The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1914, Page 58

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58

The Lutheran Pioneer.

for you if you stay out. God offers you a place
of safety; you refuse the offered shelter at your
everlasting peril. Oh! place yourself under the
protecting arm of Jesus, accept Him in true faith,
by such faith become a member of His Church,
and you will be safe,—all will be well with you.

- poe =

Our God.

Nothing can arrest our attention so much as
to hear about the Lord God, our Creator, Redeemer,
and Comforter, whom we Christians, though very
imperfectly here below, fear, love, and trust more
than all fellow-men and all things, and whom
we hope to serve perfectly in heaven. Who, then,
is our God? What are His attributes? What
does Holy Scripture fell us about Him? Let us
shortly consider a number of Bible texts that
clearly answer these questions, and give us the
wonderful information which, although we have
often heard it before, we shall do well to impress
on our minds and hearts anew. Can anything be
more delightful than this study? Surely not.

The first point, then, that we consider is, that
“God is a Spirit,’ John 4, 24, having “no flesh
and bone,” Luke 24, 39. He is a rational Being
without a body; hence He cannot be seen, touched,
or heard by us. But what a marvelous Spirit He
is, unspeakably higher than the angelic spirits
that do His commandments, hearkening unto the,

_ voice of His word, His messengers, whom He
maketh a flaming fire. His existence is without
beginning and end. ‘Time does not affect Him in
the least. He is unchangedble, Ps. 102, 27, and
clernal.. “From everlasting to everlasting ‘Thou
art God,” the Psalmist exclaims, Ps. 90, 2. There
was never a time when God was not in existence,
nor will the: day ever come when He will cease to
be. What rich consolation it affords to us that
we believers who cling to Him by faith will never
pass away, but in Him have an everlasting dwelling-
place. On the other hand, how terrible for those
who are impenitent is the truth that God is eternal,
as He who inflicts punishment upon them will live
forever, and with Him their doom.

_ Another amazing attribute of God is His omni-
presence. He “fills heaven and earth” in such
a way that He, in His whole essence, is everywhere
at the same time, being “at hand” and, at the same
moment, “afar off,” so that no one can escape Him
or “hide himself from Him in secret places,”
Jer; 23, 23. 24. ence the believer is never left

to our God:

alone, however lonely and forsaken he might seem,
while the ungodly is always in the grasp of Je-
hovah’s judgment.

Then, too, God is almighty, for “with Him
nothing shall be impossible,” Luke 1, “Our
God is in the heavens; He hath done whatsoever
He hath pleased,” Ps. 115, 3. -How happy we Chris-
tians are who can truthfully and confidently say

Qn
Ot.

For means it fails Thee never,
re Thou always find’st a way,
Thy doing ’s blessing ever,
Thy path like brightest day.
Thy work can no one hinder,
Thy labor cannot rest,
If Thou design’st Thy tender
~ Children should all be blessed. :
The evil-doer, however, should tremble before Him
who is-“able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Read Ps. 139,,1—1. This text makes it very
clear that the knowledge of God by far exceeds
that of any man or angel, yea, is infinite, com-
prising all things. ‘Vhis divine omnipresence is a
source of joy to the believers, and a cause of terror
for the worldlings. if. O.

_ oe —_

A Transformation of Grace.

The Fiji group comprises eighty inhabited
islands of considerable’ size, besides a number of
smaller ones. ‘The group lies to the west of the
Samoan Islands, and is about as far south of the
equator as Hawaii is north. ‘The beauty of these
islands is wonderful, and if loveliness of habitation
would determine the character of a people, the
Fijians would always have ranked among the best
of men. And yet there never was a more degraded
race of men than were these islanders. It is almost
impossible to describe the moral degradation of
these people. Cannibalism was a national cult and
custom among them. ‘That man ranked highest
among them who could claim to have eaten the
greatest number of human beings. They set up

memorial stones to mark the number of victims”

they had devoured, and one great chief among them
had set up almost nine hundred such stones to
mark his prowess! Children were given a taste
of human flesh when yet babes to excite in them a
relish for the horrid food. Yes, not only dead
bodies, but living captives, were given over to young
children as playthings to practice for sport the art
of mutilation and dissection. The whole life of

these people was inwrought with the .destruction -

.