The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1910, Page 89

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusuisHED BY THE EvanGeticaL LuTnerRAN SyNopIcaL ConFERENCE oF Nort AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Epiror.

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

Vol. XXXII.

ST. LOUIS, M0., DECEMBER, 1910. No. 12.

Christmas.

Only a manger-bed,
Only a stable stall,
But One was born that Christmas night
Who came to save us all.
Oh, holy Babe! Oh, heavenly birth!
What words or worlds can weigh Thy worth?

The Grace of God in the Manger.

The Advent season has brought us the begin-
ning of a new church-year. Another year of grace
is given us, in which God’s grace is to be preached
for our salvation. But tltere could be no such
preaching of grace for sinners if there, were no
Savior who bore the punishment due to sin. For
God is not like an easy-going father who overlooks
the wrong-doings of his children. God is holy and
must hate sin. God is just, and His justice de-
mands the punishment of sin.

Blessed be God! He Himself provided a Savior
for us. “God so loved the world that He gave His
only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life,” John
3, 16. ‘The Advent season is to prepare us for the
blessed Christmas time, when we shall again hear
the glad tidings: “Unto you is born a Savior, which
is Christ the Lord.” The Child bori at Bethlehem
in the holy Christmas night is the Lord from
heaven, God’s own Son, who became man for man’s
salvation. In Him God is gracious to sinners, yea,
in Him we behold the grace of God in the manger,
and as we in the blessed Christmas time worship
_ at the rough couch of the infant Savior we may

joyfully exclaim with the words of the Apostle

Paul: “The grace of God that bringeth salvation
hath appeared to all men,” Tit. 2, 11. As the sun
after a long night appears, bringing light and joy
to the world, so, after the long night of the Old
Testament, the grace of God, promised to fallen
man as soon as sin had entered the world, appeared
in the Child born at Bethlehem, bringing the light
and joy of salvation.

This grace of God in the manger truly “bringeth
salvation.” For the Child Jesus was “made under
the Law to redeem them that were under the Law.”
He it is on whom “the Lord hath laid the iniquity
of us all”’ He it is who “bore our griefs and
carried our “sorrows,” who was “wounded for our

transgressions and was bruised for our iniquities.” _

He it is who undertook the work of our redemption,
and did all and suffered all that was needed, until
He cried out upon the cross: “It is finished!” So
there is salvation in Him, and in Him alone. In
Him only God is gracious to sinners. -

And this grace of God in the manger is for all.
“The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath ap-
peared to all men,” says the apostle. All men! Of
every race, and color, and station in life. For every
sinner, even the chief of sinners. There is none
excepted. Man may exclude himself by unbelief,
but God does not exclude him. “God so loved the
world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that
whosoever” —no matter who he is and what he is
— “whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.’ Therefore the angel
who brought the glad tidings of the Savior’s birth
said: “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which
shall be unto all people.” ,

Let us rejoice with a holy joy in the ‘blessed
Christmas time as we behold the grace of God for

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