The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1920, Sheet 36

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Love Makes Fearless.
1 Joun 4, 17. 18.

We read in the 18th chapter of Luke: “Jesus
took unto Him the Twelve and said unto them, Be-
hold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are
written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man
shall be accomplished.” Then-He mentions various
sufferings of His, and also predicts His death and
resurrection. How~can we explain His perfect will-
ingness to go to the capital of Judea and endure all
the unspeakable sufferings which He foresees, yea,
even foretells? It was His perfect love and obe-
dience to God, whom He fully. trusted, and His
compassion on man that cast all fear out of his
heart. Love enabled Him to set the cup of un-
utterable sorrow to His lips with remarkable bold-
ness and calmness. It give Him the sure confidence
that He would victoriously overcome all pain and
" grief and all His foes, and arise on the third day.

Those who give up their will and life to God and
the pursuit of serving their fellow-men, thus prov-
‘ing their faith by love, reéeive the spirit of fearless-
ness and confidence. This fearlessness will reach its
full perfection on Judgment’ Day, when they will
arise, be acquitted of all guilt, and enter everlast-
ing life. i

V.17%: Herein [in the communion with God, as
is expressed in v. 16] is our love made perfect, thal
we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment: be-
"cause as He is, so are we in this world. The more

perfect'we become in our love to God and man, the
greater will be the boldness with which we look for-
ward to Judgment Day. For even here on earth,
“in this world,” we are “as Jesus is.” In the fore-
. going verse John told us that God is Love. So
God’s Son, too, is Love. Love is one of His essential
attributes. Thus it will be with us in heaven when
we shall be perfect like Him, as far as man can be
likened to God. But even in this world, in this
mortal life, while we cannot reach perfection, we be-
lievers are in @ true sense as Jesus is; for love, His
characteristic, is found in all true Christian hearts.
Our love will attain entire perfection on the last
day, all sin being then eliminated from our nature.
Why should we then be afraid of Christ’s sentence
on the last day? He will surely not condemn those
‘whose lives are dominated by-love, the very virtue
wherein He excels, dnd which is His chief charac-
teristic. He will behold and acknowledge His own
Spirit in -their hearts and fee] closely allied and

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

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lovingly drawn to them. He will point out by their
works of charity that they are true believers, and
invite them to dwell with Him and His Father in
paradise.

V.18: There is no fear in love, but perfect love
casteth out fear, because fear hath torment.
that feareth is not made perfect in love. Year is
very torturous, and is caused by an evil conscience.
He who is not perfect, but more or less weak in love,
experiences terror, is ill at ease. He who neglects
his duties, whose heart grows callous to God and his
neighbor, will be punished at some time or other
by pangs of conscience. He who becomes lukewarm
and cold must endure fear even in this life and
finally on the Day of Judgment. ‘The unbelievers
will then say to the mountains, “Iall on us”;. and
to the hills, “Cover us.” For he who shirks the
tasks and responsibilities which true charity is
anxious to take upon herself and to do full justice
to, is losing, or already has lost, his faith. The
consciousness of such a condition is indeed terri-
fying to all that are in this state and do not turn
an entirely deaf ear to conscience. If they drown
this accusing voice in sensual pleasures, etc., a ter-
rible awakening will come sooner or later. ‘The
more perfect their love grows, the more fearless
Christians become. God dwells in such, assuring
them by His Spirit that they have true faith and
are His children and heirs. Thus they are happy
even here on-earth. Hence James writes concern-
ing “the doer of the work” who is not a forgetful
hearer: “This man shall be blessed in his deed.”
Christ says: “If ye know these things, happy are ye
if ye do them.” H. Osrernus.

St. Louis and Springfield.

The annual confirmation services of the above-
named stations were held on Palm Sunday and
Easter, respectively. In these services a total of
twenty-three persons were cither confirmed or bap-
tized. Of this total, sixteen persons — nine adults
and ‘seven children — were received into the com-
municant membership of the two stations. Had all
the people joined who received instruction in the
Catechism prior to these services, the total of new
communicants would have gone above twenty. We
still have hopes of harvesting the unharvested.

In St. Louis four boys and two adults were con-
firmed, and one large boy and two small children
were baptized. The service was held in our rented

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