The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1909, Page 29

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

The Lutheran Pioneer.

29

a ———————————————————————

home mission field, he was made the agent of “The
Sunday School Union of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in the United States.” As such he traveled
a great deal and labored with great zeal and en-
thusiasm in establishing Sunday schools, being
“eonvineed that what the church needed at that
time, above all other things, was a movement that
would organize a Sunday school in every Lutheran
congregation.” However, “experience,” adds_his
biographer, “‘seems to have cooled his ardor. Some
years later he wrote: ‘Sunday schools are only
small plasters on large sores. We consider it our
duty to recommend their establishment most heart-
ily, but they are not to be considered as substitutes
for Christian day schools.’ ”

——————>0-+—____—_-

A Blessed Good Friday.

Deacon Wong, a native helper in the China
mission field, told Missionary Voskamp the follow-
ing story of a “blessed Good Friday.”

On the island of Hongkong a Chinaman one
(food Friday entered the Anglican church out of
curiosity. ‘The preacher spoke on the sufferings
and death of our Lord Jesus. The Chinaman did
not understand what was said, for it was all spoken
in English. But he-was astonished to see the faces
of the hearers so solemn and sad and to hear the
sad tone in the voice of the preacher. “Maybe
‘some one died,’* thought the Chinaman, looking
around for the coffin; but there was no coffin.

After the service, the Chinaman turned to the
-janitor, or doorkeeper, a countryman of his, say-
:ing, “Brother, what did the stranger preach ?”

“Well, the teaching of Jesus,” was the reply.

“Why,” said the Chinaman, “Jesus, as: I have
Theard, teaches men to practice virtue. Ought not
ithat to make people joyful and not sad?”

“Qh,” replied the janitor, “to-day the minister
ypreached that Jesus died on the cross for us men.”

“Died?” said the astonished Chinaman, “for
ws? What is the meaning of that? Why did the
man die for me?”

After listening to the story of the. sufferings of
Jesus, the Son of God, and to the explanations

-gsiven in Holy Scripture, the Chinaman again
msked, “And cannot God forgive sin without the
Iblood of Christ?”

By way of answer he was told of the great
mgony of Christ in Gethsemane where the Savior,
iin the bitter anguish of His soul, prayed: “O my

Father, if it be possible, let this cup. pass from me;
nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” It
was not possible for the cup of suffering to pass
from Him who took upon Himself the sins of the
world. The holiness of the sin-hating God re-
quired the punishnent of sin. Therefore His wrath
was poured out upon the sin-bearing Son who had
taken the sinners’ place to endure the punishment
due to sin. It is written: “Without shedding of
blood is no remission.” Therefore all had ‘to be
fulfilled that had been foretold by the prophet con-
cerning the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world.

The Chinaman listened attentively to the Word
of God as it was explained to him by his Christian
countryman, and his heart burned within him. That
Good Friday was a blessed Good Friday for him.
He became a faithful believer in the Savior, “in
whom’ we have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His

¥
grace.
—_———_e-o-m—

Resurrection.

On the eleventh of April, 1539, Dr. Martin
Luther was walking in his garden, absorbed in
thought. Looking at his trees he said: “How fair
and lovely they are, budding and blossoming and

- growing green !

“Praised: be God the Creator, who, in the spring-
time, brings that which seems to be dead -to life
again! Took at the little twigs,” he said, “so sweet
and full; so pregnant with new life. What a beau-
tiful-image we have here of the resurrection from
the dead! Winter represents death, and summer
the resurrection from the dead, for then everything
springs into new life and grows green.”

Jesus Lives; I Shall Live with Him.

“Knowest thou not,” said Luther to Death, the
King of Terrors, “that thou, didst devour the Lord .
Christ, but wast obliged to give Him back, and
wast then thyself devoured by Him? So thou must
leave me undevoured, because I abide in Him, and
live and suffer for His name’s sake. Men may
send me out of the world, — for that I care not, —
but I shall not on that account abide in death; ~
I shall live with my Lord Christ, for I know and
believe that He liveth!”

- .