The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1921, Page 9

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Dhe Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

os _____

PosiisHeD By THE EvaNnGeEticaL Lurmeran SynopicaL ConFERENCE or Nort AMEnrtca.

REV. F. J. LANKENAU, EDITOR.

Published monthly by Concordia Publishing House, St. Louls, Mo. Subscription price, 50 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 879

Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for In section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, “authorized on ‘July 5

Vol. XLIII.

ST. LOUIS, MO., FEBRUARY, 1921.

. 1918,

No. 2.

The Church’s Riches.
(Tune: IL. M.)

Zion, thou art a city fair

Which Christ hath blessed beyond
compare:

Forgiveness, grace, and peace divine,

Yea, heaven's endless joys are thine.

Thou art the Shepherd’s precious fold,
Ile leadeth Thee to bliss untold,

Th’ Almighty God hath made with thee
A-covenant for eternity.

No eye hath seen, no car hath heard,
What faith receiveth by His Word;
But it is real nevertheless,

No mouth its sweetness can express,

Nor tell how dearly Christ doth love
Thy children, Zion, from above,

Nor count or tell thy riches vast,
Which all creation shall outlast.

Praise, then, tliy God with holy mirth,
And spread His saving Word on carth.
Blest be the Holy Trinity

In time and in eternity. HH. Ostenuvus.

Golgotha and Mission.

During the Lenten season our hearts and minds
are more than ever directed to, and concentrated on,
the Passion of our Savior. Step by step we follow
Him from Gethsemane to Golgotha. ‘There under
the cross we linger, beholding in faith and in love
Him who bore our sins upon His holy body on the
tree. Golgotha is for us sinners the most blessed
and comforting place on earth.

What do we see and hear on Golgotha? With
our natural eyes we see only the Son of Man, but
the holy, righteous, innocent Son of Man, who
nevertheless was condemned to an ignominious

death by an unjust judge. In the spirit and in
faith, however, we behold in the crucified Jesus the
God-Man, the Lamb of God, who according to God’s
eternal and unsearchable counsel before the founda-
tion of the world was slain, and who revealed Him-
self in ages past to patriarchs, Moses, and the
prophets as the one who should come and save His
people from their sins. We see in the crucified
Jesus our Substitute to whom our sins were im-
puted. “For He hath made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him.”

What do we hear while we are standing under
the cross? We hear no complaints from Iis lips,
no maledictions on His enemies. For these He
prays. We hear only words of eternal life. Partic-
ularly comforting are His words: “Zt is finished.”
What was finished? He had finished rendering full
satisfaction to divine justice by perfectly fulfilling
the Law for us. He had extracted from death its
sting, bruised the Serpent’s head, and destroyed his
kingdom. He had reconciled us to God, merited
forgiveness of sins by paying for them with His
blood, and brought life and immortality to light.
All this was finished not merely for a chosen few,
but for all sinners of every tribe and nation. He
gave himself a ransom for all.

What shall we now render unto the Lord for
the love wherewith He loved us? What He asks
of us is that we take Him up into our hearts by
faith, comfort ourselves with His meritorious work
for us, thank and praise Him. “Ye are bought with
a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in_
your spirit, which are God’s.”

But having stood under Calvary’s cross and