The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1910, Page 33

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusiisnueD BY THE EvanGenical Lutmeran SynopicaL CoNFERENCE OF KE TH AMERICA.

R.

A. BISCHOF F,

Epiror.

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

Vol. ‘XXXI a

ST. LOUIS, MO., MAY,

1910. No. 5.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit.

Oh, come, Eternal Spirit

Of truth, and bring us light!
“Shine in our souls and banish
All blindness from our sight.
Thy holy fire pour o’er us,
Touch heart and lip, that we
With faithful, good confession
Acknowledge Christ and Thee.

Pour, Spirit, o’er the nations

A Pentecostal shower,

The Word of testimony
Accompany with. power,

That hearts and lips may open, —
The nations’ and our own, —
And we, with thankful gladness,
Make Christ’s salvation known. ;

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The Coming of the Holy Ghost.

Christ, before His ascension, promised His dis-
ciples the Holy Ghost as their Guide, Teacher, and
Comforter. ‘Ten days after His ascension, on the
day of Pentecost, this promise was fulfilled in the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That day was to the
disciples a day of gladness, and the Church still
celebrates with rejoicing the day of Pentecost as one
of her great festivals; and that with reason. For
we must not think of the coming of the Holy Ghost
merely as a thing of the past. The Holy Ghost still
comes. ‘True, He does no longer come in that ex-
. traordinary manner as He came on that first day
of Pentecost; but still‘He comes. He comes in the
- means of grace, the Word and the Sacraments, for
our salvation.

Salvation has been prepared by Christ: for all
men. ‘To this end He came into the world. And

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_ passes and sins.”

_ Ghost,” 1 Cor. 12, 3.

sas our Lord and Savior.

the work of redemption which He.came to do He
finished, and then ascended into heaven, and sitteth
on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
He that bore our sins upon the cross wears the
crown upon the throne of divine glory and majesty.
The victory is won, our enemies are conquered, our
captivity is led captive, the work of our redemption
is finished.

But if we are to enjoy the blessings of Christ’s
work and the fruits of His victory, the salvation
which He secured for all sinners must become our
own. We must by faith embrace Him as our Say-
ior and trust in His finished work for salvation.
This we cannot do by our own strength; for. as.
the: Bible tells us, man by nature is “dead in tres-
There is no spiritual life, no
spiritual strength in him. The apostle says: “The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually dis-
cerned,” 1 Cor. 2, 14. Again he says: “No man
can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy
Hence we confess in our
Catechism: “I believe that I cannot by my own
reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord,
or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me
by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanc-
tified and kept me in the ‘true faith, even, as He
calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole
Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesns
Christ in the one true faith.” It all is the work
of the Holy Ghost. It is due to His coming in the
means of grace. In the Gospel He offers us the

salvation which is in Christ Jesus, and makes that

salvation our own by bringing us to faith in Jesus
By the Gospel He ,also