The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1909, Page 19

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

19

priate these treasures. Now, faith is the hand with
which we take these gifts of God’s grace. While
these treasures are always present in Baptism and
are offered to every person in the Sacrament, yet
they come into possession of those only who believe,
as the words and promises of God declare. On the
other hand, he that does not believe will be damned.
“faith alone makes the person worthy to receive
profitably the saving, divine water. Because these
blessings are here promised and presented in the
words in and with the water, they cannot be re-
ceived, except we believe it with the heart. Although
it is in itself a transcendent divine treasure, it is
of no avail without faith.”

O that we may in true faith accept the glorious
treasures offered ‘us in Baptism, and throughout
our whole life comfort ourselves with the thought
that the grace of Baptism is to be ours through life.
Though we sin and turn our backs upon God, God
is and remains faithful and true.

My faithful God, Thou failest never,
Thy covenant surely will abide;

O cast me not away forever,
Should I transgress it on my side;
If I have sore my soul defiled,

Yet still forgive, restore Thy child.

F. J. L.

The Only Hope.

On one of the highest mountain passes in
Switzerland, where the road leads down into the
valley, a niche, or hollow place has been hewn in
a mighty rock. In the niche there stands a large
shining cross of white marble, bearing the inscrip-
tion: “The Only Hope.” ‘This cross was placed
there by pious parents in memory of their only
child, which, at that dangerous spot, had been hurled
down into the abyss through the misstep of the ani-
mal it was riding over the mountain pass.

The cross is to remind the wanderer of the
cross on Calvary as the only hope of sinners. Over
the abyss of sin, over the wrecks of time, in the
darkness of death, the cross of the Savior shines
forth as our only hope for time and eternity, our
only hope in life and death.

Therefore the apostles, the first Christian mis-
sionaries, went forth as messengers of the cross,
bringing to a hopeless world “the preaching of the
cross” as the sinner’s only hope. The Apostle Paul
says: “I determined not to know anything among
you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” And
including the other apostles, he says: “We preach

Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block,
and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them
which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the
power of God and the wisdom of God.” —

We still to-day preach Christ Crucified. All
true mission work is but a “preaching of the cross.”
As in the days of the apostles, this preaching is still
“to them that perish, foolishness,” but to them
“that are saved, it is the power of God.” As long
as we preach the cross of Christ as the sinner’s only
hope, we need not be discouraged in our mission
work. It is true, Christ crucified is also in our
days a stumbling-block to the self-righteous and
foolishness to the worldly wise; but there are at
all times also those to whom-He is “the power of
God and the wisdom of God.” They cling to the
cross as their only hope and are thus saved through
the “preaching of the cross.” Our work cannot be
in vain.

“Abide With Me!”’

An aged pastor writes: “I recall a most touch-
ing and sublime scene that I once witnessed in the
death chamber of a noble Christian woman who had
suffered for many months from an excruciating
malady. The end was drawing near. She seemed
to be catching a foregleam of the glory that awaited
her. With tremulous tones she began to recite
Henry Lyte’s beautiful hymn, ‘Abide with me: fast
falls the eventide’ One line after another was
feebly repeated, until, with a rapturous sweetness,
she exclaimed :

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.

Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee:
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me!

“This death chamber seemed to me a vestibule
of heaven.”

Working Cheap.

“What does Satan pay you for swearing?” asked
a Christian young man of an acquaintance whom
he heard using profane language.

“He does not pay me anything,” was the reply.

“Well,” said the young Christian, “you work
cheap — to lay aside the character of a gentleman,
to inflict so much pain on your friends and other
Christian people, to offend your God, and to risk
your precious soul—and for nothing. You cer-
tainly do work cheap, very cheap, indeed.” .