The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1916, Page 89

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he Lutheran Pioneer,

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

Pusiisuep BY THE EvANGELICAL LuTiERAN SyNopIcAL CONFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA.

REV. F. J. LANKENAU, EDITOR.

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

Vol. XXXVIII.

ST. LOUIS, MO., DECEMBER, 1916.

No. 12.

From Jesse’s Generation.
(A translation of Es ist ein Reis entsprungen.)

From Jesse’s generation

A tender Stem arose,

The hope of Judah’s nation,

And bore a lovely Rose.

This Plant so long foretold
Sprang forth amid night’s shadows
In winter bleak and cold.

This Plant of which Esaias
Did speak in days of yore
Was Jesus, whom the pious,
Pure Virgin Mary bore

At night, in poverty,
According to God’s gracious
Foreknowledge and decree.

This lovely Rose, and fragrant,
Dispels the gloomy night
Of our transgressions flagrant,
And gives us heavenly light.
O God-man good and kind,
Rescue from sin and sorrow
And death in Thee we find.
. HH. Osrernus.

‘Unto Us a Child Is Born,
Unto Us a Son Is Given.”’
(Is. 9, 6.)

This is the exultant cry of Isaiah the prophet
in anticipation of the wonderful event which is to
occur hundreds of years later. So certain is he
of the birth of this wonderful Child, so sure of
the gift of this beloved Son, that he speaks as
though the event were happening before his very
eyes.
And should not we gladly join the holy prophet
in chanting this joyous Christmas anthem? For

us the birth of this Child and the gift of this Son
is no event of days to come, but a thing of the past.
The Child has been born unto us, the Son has
been given unto us. Come to Bethlehem; look into
the manger —there lies the Child of Mary, the
Son of God. Unto us has been born, indeed, the
Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And from the
manger, soft and sweet, He entreats us:

Flee from woe and danger;

Brethren, from all ills that grieve you,

You are freed;

All you need

I will surely give you.

For, do not forget, this Child of Mary, ‘who is
the Son of the Most High, is WonDERFUL. Though
the new-born, little, weak Child of Mary, He is
the true God from heaven, the eternal, almighty
Son of the Father. His name is CouNsELor. When
no angel in heaven and no man on earth knew
how to help us in our need, He devised a way to
save us and the whole world of sinners; and most
wonderfully did He carry out the plan He had
devised. To save us from sin, He was made sin
for us; to save us from death, He died on the
cross; to free us from hell, He suffered the tor-
ments of the damned. And He is the Mienty Gop.
Though despised by men because of His poverty
and Jowliness, though assailed by Satan again and
again, and persecuted all the days of His sojourn
on earth, though hanging helpless on the cross, and
breathing out His soul in death midst groans and
sighs, He was the mighty God, who gloriously -
triumphed over all His enemies and got unto Him- .
self the victory. The prophet also tells us that
this wonderful Child is the EvERLastINe FATHER,

’ the loving Father, whose love will never cease, and

to whom we may trustingly bring all our troubles
with the positive assurance that He sympathizes