The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1913, Page 81

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The Rutheran Pioneer. —

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EvanGenicaL LutiEeran SynopicaL CoNFERENCE oF Nort AMERICA.
REV. F. J. LANKENAU, Epitror.

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

Vol. XXXYV.

ST. LOUIS, MO., NOVEMBER, 1913.

No. ll.

Missionary Hymn.

“Go forth in all the world,” our Master said
To His disciples, “and my Gospel spread.”

O let us follow this divine decree,
And sound the message sweet o’er land and sea!
Our hearts should pray for those that stray like sheep
Without a shepherd near the yawning deep.
Our hands should willingly and freely give,
That dying souls may be revived and live.
Lord, pour on us Thy Spirit’s quickening dew,
And make us missionaries live and true.

H. OsTeruus.

Free Grace, the Death-Blow of Papacy.

Bishop Gardiner once exclaimed when the doc-
trine of justification by grace was discussed in his
presence, “Open that gap to the people, and we are
undone.” And in saying that he spoke the truth.
The preaching of the pure Gospel truth of free for-
giveness for Christ’s sake will undermine popery,
and show up the Antichrist in his true colors. It
was this preaching that undid popery in the days
of the Reformation, and this preaching will also
do it to-day. The pope’s business is gone when
salvation is free, and his honor is gone when Christ
- is all: When people have learned to trust in Jesus
and His redemption, they will be sure to turn away
from the pope and his humbug. The glorious doc-
trines of free redemption and free grace are the
great guns with which the pope’s ships can and
will be. blown out of the water. It was Luther’s
plain preaching of justification by faith that shook
the pope’s throne and knocked off his triple crown.
If people have once grasped the truth that they
are saved by Christ’s free grace through faith, they

will not spend any money on masses, nor on any
other money-getting schemes of the Romish Church.
As long as we hold fast the doctrine of free grace,
we shall be safe. The hearty acceptance of Christ
and His free salvation is the best preservative
against all error.

Ignorant Critics of Missions.

Charles Denby, for many years minister of the
United States to China, says that travelers who
never put a foot in a missionary compound write
books, nevertheless; teeming with criticism of the
mission work. He tells of a distinguished American
who stayed three weeks with him in the legation.
The man was no friend of missions, and to convince
him of their value, Denby invited him to visit sey-
eral of the missionary stations of Peking and see
for himself. But he refused to do so. Later on
he wrote a book in which he derided all missions,
though he knew absolutely nothing about them.

A missionary once heard a tourist who had been
hunting tigers in India declare that he had never
seen any missionary results there, and did not be-
lieve there were any. The missionary replied, “I
have lived thirty-six years in India, and I never
saw a tiger there.” “But you did not go where
they were,” exclaimed the tourist. “Yes, and that
is the reason you have seen no fruits of the mis-
sionary work,” answered the missionary.

Yes, so it is; they close their eyes to all about
them, these critics of missions, and then claim they
cannot see any results of missionary work. To
speak to them of the numbers brought to Christ
by the efforts of missionaries is useless. for that
is a thing the value of which they do not appre-