The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1913, Page 50

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50

The Lutheran Pioneer.

They imagine that their poverty, sickness, misery,
and wretchedness will atone for their sins. But the
wages of sin is death, — temporal death and eternal
damnation. “Should our tears forever flow, these
for sin cannot atone.”

Which, then, is the sure and certain founda-
tion on which we may build our hope of heaven?
“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved.” Christ can save, and He alone. “God
so loved the world that Ie gave His only-hegotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.”

If you want to be sure of your salvation, if you
wish to stand faultless before God’s throne on the
final day of Judgment; if it is your desire to dwell
in the heavenly mansions and be a partaker of eter-
nal bliss, your song on earth must be:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Blessed, therefore, is the man who, casting aside

all trust in his own morality and endeavors, but_

trusting in the gracious promises of the Gospel,
confides solely in the merits of Jesus. Happy the
man who sincerely says:

Now I have found the sure foundation,
Where evermore my anchor grounds.
It lay there ere the world’s creation,
Where else but in my Savior’s wounds?
Foundation which unmoved shall stay
When earth and heaven pass away.

——_—_——_——_<-+-2—___

The Church in Barracks.

“The Church has been in barracks long enough

_ — it is time she went on the march.” ‘This, or a
_ sentence something like it, caught my cye some time
ago and remained in my memory.

The simile of an army is an old and well-worn
one. ‘The Church, theoretically, is a militant force;
but the sentence quoted above puts the fact of the
Church’s inactivity in a single terse and forceful
phrase.

Barrack life is, of necessity, one of inactivity,
in comparison with that of the battle-field; it is an
essential part of the life of the standing army, but
it is not a necessity in the Church Militant.

An army remains in barracks so long as there
is peace, but when war. is declared, comfortable
quarters, regular meals, and warm beds are left
behind, and the soldier goes out willingly to endure

the hardships and exposures of the battle-field,
eager to be at the front of the fight.

There is never a period of peace between the
Church and sin; there is never (or should never be)
a time of truce even; and so the forces of Christ
should always be at the front, ever pressing the
battle into the enemy's country, and fighting shoul-
der to shoulder under the banner of their invincible
Tord.

Barrack-life tends to make the most capable
soldiers degenerate, grow lazy, and become rusty.

This is what has happened to large sections of
the Church of God; they are content to attend the
Sunday services, to support their minister, to re-
ceive without question what he gives them, and with
that their duty is done.

It is true that some scouts have been sent out,
a few regiments have been dispatched to the firing
line, some home battalions are doing valiant serv-
ice, but — the vast host, the great majority of so-
called Christians," are lazing away their lives in
luxurious ease, and wasting their days in barracks
when they ought to be out in the thick of the fight.

Have you not heard the clarion call to arms?
From the throne of God it comes ringing down
through the centuries commanding us to be up and
doing, to enlist under the banner and follow in the
train of the ever-victorious King.

Tf you have heard it, why do you still delay?
Do you prefer ease to obedience? Is laziness better
than loyalty? Is self-pleasing more important than
service?

Rise up from the arm-chairs of complacent: use-
lessness, gird on the armor of light, and go forth
in the strength of the Lord to do and dare for the
King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible!

Lewis E. Hertslet, in Izwe La Kiti.

“To Whom Belongest Thou ?’’

Such was the question which David once asked
a man whom his men had found alone in a field
at a time when it was most important to know where
every person stood whom he met. It is a question
which God puts to every man, a question which
God wants every man to ask himself, and to which
He wants a straightforward answer. Everybody,
man, woman, and child, either-belongs to the army
of Jesus and is fighting under His banner, or he
belongs to the Prince of Darkness. ‘To whom be-
longest thou ?” : ;