The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1911, Page 49

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Che Lutheran Pioneer,

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

Pusiisuep py THE EvancenicaL Lutueran Synoprcai CoNrErRENcE or Nort AMERICA.
R. A. BISCHOFYF, Eprror.

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

Vol. XXXIII.

ST. LOUIS

Thy Kingdom Come!

Father, enthroned in heaven above,

Thou only source of life and love,

Thy love reveal to all mankind,

And eyes unseal that now are blind —
Thy kingdom come!

So many sheep are scattered still -

In every vale, on every hill,

And night is there so dark and cold;
Bring them within Thy peaceful fold —

Thy kingdom come!
J.8. 8.

os

Liberty to the Captives.

We read of a traveler who stood one day beside
the cages of some birds, which were exposed for
sale, and which ruffled their sunny feathers on the
wire, struggling to be free. The traveler, a way-
worn and sun-browned man, just returned from
foreign lands, looked thoughtfully and sadly on
these captives till tears started in his eyes. Turn-
ing round on their owner, he asked the price of
one. He paid that price in strange gold, and open-
ing the cage, set the prisoner free. “Thus he did
with captive after captive, till every bird was away
soaring to the skies and singing on the wings of
liberty. The crowd stared and stood amazed. They
thought him mad, till to the question of their curi-
osity he replied, “I was once myself a captive;
I know the sweets of liberty.”

_ Christians have been set free from the captivity
of sin. By God’s grace they have come to know
the misery of that captivity. They have felt the
terrors of the Law, the sting of conscience, the
wretchedness of those who are without God and
without hope in the world, on the way to ever-

» MO.,

No. 7.

JULY, 1911.

lasting woe. Grace has set them free from this cap-
tivity, this bondage of sin, and has made them
God’s free children through faith in the Savior.
They know the peace of faith, the joys of hope, the
love, the light, the liberty, the life, the unspeakable
blessings that are found in Jesus. Christians have
themselves been the captives of sin; they know
the sweets of liberty. ‘They pity those that are still
in the captivity of sin, and their heart’s desire is
to bring them into the liberty of God’s children,
bought with the precious blood of God’s own Son.
They therefore take an active interest in all mis-
sion work by which the Gospel of salvation is
brought to sinners. In the Gospel Jesus Himself
still comes “to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
the opening of the prison to them that are bound,”
Ts. 61, 1.

None Other Name.

There was only one place of safety when the
flood came. ‘That place was the ark. There was
but one man in Egypt to whom the people could
go for corn during the famine in that country. That
one man was Joseph. ‘There was but one way’ to
keep off the angel of death that passed through
Egypt in the Passover night, slaying all the first-
born in the land. That one way was the blood of
the Passover lamb sprinkled upon the lintel and
the side posts of the door of the Israelites’ dwelling.
So there is but one name in which there is salvation
from sin. That one name is the name of Jesus,
“in whom,” the apostle says, “we have redemption
through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”
“Neither is there salvation in any other; for there
is none other name under heaven given among men
whereby we must be saved,” Acts 4, 12.