The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1912, Page 81

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Che Lutheran Pioneer, —

A. MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PubLisnEep BY THE EvanGenicaL LutTueran SyNopIcaL CoNFERENCE OF Nortn AMERICA.
R. A. BISCHOFF, Eprror.

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

Vol. XXXIV.

Christ Only. a

Thy works, not: mine, O Christ,
Speak gladness to this heart;

They tell me all is done;

They bid my fear depart.

To whom, save Thee, who canst alone
For sin atone, Lord, shall 1 flee?

Thy cross, not mine, O Christ,

Has borne the awful load

Of sins that none in heaven

Or earth could bear but God.

To whom, save Thee, who canst alone
For sin atone, Lord, shall [ flee?

Thy death, not mine, O Christ,

Has paid the ransom due;

Ten thousand deaths like mine
Would have been all too few.

To whom, save ‘Thee, who canst alone
For sin atone, Lord, shall [ flee?

Thy righteousness, O Christ.
Alone can cover me;
No righteousness avails
Save that which is of Thee.
To whom, save Thee, who canst alone
For sin atone, Lord,;shall UT flee?
H. Bonar.

“That’s Me.”’

A poor Hottentot in South Africa lived as a

servant with a Christian who had family prayers

every day. One day the Christian read the story
of the Pharisee and the publican. “T'wo men went
up into the temple to pray,” read the Christian.
The poor African looked earnestly at the reader
and whispered, “Now J’ll learn how to pray.”
When he heard the words, “I am not as other

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ST. LOUIS, mO., NOVEMBER, | 1912.

No. ll.

men,” he whispered. - “No, [ am worse, much
worse.”

The man read on, “L fast twice in the week;
I give tithes of all I possess.”

“[ don’t do that, [ can’t pray in that way.
What shall I do?” said the distressed African.

The man read on until he came to the publican,
who would “not so much as lift his eyes unto
heaven.”

“That's me!” said his hearer.

“Stood afar off,” read the other.

“That's where [ am,” said the African.

“But smote upon his breast, saying, ‘God, be
merciful to me, a sinner!”

“That's me! that’s my prayer!” cried the poor
African, and smiting on his dark breast he prayed,
“God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” until, like the
poor publican, he went down to his house justified,
a saved and happy man.

Dear reader, there are two ways by which men
expect to enter heaven. The Pharisee was on the
wrong way, the publican, whom the African fol-
lowed, was on the right way, the only way that
leads to heaven. We must be saved, either by rea-
son of what we ourselves are and have done, or by
reason of what another is and has done for us.

_ The Pharisee—and he has many followers —
trusted in his own goodness, and in his own works
and righteousness. He was not justified, not saved ;
for there is no salvation in man’s own goodness
and righteousness. It is plainly written: “We are
all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses

‘are as filthy rags,” Is. G4, 6. Surely, man cannot

expect to buy heaven with the uncleanness of his
own sinful self and with the dirty rags of his own

righteousness.
The publican, whom the poor African followed,