The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1911, Page 26

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26

very face of death he, in his dying hour, can say
with firm confidence:
I fall asleep in Jesus’ wounds,
There pardon for my sins abounds;
Yea, Jesus’ blood and righteousness
My jewels are, my glorious dress,
Wherein before my God I stand
When I shall reach the heavenly land.
Blessed Easter message: “Christ is risen!” It
gives us a firm foundation for our Christian hope
in life and in death. As the message fills our hearts
with joy and comfort in the blessed Easter season,
let us remember those who know not the true mean-
- ing of Christ’s death and resurrection, and who are
therefore without hope in this world, or are build-
ing false hopes on ground which is but sinking
sand. May the power of Christ’s resurrection move
us to bring them the Gospel of the living Savior,
that they also may trust in Him alone who was
delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for
our justification.

The Difference.

A distinguished doctor, who had attended many
dying persons, said: “Nothing has made a deeper
impression on my mind during my professional life
than the manner in which men have died. ‘The
death of the unbeliever is marked with doubt and
hopelessness, even though occasionally a man of
strong spirit and nerve may die with a sort of
calm, cold resignation; but the death of the Chris-
tian is marked -with hope and peace and joy.”
Another prominent physician has said: “Nothing
can make a deathbed peaceful but Christian faith.”

The physician of the great French infidel Vol-
taire gives the following description of the death
of that arch-enemy of the Christian faith: It was

my lot that this man should die under my care.
IT had often defended the Truth in his presence,
and when his end came, Voltaire said to me: “Had
I followed your advice, I would not now be in my
present hopeless state of mind. I have swallowed
stoke and intoxicated myself with it until my head
has become dizzy. “Pity me, for I am a fool !”

How different the language of the great Apostle:
“I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my
departure is at hand; I have fought a good fight;
1 have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous Judge, shall give me in that day.”

The Lutheran Pioneer.

‘of my death, of my damnation!

All that truly believe in the risen Savior, who
conquered death and the grave for us, can trium-
phantly say with the same apostle: “O death, where
is thy sting? O grave, where is: thy victory?
Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ!”

poe

Blessed Easter Tidings.

In the sepuleher He was imprisoned who had
taken our sins upon Himself. But behold! the stone
is rolled away, the sepulcher is empty, and shining
messengers of God proclaim: “Hx 1s risen!”

O blessed tidings! Repeating the triumphant
shout of the heavenly messenger, every Christian
may now exclaim: Hallelujah! Hallelujah! The
stone is rolled away from the grave of my: sins,
My Bondsman is
risen. He is free, and triumphantly He waves His
standard of victory.

"Tis He in whom I trust,
For He hath made me just.
All that I sinned and erred,
He in the grave interred
And safely kept it there,
There it remains fore’er.
Dr. Walther,

— —-—+>e>——_—___-

The Fruit of Christ’s Resurrection.

. We see what fruit the resurrection of Christ
should produce in us, namely, that we should no
longer be afraid, but recognize Christ as our
brother, and glory in Him, and find comfort in
the precious inheritance which He has obtained for
us; and, likewise, that we should so live that we
may not, like wayward children, lose such inherit-
ance by our disobedience. This, then, will be em-
ploying the glorious resurrection rightly and prop-
erly and celebrating Easter in the right way. But
if this is not done; if, instead, people wish to per-
sist in sin and disobedience, or refuse to lay hold
of this comfort in tribulation and temptation, noth-
ing can be more certain than that such people have
no share in, nor knowledge of, this glorious inherit-
ance. May God, for Christ’s sake, grant us His
Holy Spirit, that we may find true comfort in the |
resurrection of Christ, and that we may, from day
to day, increase in such faith, confidence, and hope,
and finally be eternally saved by it.— Luther. .