The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1910, Page 50

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60. The Lutheran Pioneer.

Of the Lord’s Supper.

THE BENEFIT OF THE LorD’s Supren.

We have learned that the Lord’s Supper confers
upon us the blessed assurance of the forgiveness of
our sins, and therefore gives us life and salvation.
Such being the case, we see at once why we go to
‘the Lord’s Table. The chief purpose we have in
view when we partake of the Lord’s Supper is the
strengthening of our faith in the forgiveness of our
sins through our Lord Jesus Christ. The sum and
substance of our Christian faith is that Christ was
given for our offenses and by His holy sacrifice on
the cross gained for us forgiveness of our sins.
This our faith Christ desires to strengthen by means
of this Sacrament in particular. Therefore He in
the Holy Supper comes to us individually, to each
and every one of us separately, and says: You be-

. lieve that I merited forgiveness of sins for you by
my sacrifice on the cross; now, behold, this is the
body which was given for your sins, and this is the
blood which was shed for your sins. Here in the
Sacrament I give you the means by which I pro-
cured your pardon to make your faith the more cer-
tain and sure. And how could He better strengthen
our faith than by giving us His body and blood,
the means of our redemption? In partaking of this
precious gift, must not our weak faith be strength-
ened and our faltering trust grow firm? And should
we not make diligent use of this precious means of
grace? While devil, world, and flesh are ever busy
to weaken our faith and deprive us of it altogether,
Christ in His Sacrament has given us a safe and
certain means of defense against these enemies of
our faith and our soul’s salvation. Let us, then,
make diligent use of it and by its use receive strength
to yictoriously battle against all the enemies of
our soul.

A further purpose we have in going to the Holy
Supper is to further holiness of life, or, in other
words, to increase our love to God and man. As
we receive the body and blood of our Savior, must
not our love to God the Father, who gave His Son,
to the Son, who gave Himself a holy sacrifice for
us, and to the Holy Ghost, who brought us to the
Savior, —I say, must not our love to this loving
and gracious God be increased? And must not this
our experience of God’s love to us fill our hearts
with love to our neighbor? Since God so loves us,
must not we also love our brethren? And of this
Jove to God and man we stand in need so much!

Let us, then, by diligently partaking of the Holy
Supper, permit the Lord to enlarge our hearts -and
inflame our love.

Finally, we should diligently approach the
Lord’s Table in testimony of the communion of
faith. In the Sacrament we eat of one bread and
thus become one body, as St. Paul writes. 1 Cor.
10, 17: “For we, being many, are one bread, and
one body; for we are partakers of that one bread.”
By going to the Lord’s Table I confess myself to
be a Christian, and those I commune with I ac-
knowledge to be my brethren in faith. Christians,
by communing together, testify to their most in-
timate union and fellowship in Christ, their com-
mon IIead. For this reason it is impossible for us
to commune with those with whom we are not in
fellowship of faith.

Sun, who all my life doth brighten,
Light, who dost my soul enlighten,
Joy, the sweetest man e’er knoweth,
Fount, whence all my being floweth, —
At Thy feet I ery, my Maker,

Let me be a fit partaker

Of this blessed food from heaven,

For our good, Thy glory, given.

—~—> o>

The World Without the Gospel.

Without the Gospel of Christ, what would this
world be? To get an answer, we need only inquire,
What is the condition of the heathen world? What
were the lives, the joys, the hopes of the wisest and
hest of those who were “without Christ, having no
hope, and without God in the world”? Christless,
Godless, homeless, hopeless, there was nothing for
them but darkness here and despair hereafter. In-
deed, the greatest of all evils is to be without God
and without hope. Knowing this, Christians should
be active in bringing the Gospel of Christ and sal-
vation to a lost, sin-ruined world. “Go ye into
all the world, and preach the Gospel to every crea-
ture,” says Christ.

Be a Master, not a Slave.

St. Paul says in Romans 6, “Let not sin reign ;”
“Sin shall not have dominion over you.” ‘That is,
you shall be master, not your sin. For sins are for-
given you, that you should fight against them and
gain the victory, not do what the flesh wills.

Inther.

Jat aN

a ce er