The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1920, Sheet 19

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusiisHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SyNopIcAL CoNFERENCE OF NorTH AMERIOA.

REv. F. J. LANKENAU, EDITOR.

Published monthly by Concordia Publishing House, St. Louls, Mo. Subscription price, 25 cts. per annum, payable strictly In advance.
Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at St. Louls, Mo., under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 5, 1918,

No. 3.

Vol. XLII.

ST. LOUIS, MO., MARCH, 1920.

The Sure Foundation.

[ build my hope on grace divine,
For Christ has borne all sins of mine.

I base my heart on grace divine,
Hence conscience cannot make me pine.

I FOUND MY LIFE on grace divine,
Thus I am God’s, and He is mine.

H. Osrerius.
ewe

Concerning the Love of God.
1 Joun 4, 7—11.

Christians build their hope of eternal happiness
and salvation on the loving-kindness of their heay-
enly Father. One reason why it is not safe to base
our salvation on the feelings of our heart is that
they are as changeable as the weather. A _ single
week sometimes brings us sunny and cloudy, warm
and cold weather, rain, sleet and snow, or storm.
ILuman moods vary like atmospheric conditions.
Nor will it do to build our souls’ happiness on our
thoughts: for they, too, are sinking sand. Ilow
often are we mistaken! ‘To err is human. Nor
can we depend on our works and virtues. It would
be a dilferent matter if we were still in the state of
innocence. — ‘The Lord says by the mouth of Jere-
miah: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love,
therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.”

On the Last Day the works of creation will pass “

away, but the divine love will remain forever and
ever. It is the immovable rock on which,we should
build our hope. Those, however, who have found
this sure foundation are constrained, by a keen
sense of gratitude, to become the followers of God
and to learn from Him to practise true love also.

‘

In verse § St. John makes the statement, “God
is Love.” He does not write: God loves us; He
is loving: loye is one of His attributes; but, “God
is Love.”” This means, that love is the most strik-
ing and essential of His attributes. God is Love,
hence He is benevolent to man. He created the
heavens for him with all their host and the earth
with .its treasures. He led Adam into Eden’s
lovely bowers and gave him Eve for a helpmeet.
Ife is also kind to the animals and cares for them.
Not a sparrow falls to the ground without His will.
He clothes and feeds the little birds, which man
despises, and which neither sow nor reap, and
makes them so happy that they praise their Maker, ©
singing cheerily perched on their green boughs.
God is Love; hence He is also merciful. After
Adam and Eve had fallen, He made coats of skin
for them that covered their nakedness and shame,
and He promised them the Redeemer. He sent
angels that led Lot out of Sodom before the wicked
city was destroyed by fire and brimstone, etec., etc.
God ‘is Love; hence He is slow to anger, long-
suffering, and abundant in grace. He pardons our
iniquity. He forgives our sins. His grace is love
indeed, love in the deepest and noblest sense of the
word; for it is extended to such as are not worthy
of it. 5 :

God has ‘manifested His love by the creation of
mankind and the world, and also by His work of
preservation; for in Him we live and move and
have our being. Also by His government of the
world. He makes men’s thoughts and acts sub-
servient to His salutary purposes, very often against
their own will. This He does as easily as He makes
the waterbrooks run in their course. Thus all