The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1910, Page 73

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LutTnerRaNn SynopIcaL CoNFERENCE or Nort AMERICA.
R. A. BISCHOFYF, Epiror.

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

Vol. XXXII.

The Church of God.

Ifow goodly is Thy Chureh, O Lord,
How bright her portals shine;

Her stately battlements declare

Her workmanship divine.

Against her storms have fiercely raged
And tempests hurled their niight;

But still unhurt she firmly stands;
Ifow glorious is the sight!

Nor shall the powers of all her foes
Against Thy Church prevail;
For Thou shalt smite them with ‘Thy sword,
And cause their schemes to fail.
J. B. Thompson.

>> —

A True Reformation.

The Reformation by Dr. Martin Luther, of
which we are reminded on Reformation Day, the
31st of October, was a true reformation, not a
sham reformation. It was the only genuine refor-
mation, for by Luther’s reformation the authority
of the Bible and the pure doctrine of the Gospel
were restored to the Church.

The Bible is God’s Word. In the Bible we have
the Word of Christ, who says: “If ye continue in
my Word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free,” John 8, 31. 82. As long as the Church con-
tinued in Christ?’s Word, having the Bible as their
sole authority and Christ as their only Master,
they had the truth and enjoyed true liberty. But
there came a time when the pope made himself
master of the Church, when the Bible was put aside,
and man’s word was put in the place of God’s
Word. Doctrines contrary to the Bible were taught,

“ST. LOUIS, HO. ¢ OCTOBER, “1910.

No. 10.
the darkness of error spread throughout the Church,
and the people were held in the bondage of igno-
rance and superstition, ruled by spiritual tyrants.
Those were indeed dark and dreary days when the
light of God’s Word was hidden, when the Bible
was said to be a dark and useless, yea, a dangerous
book which the people must not read. Luther says
of those days: “Observe what the devil has done
through the papists. It was not enough for them
to throw this book, the Bible, under the table, and
to make it so rare that few doctors of the ILloly
Seripture possess it; but, lest some one should
bring it to notice, they have branded it with in-
famy, blaspheming God and saying that it is dark
and that we must follow the glosses of men and
not the pure Scripture. The calamity is so great
that it cannot be reached by words or thoughts.
The evil spirit has done his will and suppressed

‘this book, and has brought in its stead so many

books of human doctrine, that it may well be said
that there is a deluge of books, and yet they contain
nothing but errors, falsehood, darkness, poison,
death, destruction, hell, and the devil.”

Through Luther’s Reformation the Bible was
again given to the people, and its authority in all
matters of Christian doctrine and practice was re-
stored. Popes, councils, and church fathers, may
err and have erred, Luther said, but the Word of
God can never err. The Bible, therefore, is the
only infallible teacher of Christian truth, and to
its authority all Christians, all teachers, popes,
councils and churches, must bow in humble submis-
sion; for in the Bible God Himself speaks. “God’s
Word,” Luther said, “shall determine the articles of
faith, and nobody else, no, not an angel.” When,
therefore, Luther was called upon to revoke, or