20. Accordingly, we
read Acts 16, 15 that. Lydia, the seller of purple
at Thyatira, was baptized with her whole household,
hence also her children; and of the jailer of Phi-
lippi we read in the same chapter that he and all
his were baptized. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 1, 16 that
he baptized the household of Stephanas. Peter said
on the first day of Pentecost, “The promise is unto
you and to your children,” Acts 2, 39. Therefore
we find that Origenes, a celebrated teacher of the
third century, refers to the baptism of children as
a custom derived from the apostles, and the great
St. Augustine tells us the same.

All Christian denominations, excepting the Bap-
tists, practice Paedobaptism, or the baptism of chil-
dren. ‘The Baptists claim that faith belongs to
baptism, but that children cannot believe, and that,
therefore, the baptism of children is void.
it is true that only he that believes and is baptized.
is benefited by Baptism, but it is not true that little
children cannot and do not believe.
little children are not conscious of their faith, as

Then, after proper”

Now.

Of course, —

little as you are of yours when you are asleep, but © ;

for all that they do believe, just as well as you do
while you are sleeping. How do we know this to
be the case? Why, from God’s Word, from which
we draw all our knowledge in spiritual things.
Take your Bible and find the 10th chapter of Mark,
the 18th verse. There we read that certain Jewish